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Leela’s last few stories were by no means my favorites of the short Tom Baker run we had growing up—I remember scratching my head seeing Sarah again after Invasion, being disappointed when it happened a second time, then a third, fourth… but maybe it was for the best, considering what actually followed. Wouldn’t it have been great if it turned out that Romana was Leela all along, gentrified by Time Lord society? Killing her off wasn’t the right call (imagine the effect on the Doctor, though), but a time skip definitely would’ve worked.

Crazy that they were actually thinking of doing it in The Sun Makers, which I admit I like now more than I did back then, when I was far too young to relish the overthrow of a corporatocracy, however cheaply dramatized. As if the BBC would air a group of terrorists tossing a government official off a building anymore, much less greenlight a companion named after a Palestinian freedom fighter! Underworld also suffered from trying to present an epic with a shoestring budget, but I’ve always had a soft spot for takes on Greek mythology, those shield guns were as cool as anything in Star Wars, and Leela truly had her final best moments under (and after) the influence of the Pacifier Gun. Orf was not a beautiful name.

I had just about given up on Disney Who after that entire episode written around a single brilliant (better) moment between Harry and the Doctor from “Genesis of the Daleks”, but I’m a sucker for time-skip stories like “73 Yards”, though I think Black Red Mirror’s “Demon 79” did something similar (and again, better). The next two felt like the inevitable reminders Gatwa’s both Black and gay and were serviceable enough, but damn, was that finale ever a twisted abhorrence to this long-time fan. For an all-new series, it sure does rely on marvels of its past; even that homage to a scene from “Pyramids” in an earlier outing was a pale imitation, amidst hokum appropriate for mid-to-later-era CW Flash. At least nonagenarian Gabriel Woolf got paid in 2024 money.

Stuck in the hotel on my latest trip to the Twin Cities I got to explore the free offerings on Pluto TV, one of whose channels ran ad-supported Britbox reruns of the Pertwee era, more or less in order until it got to Baker, and never was the popular term “peak” more apt. I fear my Doctor’s not long for this world, so allow me to praise his performance in those first few seasons we had on PBS, including in Leela’s debut, when he was at his most ruthless and egomaniacal.

[I had the kind of dream the other night that made me realize everyone else in them is an NPC and wonder if that’s what it’s like to be sociopath. That did, however, get me thinking about these things, the recurring motifs, characters and settings that don’t give, whether or not they might as well be automated and if so, why I couldn’t just have the popular “AI” come up with them for me. The following is the bland scenario returned from a sampling of my last few entries; an initial attempt was simply a regurgitation of the Rush one. If someday this shit is supposed to take my place, it’d better learn to be anal enough to add author avatars or at the very least justify the paragraphs.]

You find yourself in a strange place where time and space seem to be distorted. You’re surrounded by high-tech gadgets and futuristic vehicles, and you can’t shake the feeling that you’re not where you’re supposed to be. Suddenly, you’re approached by a group of people who claim to be from the future. They warn you that the world you know is in danger, and that only you can save it. They take you on a journey through time and space, where you encounter strange creatures and otherworldly landscapes.

Along the way, you must use your wits and your gaming skills to outsmart your enemies and solve complex puzzles. You find yourself battling against time-traveling villains and strange machines, all while trying to save the world from certain doom. With every twist and turn, you’re constantly challenged and pushed to the limits of your imagination.

But as the journey reaches its climax, you realize that the fate of the world rests in your hands. Will you be able to save the day and return to your own time and place, or will you be forever lost in this strange and wondrous world? The only way to find out is to keep dreaming and let your imagination soar.
[Dall-E wasn’t much better, serving up this depiction of another imaginary bout of frustration with the woman’s Facebook-driven sense of adventure.]

I had to see for myself, and it’s not as bad as the “haters” made it out, but fuck it’s disappointing there weren’t better ideas to develop. Like the Scooby gang all grown up and working in the same boring office. Or fighting off a zombie apocalypse (which I think has been done in comics). Certainly a next generation of them, so the diversity wouldn’t seem so forced again. The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse had “ethnically-mixed friends” 35 years ago!
Holy coincidences, Bat-Bat, lucky as I was with a seed because I of course forgot about my DVD, only to be floored by the reunion episode with the Mighty Heroes!

…for good, really, our latest road trip there lets me cross it off places I’m likely ever to return to, which is kind of a good feeling, despite the reason of course being that little time’s left for it to change, similar to how I have fewer things left to eat. Speaking of which, a single Nathan’s Famous chili dog at one of the New York, New York exits (next to a woman manning an oxygen station who told her fellow booth operator that Christmas Day was the worst she’d had yet) now costs nearly ten dollars with tax and no longer even offers the snapping skin. Surprisingly cheaper box of fish & chips at Gordon Ramsay’s place, though factor in the wait, the lack of seating, then the fight through the crowds to get it back to your room warm, and the none of this seems worth the trouble. Bring back the original Star Trek Experience and maybe? I kept thinking of the drive I made once to meet a friend I no longer have and missed an item on the auction house in a game I no longer play, might that have been the wrong life-altering decision? At least the weather cooperated at the Cajon Pass and I didn’t crash the car as I have been in the dreams leading up to and during the trip.

For an extra-Asian sugar high, Yi Fang didn’t have anything on Tea Station, but at least it was consistent between the two Bay Area locations. The camaraderie during a miserable project must’ve sweetened the memory, that’s my lesson from our 50-mile round-trip to Rowland Heights this past weekend. No stamp cards, discounts for buying a refill cup, loyalty programs—they’re just not worth it without them. And the eggs and corn from 辛巴樂 were packed in too much water. Remember how I used to stop by the one in Arcadia for sausages? Worst of all, some dbag Chinese (from the dashcam footage of him unloading his shaved kid and the “GZ FMLY” plate, what other language uses those awful j-sounding z’s in their names) parked their thrashed Model X obscenely close to our car with two empty spaces on the other side, asshole.

I was on a plane, though the velvet decor and roomy aisles were more like a theater’s, and wandering around there were spacious corner sections with luxurious sofas reserved for VIP’s like basketball players. Upon returning to my seat for the second leg of the flight, there was a rush when more of them became available from no-shows, and the woman I had been sitting next to, a Brit named Sandy with long brown hair, got up and made for another across the way, which I took personally as I thought we had developed an amicable relationship; in fact, I had only made that trip to track down someone who had insulted her honor, big Black athlete or no. My loss was consoled by the arrival of another attractive girl.

健-san says “Headsets are simply annoying”, and I totally agree with him, even for audio. At least in PlayStation Home everything was accessible from the controller, though even there I had to wonder what was the benefit of donning an avatar to participate in real-world simulations. If I wanted to see an exclusive movie clip, couldn’t I just click on a link without any of the lag? Unless they really think it’d be fun to kill 20 rats for the ticket? Were the emphasis on interaction than immersion, then again, I can’t see how that’d surpass what’s long been available to chatters or streamers to boost their presentations with all the hypertext and media the Internet has to offer. Recently I was trying to impress upon our Generation Z/Alpha scion the sheer amount of time we used to spend on voice calls with each other, limitations like busy signals and long distance charges, and the impacts from advances in technology, but despite as much as hemming and hawing may have added to our hours, our connections didn’t rely on emojis or canned memes. One might argue it was a communication golden age, similar to the art of letter-writing that came before, where the value lie in the effort to overcome the struggle to express. Seems to me struggling in VR will instead be to try to get something out of the pinnacle of human achievement.

What kept me watching this low-budget no-fanfare new series wasn’t so much the prospect of Lovecraftian horror (which no, doesn’t just mean the spooks are invincible), but my fascination with the main character’s video restoration work. Plus, Tarkovsky’s Solaris, which is Lovecraftian. I wish they went somewhere with that, beyond the use of found-footage simply to switch perspective, maybe that’s what they were getting at with playback of all the recordings recreating reality. Why not make that the “other world”—a realm run by a being not unlike the Doom Patrol “Telephone Avatar“—instead of yet another Nexus, or even the surface of a comet, since we now have a good idea what one looks like? Still waiting for the genre smörgåsbord to top John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness, however.

I admit I was also suckered by the Ride video, so instead of giving the YouTube any more views, I embedded a grainier Gfycat that doesn’t even play in Firefox. Unlike with Monster Hunter Rise, I did my due diligence before starting upon the certain path of material discontent with a console that’s hard enough to obtain, a new television to support it, the sound system I’d always promised and of course a couch to replace our aging one. If not for Nintendo’s almost anti-technology stance, I might be disconnected from gaming altogether, having been left unimpressed at the PS3/Blu-Ray generation. There’s definitely a leap to be made to 4K+ and SSD storage, but I’m with the commenter who asked for them to be used for first-person crashes, too, the experience needs to offer more.