October 23, 2006

• Dunno, but I'm having a hack of a time getting the rocket through the launch window. I need more power to the engines, Scotty!
• The British Rocket Group was founded in the early 1950s by a number of scientific pioneers and, over the last fifty years has acted as both an advisory committee to and an active force in the British space program. During the 1970s it worked closely with the Government's Space Security Department with both sharing offices at London's Space Centre. In the 1980s and 90s, with the Government's interest in space exploration at a low, the Space Security Department was closed down and the BRG became, once more, a small private venture. The intrepid scientists retreated to a small country house in Harrogate and concentrated their skills on developing new tools for the analysis of meterorites, as well as setting up a linked chain of orbital satellites for deep space observation. In 1997, things changed. With a new Government came new priorities. Space travel and exploration being one of them. The BRG were recalled to London to advise on commissioning a new series of space probes which led, in 2003, to the planning of Guinevere One. 9/11. Strategery. The power of a freely elected peoples.
• From the "About" page: On 31 October 2006, the Probe was launched into the Earth’s atmosphere and, over the next few weeks, traversed the gulf of space towards Mars. Aside from the fact that, working at what is basically the epicenter of Mars exploration in the world that, I'd never heard of "Guinevere One," I call bullshit. It must be an ad, or a spoof or something. One simply cannot get to Mars "in a few weeks" with anything like our current technology. Especially not in 2006 when the Mars launch windows pop up in odd numbered years (for the next few windows).
• The Christmas Invasion was a crappy episode....
• (Just check out the disclaimer info, if you're confused). Is this the new Bad Wolf thread? Anyone out there watching Torchwood? I've, er, acquired the first two episodes, but haven't watched them yet.
• (Huh, there isn't any particular disclaimer info on this one - all the other pages they created had it. So, er, sorry).
• Nice Prime Minister you got over there. How odd, I've never seen her before. The thing about viral/fake reality advertising is that sometimes I just want to know what it's selling. I mean, that might be a good TV show to watch... if it's a TV show. Movie? I dunno. What should I be buying here?
• What should I be buying here? What you should be buying is Dr Who, the BBC sci-fi adventure tv series. This is one of a series of web-sites which make reference to things tha happened in the show. Specifically, Prof Daniel Arthur Llewellyn features in The Christmas Invasion, which aired on 2005-12-25 (but was set in 2006). Oh, and is that Richard III on the wall behind Harriet Jones?
• Thanks, Dreadnought, now I know what I should be watching. Of course I've got to start on this current season of Battlestar first...
• Well, I feel like a first class heel.
• Oh, no worries, chimaera - they've created a huge number of tie-in websites for Doctor Who, but usually they have a link that lets you know it's just a fake website; this one doesn't seem to make it as obvious, which is kind of silly. And six.oh.six, I haven't even seen BSG and will tell you DW is better, and you should watch it first. ;)
• No Torchwood spoilers! We've only just watched the last episode of Who! *sniffs some more*
• Oh, and BSG is good, but I still like Who more. We're still waiting on BSG season two here, though. I wish I could quit you, TV.
• Haven't watched the first episodes yet: they're sat on the mediabeast. We do have some major Who fans as friends (they have a full size Dalek in the living room...) so will be interested to see what they think of it.
• Well, I feel like a first class heel. Actually, I was kind of impressed by how you spotted all the 'mistakes' in the site.
• Torchwood is good. Short of summing up the episode, no major spoilers, except that it is more Buffy-like than you might expect (darker tone, monster of the week). BSG is brilliant, but I really couldn't put them into a faceoff. And Farscape beats them all :P'''' chimera - you shouldn't feel bad. I was feeling a bit evil when I posted this with no explanation, but I knew there were a bunch of Who fans about and was waiting for them to recognise PM Harriet Jones. I did notice the other sites had disclaimers - mmmm icecream (and Victorian houses - the observatory games/easter eggs have me stumped). But the disclaimers do take a bit of the fun out of it for me - I think they've actually added the disclaimer to this one (anyone remember the password?). But you've all added to our knowledge about launch windows, and found one of their science faux pas. Someone should write in and say.
• Hey Dread and jb, hope you both are well. Witless comment? Sure.
• MonkeyFilter: a full size Dalek in the living room...
• We're good, though many days I wish my research was as interesting as Doctor Who. Dreadnought's is, of course :)
• You all (where all="those who have either seen Torchwood or don't mind being spoiled on a few details") should check out the Torchwood site I linked to above (here it is again) and click on the access HTML version link. There are all sorts of goodies in there - IM chats between the characters, pamphlets like the 1907 Torchwood guide to handling alien artifacts ("Do not point at your colleagues, even in jest. In the case of fatalities, there will be disciplinary hearings"), neat stuff all in the names of being secret Torchwood files. I can't believe how much time the producers go into producing the web content for these two shows. But yes, this content does contain spoilers, so be forewarned.
• I can't believe how much time the producers go into producing the web content for these two shows. By the nerds, for the nerds. *puts on nerd hat* At this point I should confess to having made a Titipu newspaper for the lobby display of our Mikado production.
• That was you?
• I really disliked Torchwood, which makes me sad; I wanted to enjoy it, but just couldn't. Particularly the second episode, which was unmitigated rubbish. Woe! jb, the password for the UNIT site is 'buffalo'; there were also sites for Geocomtex, and a huge array of sites for the Cybus corporation. Also some very very fun stuff off of Mickey's site, including other episode-related websites. Really, it was non-stop, and they do seem to be doing that again for Torchwood, which is pretty cool, I'll give them that.