So have you all seen the latest Fringe episode ‘Peter’? Awesome, right? In this second part of the conference call from last week, John Noble answers questions about this episode and what’s in store for the future.

Beware Spoilers: there are spoilers in here for last week’s US episode ‘Peter’, and some stuff about the next couple of episodes (although most seemed pretty obvious to me especially after watching the ‘Peter’ episode).

Q: Obviously they keep you in the loop somewhat, but was there anything in the script that truly surprised you, any elements of the story?

A: The ultimate reveal, I think, and which is so critical to this episode of ‘Peter’, that Walter really did intend to take the child back, that he only went over because Walternate had missed the cure. That was a surprise, and a wonderful surprise to me because I hadn’t realized that he had only gone across there because he had to, because otherwise the boy would die. That was a major reveal to me, and I think it adds a whole new light to the relationship between Peter and Elizabeth and Walter going forward.

Q: And to follow up, I am just curious, is there any particular time-table in place for when Peter himself will find out the whole story?

A: Oh, certainly. We have this fabulous eight [episodes] coming out and during the course of that, there will be a build-over of several of those episodes to Peter finding out. Then, in fact, he does in turn find out, and that really dictates what happens in the last few episodes.

Q: How does this ‘Peter’ episode lead us up to any surprises that might be coming in the season finale?

A: Well, as I said, it lets us know what has happened, why Peter is where he is, and it also tells us specifically how Walter went to get him. So we see how he crossed over into the other universe. And so then, but of course once that has happened, we already know from the episode before that Olivia knows that he is from somewhere else. So there is this build-up towards Peter finding out, which is strangulating. I mean, the tension is enormous because Peter doesn’t know, Olivia does know, and she is pushing Walter to tell him. But then finally, he finds out and we tumble, we literally tumble into these extraordinary last two or three episodes, particularly the finale, which is the great promise confrontation that we have been promising for two years.

But a while before that is exceptional in the sense that it is like a mind-trip of Walter’s, and that is when we go into this musical episode that has been talked about. It is Walter trying to grapple with the fact that his son is gone, he doesn’t know where he is at that point. So we have this mind-trip of Walter’s which is an amazing episode, to be honest with you, all sorts of things, we have Peter away from them trying to cope by himself. All the things that people have been asking for, I think we are delivering in this final eight.

Q: It sure sounds like it, and since you guys have a third season coming, do you have any idea what is in store for that?

A: You know, I did ask the show runner. I said, “Have you got a bible ready for next year?” And he just pointed to his head and said “It is all in here, John, it is all in here.” I do know that there will be substantial time spent on the other universe, and when you get to the finale you will see why we have to do that. So, we will have this whole other universe playing in with this, at least for the first third of the season. That is all I can tell you at this stage.

Q: I’ve got to ask you a little bit about your theater background. The musical episode, did you do a lot of musicals when you were in theater?

A: I did some in the early days. I certainly did some music theater, and I even dropped into a couple of operas in small-acting roles. Yes, not the highlight of it. It was very interesting. It was good fun to do.

Q: So in the musical episode do your other co-stars sing too, and are they singers actually?

A: I suggest that probably they are much better singers than me. Lance Reddick is a superb singer and musician. We realize now that Anna Torv has got a beautiful voice, and that is just the starting point, you know. Jasika Nicole is also from a musical background. So, it was quite a reveal to us how much talent there was within the company. As I said, I was certainly not the A-lister in that group of people.

Q: In the Peter episode, there was kind of a hint that Nina and Walter are sharing some kind of bond, possibly about Peter. Are we going to be exploring that bond a little bit more in the last eight episodes of the season?

A: That will remain unexplored. It’s been around the place for a long time. In fact, as long as we’ve been running, it’s been hinted at. It’s one of the strings we’re not going to answer in this particular sequence. It will be talked about again in this sequence coming up, but we won’t be revealing how it came about until next season.

Q: Have they told you anything about that? Are you in the dark as well?

A: I am in the dark as well. I do know that they have worked out what it is, but they didn’t tell us yet.

Q: The revelations about Peter being from the other side will obviously affect the relationships between everyone on the show. Can you tell us a little bit more about how it will affect the potential relationship between Peter and Olivia and how does it affect the relationship between Peter and Walter?

A: Well, look, obviously – I can remember the first time that I was telling my own son about the show and I said, you know, Walter takes a son from the other side, and my son looked at me and said, “Dad, there’s going to be one very angry father on the other side.” I mean, it was so obvious to him that we were creating a hornet’s nest, and that indeed, the son himself when he finds out, if he finds out, is going to be extremely wounded by this and outraged. When Peter finds out, he is extremely wounded and outraged and bewildered and humiliated and all of the things – having just finally found some trust in his life, and given a little bit of himself to these two people, he finds out that he has been duped yet again.

So Joshua Jackson plays this beautifully, actually, and we see him as this lost man really, who has lost this new family of his and is just in the wilderness really. We do see that for a couple of episodes. And as I say, I think Josh does it really beautifully. What’s going to happen, and it won’t happen this year necessarily, there will be a hint of it in the finale, is that a relationship will be rekindled between Peter and Walter. It will be different. But I think there’s sufficient richness and sufficient texture in what they have already to get them past this hurdle, that’s my belief, and similarly with Olivia. The relationship that’s been created over the, you know, the two seasons really, is stronger than – it will survive this breach of trust. It will. And I think there’s a fantastic relationship between Peter and Olivia. It’s not a love relationship in terms of a sexual romantic one; it’s far deeper than that. And I think the three of them are locked together in some sort of an interdependency and that will survive this terrific challenge.

Q: How much work went into creating the 1985 version of you? I mean, not just in terms of creating a younger physical appearance, but also in terms of making a character that has a very different set of life experiences.

A: Quite a lot, but in the sense in my preparation to find the Walter that we all know now, I had to go back to him right at the beginning to see where he came from. So that process was started before the pilot really, what was this man like before he deteriorated, so I was able to revisit that. Physically, of course, what I had to do was capture the energy, to capture the physicality of the man, the vocal physicality of the man, this was my task. I was aided enormously by my hair and makeup and special effects people here in terms of getting the overall, and indeed wardrobe helped a lot as well. And then we, the shot up through these beautiful lenses that we got a different feel to the episode than we would now. All of those elements work together, David, to create this version that you see in the episode.

Q: I don’t know whether you watched the finished episode yet, but the episode does have also a 1985-style opening music and title sequence, and it listed on screen things that would be Fringe science in ’85, you know, like personal computing and cloning, and DNA, profiling, genetic engineering, and laser surgery, and whatnot. My question is, don’t you find it remarkable that what was science-fiction one day can become science fact in the blink of an eye, that we live in a time of such huge leaps and scientific advances.

A: Well, sure, but I grew up as a child reading Jules Verne and it all seemed to be some mysterious other-worldly thing, and basically everything that he talked about has been revealed. So I think one of the great things about science-fiction is that it, it does in fact predict the way ahead, more often than not. And I love the things that have been discussed in science-fiction. Science fiction comics indeed have turned out to be the truth, 30 or 40, 50 years later, so it is really no surprise to me.

Q: I want to know, what it was like for you to go back to 1985.

A: Oh man. Look, yes, I remember ’85. I can remember exactly what I was doing in ’85. I was still working in the theater. I had just directed a very successful play, which was going to London. That was ’85 for me, but it seems like a lifetime ago. Our children were babies. Oh… I could reminisce. But ’85 was a year – was it the year before Chernobyl? I mean, it was an interesting time. We were in Britain at the time when Chernobyl blew up, you know, and that seems like history. But that was ’85 for us. Going back I didn’t actually find a great challenge. Physically you’re probably in better shape 25 years than you are now. But I was able to work pretty hard on that aspect of it myself.

Mentally, I think as you get older, you lose your arrogance, to be honest with you. I think at 21 you know everything and then little by little you lose it, or you realize you know very little. So I think we have a more compassionate, humane man now than we had 25 years ago, but he was a determined and brilliant man and he believed in himself entirely. He believed that could achieve things. He believed that he could save his son, and that’s the difference from this indecisive man we see now.

Q: So, I think we’ve glimpsed a bit of Walter’s dark side so far, like in the episode where you got that piece of your brain back. It was suddenly like he had that focus again. Is it really fun to play that version of Walter, the kind of more focused, slightly more ruthless version of Walter? Anyway, I guess that’s my question.

A: And it’s a terrific question. Yes, it was wonderful to go back and visit the man before he became this damaged creature that we know now. It was probably in some ways closer to myself than the Walter that we see now, and so in some ways it was quite comfortable to go back to that place. It was an easier ride than doing the Walter that you know and that the audiences know. It was kind of nice to have that to be able to play with that more youthful energy. But bear in mind, as we speak about this, that’s two versions of Walter, but you were also introduced to another briefly who will play a major part coming forward in the series, and that’s Walternate. So you’ve got three quite distinct versions of Walter to look at here. And at present, in fact, as I sit here talking to you, I walked away from the rehearsal room, and I’m playing Walternet this morning, who is quite different from Walter in many ways. So it is fun. It’s a great challenge, but it’s great fun.

Q: I wanted to know, if Olivia didn’t have this ability to see the alternate universes, do you think Walter would have told Peter the truth on his own?

A: Interesting question. I think inevitably the truth would have to have come out, simply because of the escalation of the events in the pattern that something has started which was created, which was caused by the fact that Walter breached the tissue between the fabrics to get young Peter out. So, eventually, he would have had to find out. But it was far more interesting for us to find out through this lead character of ours, this very strange and wondrous Olivia character. It was a much better, dramatic way for him to find out.

I don’t write about it that often here on this blog, but I’m a bit of a Greek mythology geek (and also other mythologies, like Egyptian, Roman and Norse, but mainly Greek). I love reading all the different tales about the Greek gods and heroes, and it’s the main reason why I went to ‘ gymnasium ‘ (Dutch high school type), so that I could have learn Latin and Ancient Greek. So I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for mythology movies, but am also waaay more quicker annoyed when they don’t get their mythology right. As in Clash of the Titans.

Clash of the Titans is the remake of the 1981 movie with the same name. It features Sam Worthington as the halfgod Perseus, who wants revenge on Hades (Ralph Fiennes) for killing his family. When the city of Argos is threatened by Zeus (Liam Neeson) and Hades to sacrifice their beloved princess Andromeda or risk the wrath of the Kraken, Perseus swears to defeat the Kraken. Together with a small group of soldiers and the immortal Io (Gemma Arterton), Perseus embarks on a quest to save Argos.

I know most people won’t care about the accuracy of the mythology while seeing this movie, but for me it was a serious annoyance. It’s like changing the basics of a fairy tale (hey, let’s add one of the seven dwarfs to the Rapunzel story!). Some of the mistakes I can forgive, cause they were remaking an older movie. For instance, the fact that there aren’t any Titans in either of the movies, yet the movie is called ‘Clash of the Titans’ can be blamed on the 1981 one (Titans were the gods before the Olympians and not one of them appears in this movie). Same with the ‘Kraken’; this newer movie took it from the older one, but the Kraken never was in the Perseus myth. Hell, the Kraken never appeared in any Greek myth… he’s from Norse mythology.

Besides those mistakes though, this Clash of the Titans messed up the story even more. For starters, Io. I understand why they added her to the story: to add a female heroine to the epic journey, because Andromeda is stuck in the city the entire time. But why Io? Haven’t they done any research at all? She’s Perseus’s ancestor. Turning her into a love interest just felt wrong. Then there’s Danae (Perseus’s mother) and her husband King Acrisius. Eh yeah, no. In the myth they’re father and daughter. Finally, most of the main story was just complete nonsense. The 1981 movie was a loose interpretation of the myth already, and now this movie was loosely based on the 1981 movie. Somewhere in the process it turned out not bearing any resemblance to the myth at all. It could have worked, if the story actually was interesting. But to me, it felt like huge action sequences with bits of dialogue and ‘plot’ to string it all together.

There’s no character development in this movie whatsoever. Perseus is basically whining the entire movie that ‘gods killed his family’ and that although he is a demigod, he’ll slay the Kraken as ‘a man’. Okay, Hades killed his family, so he’s got a reason to be pissed off with that god. But with all the gods? And not to use his demigod-ness while they have such a short period to save Argos? It also doesn’t help that Sam Worthington fails to give Perseus any charisma or likability; I still don’t see what people see in that guy. Liam Neeson as Zeus get some of the worst dialogue and some shiny CGI armor (it’s Twilight sparkly armor). I had hoped more from him here, but Zeus wasn’t impressive at all. And also goes through some wishy-washy-ness; releasing the Kraken on the humans, yet giving Perseus the tools to defeat the Kraken. It all just doesn’t make sense.

The action scenes and the CGI is one of the things I actually did like in this movie. I admit I’ve seen better (we all have), but it was still enjoyable. The big-ass scorpions were cool, even though I first didn’t realize there were more than 1 (was that just bad editing, or wasn’t I paying close enough attention?).

And then there’s the 3D. In one word: DON’T. The 3D here wasn’t necessary at all, and doesn’t give anything extra to the movie. I didn’t find it as annoying as some people were saying (it didn’t feel like paper cutouts, which I did have with the last Harry Potter movie), but it’s still not worth paying the extra money for.

I also wonder how much ended up on the cutting table. We got one or two glimpses from the other Olympians, like Artemis and Aphrodite, and it seemed like they put quite a lot of effort into creating their characters. But besides Zeus and Hades, they barely say anything (Poseidon and Ares get like one line each). I wish we could have seen more of the other gods.

Clash of the Titans isn’t a movie I’d recommend seeing in the cinema. If you’re going for only the action scenes, then enjoy. But if you’re hoping for a good story, full of heroes and gods, then give this a miss.

Episode 168: *shake*

Beautiful 3D short from French filmmaker Sebastian Laban:

Via Geeks Are Sexy

Wow, these book covers are gorgeous:

They’re designed by Jim Tierney , an illustration student at the University of Arts in Philadelphia, as a Senior Thesis project. I wish I could buy these, they’d look so pretty in my bookshelves!

Via doubletakes

Most of the geeky T-shirts I own come from Threadless , and each time they surprise me again with the designs they come up with. This latest one is brilliant:

How many characters do you recognize? These are the ones that I figured out (I think I’ve got them right, correct me if I’m wrong though):

1919 – ?
1929 – Tintin
1930 – Betty Boop
1935 – ?
1950 – Charlie Brown
1952 – Astroboy
1959 – Obelix from Asterix and Obelix
1960 – Wilma Flintstone from The Flintstones
1966 – Smurfette from The Smurfs
1969 – Shaggy from Scooby Doo
1970 – Josie from Josie and The Pussycats
1983 – He-man
1984 – ?
1985 – Lion-O from Thundercats
1986 – Calvin from Calvin and Hobbs
1987 – Homer from The Simpsons
1993 – Beavis from Beavis and Butt-head
1995 – Dragonball Z
1996 – ?
2000 – ?

I’m missing 5 from the 20, not too bad. Plus I have a feeling I should know those last two…

The Marvelous Cartoon Wigs Museum T-Shirt is available on the Threadless store for $18.

I know many of my readers here own a lot of books (as do I), but how many of you could fit a library of 6000? If so, here’s the perfect library for you:

This spiral staircase is part of a project to convert the former home of Portuguese poet Antero de Quental into a library center. The staircase spirals up through two storeys and into a tower, with shelves back-lit through translucent plexiglass.

For more pictures of these bookshelves check out dezeen.com .

Interesting links for March 28th through April 3rd:

• Walk on Water! HydroFloors Hide Under-Floor Indoor Pools – Once I have my own mansion, I'm so going to get this installed!
• Top Shelf Announces ‘League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1988” – So wrong, and yet so so right (and for those of you who don't realize: it's an April Fool's joke).
• PSA: New Book Deal – Charlie’s Diary – April Fool's post from Charlie Stross where he announces that he'll be working on a new series.
• Hulu Confidential: The Initiative Chapter 1 – Great video from Hulu that came out on April Fool's. It's a sort of followup to their Superbowl video…
• San Francisco Tron Event Recap, Encom Helicopter Drops In – Recap of the Tron event from yesterday evening by Firstshowing. I've been following the Tron viral as much as I can (so far there's only been 1 event of it in London), so last night I stayed up to watch what happened yesterday. It turned out to last until 5am here, but it was pretty cool to see! Space Paranoids FTW!
• Map of London – Fun (and quite inaccurate) hand-drawn map of London. See it on Original Size for all the details.

I love being able to participate in Fox’s conference calls, and last Friday I got to join an interview with John Noble, who plays Walter Bishop on Fringe. This is a write-up of all the questions that were asked by the various bloggers and news outlets that were part of the call.

I’ve split the interview into three parts. One without spoilers today (unless you consider experiments in past episodes spoilers), and two for tomorrow and Saturday with spoilers about tonight’s episodes and some glimpses into the final eight episodes.

Q: There are really two parts to Walter. First, is the incredibly strange, but forward- thinking scientist. The other is just the really odd, random, forgetful man. Can you talk a little bit about what’s the most fun to play about that character and what is the most challenging?

A: Look, you’ve accurately described Walter, you know, as a man that is capable of incredible laser-like thought processes, and also is childish and haphazard and random. The joy of it really is that I’m free to make those choices, that sometimes Walter will hide behind his childishness. Other times, he will substitute a rage for a childish episode.

He’s an incredibly complex character. However, I think that there is a little of Walter in all of us, and certainly, I have observed in my life the extremes that we see in Walter I’ve observed in other people. The joy for me is that every day, the challenge is to make those choices as to which way I will go. And I work quite closely with the writers on this material as well.

Q: I spoke with Lance Reddick earlier this year and he said that you really enjoy working with all of the crazy, kind of disgusting props that your character gets to work with. So, I’m wondering if there were any that really actually grossed you out, as opposed to just fascinated you?

A: No, no, no, there were none that grossed me out. There were some that – because I basically know that we’re dealing with prosthetics, and some brilliant prosthetics at that, but I know that they are, and that we’re not actually hurting real people, so I sort of –it’s it’s like this incredible toy room to me. And the special effects people keep coming up with more and more gross things for me to play with and I don’t know where their imaginations live, but it’s astonishing, some of the things. And you haven’t seen some of the ones that I believe are the best ones that haven’t gone to air yet, to be honest with you.

So nothing really – there was one where there was a live actor and we had maggots crawling out of his body. That was a bit hard to take, because that was a live actor that did that, so that was a bit gross. I think that’s the one that really freaked out Jasika the most, she said. But no, overall, I find them amusing.

Q: What has been your favorite experiment on Fringe so far?

A: Oh Lord. There’ve been so many good ones. I liked the one where we made the silly one where we had the frog being injected from the table and into a net. That was kind of hilarious to do. I don’t know if you remember that one. We’ve done another one coming up which is how Walter describes how we cross universes and I think that’s coming up in an episode shortly. Again, it was excellent.

There’s one where we built a huge, sort of Lego building of a – I think this has gone to air – of a molecule, and I’m sure that one went to air. That was great fun. You know, what Walter manages to do is to make them look like the sort of thing that any child would want to play with while at the same time explaining scientific theory.

Q: Walter’s got a very distinctive way of talking, like an accent or something and I can’t quite follow. Is this your natural way, or have you added something, like a little bit of a touch of an authoritative science-touch or something?

A: Thanks. When I first approached the character, I was looking for something that was unique, and I guess came up with, and we could have done standard American, but looking for something a bit more Trans-Atlantic, because my experience with academics, they do have a slightly different way of talking, a little bit more [ed: missing word] sometimes. They mix with people from all over the world… So I guess what I settled on was something which could have been like a Boston accent but with English adaptations, and that was the Trans-Atlantic one. That’s what I’ve been trying to get as against the standard American.

Q: Do you have a hard time turning off your character at the end of the day when you’re ready to go home?

A: You know, I don’t, but I quite often get asked that question. But no, I don’t. I can turn him off. I mean, perhaps I’m a little crazy most of the time, some people would say so, but I don’t certainly get depressed with him anyway.

Q: I was just wondering how much of the science that you get to say do you actually know what you’re saying?

A: Look, the rule of thumb is, is it within the realm of theoretical physics or theoretical science that this could happen? That’s the question I would put out there. And if someone can’t justify within the realms of theoretical physics, then I am saying, well, why are we doing it? You know, we don’t need to. There’s such rich material there already theorized by the great minds in science and chemistry and physics. So we try to make it at least possible theoretically, and that includes things like time travel and other universes and so forth, things that are theoretically possible.

Sometimes, you know, we cross the line a little bit, I think. But generally we are pretty – I mean my feeling is, you don’t actually need to make up rubbish, you know. There is so much tantalizing science out there to be done, that you really don’t need to make it up, and the writers seem to agree most of the time.

Come back tomorrow after watching tonight’s episode to hear more of what John Noble has to say.

Tomorrow, When The War Began is one of those books I read over and over again as a teenager. I never imagined that more than 10 years later it would be turned into a movie!

Like the novel, the film is about a group of 8 teenagers from the Australian town of Wirrawee, who head out for a week of camping. When they return home though, they discover their town has been invaded and that local citizens are being held captive by a hostile foreign force. They decide to fight back and form a guerilla war on the invaders.

What do you think of the trailer? So far the glimpses I’ve seen of the characters are exactly as I imagined them to be! Can’t say much further about them until I see some more, but it looks good, better than I expected.

Episode 167: “duh duh da da da duh do”

I came across this brilliant Star Trek medley on ElectricSpectre , played by the Buckingham Palace Guard. It’s awesome:

The YouTube user who uploaded the video was amazed to stumble on this:

I was in London at a conference and the day after I went sightseeing. I of course watched the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. I couldn’t believe what I heard when they started playing… 😀

Do you recognize the series whose themes they’re playing? It’s four of them! I did and this was quite possibly one of the best parts of my visit to London!

Sorry for the bad quality that’s all my cheap photo camera is capable of.

It’s not the first time something like that has been done though:

Via ElectrcSpectre