Well, as the countdown I posted on the blog should be indicating, Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex was released today.

I’m always quick to nab new updates and try out the new stuff, so I upgraded my PC straight away, and the good news is that so far it seems to have been a painless process. The new Gnome theme feels a little more polished, but other than the general stability I’ve not played with it much. Of course, given that previous upgrades have tended to break something (the 7.xx series tended to break my sound, fortunately something that the 8.xx series has fixed), the main thing for me is the upgrade has been smooth. The only bit of weirdness so far is that the window title bars sometimes go a bit weird on me, but there’s nothing major going wrong.

Knights of the Old Republic is really firing with full thrusters at the moment.

For those that haven’t followed the series, its about Zayne Carrick, a failing Jedi Padawan, who finds himself on the run with the local wannabe crime lord and various others when the Jedi Masters kill his fellow padawans. Finding himself framed for their deaths, he has to find out why his friends were killed while avoiding being caught by the Jedi or the Republic. Fortunately at the same time, the Mandalorians go to war with the Republic, which provides him ample chaos to have all kinds of adventures in.

And now, series writer John Jackson Miller is wrapping up this main plot thread.  After over 30 issues, Zayne has closed in on the Jedi Covenant, and we’ve discovered how they’ve been manipulated from the beginning.

I love how Miller is not taking the option of keeping that plot thread running indefinitely, and instead giving us a conclusion to Zayne’s fugitive arc.  We get to see how Haazen has manipulated the covenant into becoming his instruments as he attempts to seize power for himself, and the one who has most been manipulated has been Zayne’s master, Lucien.   There’s a real feeling here that with his world unravelling around him, Lucien’s really lost the plot, and the hints from Haazen that Lucien coul go onto become Darth Sion were a big twist.

While Legacy tends to be the series that gets the most attention online, Knights of the Old Republic has always been my favourite of the Dark Horse series (and indeed, is currently the only one I’m buying monthly).  Its got a great balance between humour and adventure that I think is important to Star Wars.

I’m also pleased to see Brian Ching return to the art duties with this issue.  The art on this series has sadly been a mixed bag lately, so its nice to see the original artist returning to wrap up the story arc that started with issue 1.

Roll on issue 35.  I can’t wait to see how this ends.

The Red Lanterns have officially made their prescence felt this week. After much hyping, with ads all over the place in DC titles for the last couple of weeks, we got the first part of the Rage of the Red Lanterns storyline in this week’s Final Crisis “tie-in” (and again, its a tie-in that seems to lack any actual tying-in).

The story is great, and after the Secret Origin arc, its nice to have the main GL book (sort of) focusing on current events again. The Guardians have announced that Sinestro is to be taken to Korugar for execution, but the Red Lanterns want him for themselves. And in the middle of it all, is the Scarred Guardian, manipulating events for her own ends.

This one shot really seems to serve as a kick-start to the Blackest Night proceedings and will be picked up in the GL monthly. The Red Lanterns (as seen in the preview) are a pretty horrific bunch, and we see Hal’s surprise when he recognises Laira in amongst the group that attacks them. Both the Sinestro Corps and GLs fall pretty easily to the Reds as well, with the power of the red rings neutralising their rings stone dead, causing their force fields to drop, and them to catch fire. The red energy is played much more as a blunt weapon, with the Red Lanterns burning their foes, or engaging them in hand-to-hand.

Shane Davis excels on the art duties, and if they’re needing another artist to swap out with Ivan for an arc in the main GL book, I hope they get Davis. It’d be good to see more of his work on GL.

And, of course, the twist at the end, when Hal’s failing ring is suddenly boosted up to 200% by Saint Walker, the first of Ganthet’s Blue Lanterns, who Ganthet sent to keep an eye on them. It’ll be very interesting to see what his story is, especially since Ganthet was previously talking about how important it was to get someone specific for their first blue lantern. We have to assume that he was talking about Saint Walker.

Only complaint I’d really make is that suddenly the GL hunting the Anti-Monitor’s remains is shown as Ash and not Saarek. Although its likely she’s had both of them following separate leads (since Ash finds the Anti-Monitor’s armour, whereas Saarek seemed to have a lead on the Anti-Monitor himself). That’s really a minor niggle though in the face of an excellent opening chapter to this new arc. Really looking forward to seeing more of Saint Walker and the Red Lanterns in the next few months (and its a safe bet the Guardians aren’t going to be pleased with what Ganthet’s been up to).

Well, the surprise announcement hit tonight that David Tennant is leaving Doctor Who after the specials.

He’ll be very much missed in the lead role, but I see why he’s decided to leave now. He’ll have given us four years (counting the next year’s specials) in the title role, which is a good run, and this way Steven Moffet’s era can start completely fresh with a new TARDIS crew as well as a new production crew.

But still, a sad day for us fans. The 11th Doctor will have some big trainers to fill, but I look forward to seeing who they get.

The first two episodes of the new Clone Wars series have just aired over here on Sky Movies.

I saw the film/pilot over the summer and quite enjoyed it. It wasn’t flawless (Ahsoka
was deeply annoying for much of the film, and really it felt too much like a TV pilot to have had a cinema release), but it was fun.

The series continues in this vain. The battledroids provide some pretty painful slapstick humour that doesn’t really work for me, but there’s a lot to like as well. The first episode largely features Yoda (strange since really Annakin and Ahsoka are the stars, but I guess that’s partly due to the first 3 or so episodes being shown in the cinema instead) and he felt very much to me like the mischievious Jedi Master we met in Empire Strikes Back, for the first time in years, even more so than in the prequel films.

For me though, the big stars are the Clones themselves. The series is doing a good job of fleshing them out, such as how the way they view themselves as expendable is very much at odds with how Yoda and (in the second episode) Plo-Kloon treat them as real people. Its also nice how the clones seek to differentiate themselves visually from one another, with tatoos, or unique hair cuts.

One big problem I have though (aside from some of the humour) is Annakin. The Annakin we see in this series (and its prequel film) doesn’t really gell with the Annakin we see in the films. Here we have Annakin preaching patience to Ahsoka and instructing her in how best to interpret the council’s orders (ie, how to try and get around them without causing a scene). This doesn’t really gell with the, frankly, childish Annakin the films presented us. This isn’t the same guy who would’ve ranted “Its not fair!” at the council when told he’s not to be a master.

Of course, I wasn’t too fond of that characterisation, so maybe its not a bad thing they’re ignoring it.

They do need to be careful though. Annakin is the main hero of this series, however by making him too heroic, they run the risk of it being unbelievable that this is the same guy who’ll butcher padawans like Ahsoka in the Jedi temple.

Annakin’s a tragic villain, and they need to be very careful how the handle his character in this show. Its a balancing act I felt the comics handled well. Making Annakin a focus, while also sowing further seeds for how the dark side could possess him. Of course, the comics had the advantage of being written for an older audience.

Making Annakin the hero in a kids cartoon is a bit of a dodgy prospect, and I can’t help but think using Obi Wan as the focus might’ve worked better. But still, we’ll see how they handle it as the show goes on.

(Talking of continuity, why is Grevious’ Ion Cannon treated like its a new thing in the second episode?)

I don’t mean to sound too  negative though.   I enjoyed these first two episodes a lot.  Taken on their own merits, they’re a good fun adventure with some great characters and some very pretty CGI.   And after that first episode, I definitely want to see more Yoda-based episodes as the writers handled him brilliantly.

Lots of comics worth talking about this week.

Following Brainiac’s defeat in the latest issue of Action Comics, and Superman rescuing the not-so bottle city of Kandor, this special kicks off a major arc linking all three Superman family titles (Action Comics, Superman, Supergirl) together.

Very much dealing with the fallout from the Brainiac arc, we see Clark struggling to come to terms with his father’s death, before realising he has a job to do. In that, the bottle city of Kandor has been restored to full size in the arctic, and its up to Superman to try and ensure the 100,000 Kryptonians there can manage their powers and help them to integrate with humanity.

Its a great issue. The scenes with Clark at Jonathan’s funeral and its aftermatch are powerful, and played to show just how hard this is hitting him. We see him fantasising about killing Brainiac, and there’s an emotional page showing Ma Kent sitting alone down to dinner. Things then switch track to the arctic, where Superman speeds over before the Kryptonians absorb enough yellow sunlight and their powers kick in. We know from previous arcs that Kryptonians have had a decidedly dubious history with their powers, previously using them to become an all-powerful empire, before they realised the errors of their ways and went into a self-imposed exile on Krypton, away from the temptation of yellow suns.

There are some ominous hints right away. The Kryptonians are already refering to Earth as New Krypton, and you don’t really get the impression they’re listening when Clark tries to tell them that the planet is called Earth. One Kryptonian accidentally kills an endangered blue whale as he is unused to his powers. Clark’s experience on Earth means he knows this is going to be a big problem, but its obvious that he’s a lone voice in the crowd, and the reader can see that this is all going to go bady wrong.

We’ve also got Supergirl reuniting with her parents in a nice scene. Supergirl’s been a problem character since she was brought back, with a muddled history a 20 year old character would be proud of. This is a good creative team, so there’s real hope that they can finally give this character some direction.

With some of Zod’s troops also present in the city, you know things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. And we’ve also got the thought-dead Sam Lane recruiting Luthor to prepare for the inevitable problems with the Kryptonians. This is going to get nasty.

A powerful and ominous start to this arc. I may not be a regular buyer of the Super-titles, but I’m really looking forward to see how this plays out over the coming months. The bottle city of Kandor is a staple of the Superman mythos, so it’ll be interesting to see if the city ends up shrunken again by the end of this arc, and if so, what the circumstances will be.

Well, it was the announcement we’d been waiting for.  Lucasarts are teaming up with Bioware for another crack at the MMO market.   

I’m glad to see Bioware having another go at the Old Republic era.  Since I’d pretty much given up hope on ever seeing Knights of the Old Republic 3 it’ll be great to at least have the chance to revisit that era in game format once again.  From the sounds of the storyline, the Knights of the Old Republic plot will be touched upon within the MMO, so at least that should give some closure.

I’ve enjoyed playing Star Wars Galaxies, so it’ll be interesting to see what this new game brings to the table.  Of course, it’ll have the advantage from the outset of having the experience of what worked and didn’t in SWG, not to mention knowing what people liked about the KotOR series.

Is there any chance we could meet a descendant of Gryph in the game?  It’d rock to get some henchman quests from him

And HK-47 is a must, of course.

Its event week this week, with Final Crisis #4 from DC and the penultimate part of Secret Invasion from Marvel.

Following on from last month’s issue, this part is effectively one giant fight scene between the humans and the Skrulls. There’s some great moments though, best of which is probably Hawkeye’s revenge for the fake Mockingbird (seriously, when are Marvel going be just get him back in his proper ID, this is the second time this mini that a big deal’s been made of him picking up a bow and arrow again).

Once again I can’t help but feel the issue’s cliffhanger is pretty weak. The improved growth formula Skrulljacket gave to the Wasp back in New Avengers (or was it Mighty?) comes into play, but to be honest its left incredibly unclear what’s actually happening to her.

Issue 7 was always going to be a big fight scene, so this manages it well. Overall, I still feel this series never quite managed to top issue 1, but this was fun. I’m increasingly concerned that issue 8 isn’t really going to resolve much however (with all the Dark Reign stuff being pushed). I hope I’m wrong as I can’t see myself picking up another event (as I’m trying to cut down my pull list), and I’ll be quite annoyed if I don’t get some kind of resolution.

This week also gave us the latest issue of New Avengers. Whereas last week’s Mighty Avengers was probably the worst tie-in yet (there wasn’t really anything that hadn’t happened in a few panels in SI itself and as a result the story was fantastically absent), I really enjoyed this week’s New Avengers tie-in. Switching from the usual view of what the heroes have been up to, Bendis switches events to the villain’s perspective as we find Madame Masque captured by SHIELD and The Hood coming to her rescue. Only one killing the SHIELD agents holding her, they’re revealed as Skrulls and they both realise they were going to substitute Masque with one of their own, and that something big is going on.

While some of these tie-ins haven’t really worked for me, there’s always fun to be had seeing the various parties figure out what’s going on, be it the Avengers discovering the Skrull Elektra, Fury finding the Skrulls infiltrating SHIELD, or in this case, the villains realising the Skrulls are trying to infiltrate their own. I’ve not really seen the Hood before this, but I was aware that Marvel were pushing him as the new Kingpin. He seems like an interesting character, barely able to hold his alliance of villains together in the face of the Skrull threat, but its interesting that, like the 3D-Man, his hood allows him to spot the Skrulls. I’m looking forward to the next part of things from the villain’s perspective.

Well, Final Crisis is back this week, with two issues in the tale. Final Crisis: Submit is solicited as a tie-in one-shot, but really you can read it alongside Final Crisis #4 as part of the main story. The fact that its also written by Morrison is probably key to this.

Its no secret that I’m really enjoying this story. In fact, while I may be enjoying Secret Invasion, I’m far preferring the story of Final Crisis. Secret Invasion is fun, but the mini itself has been a bit lacking compared to the scope of the event itself, and I’m just finding that Final Crisis is trying to do something a bit more epic (in terms of buildup though, Secret Invasion’s slow reveal of the Skrull invasion was tops. Of course, Final Crisis had Countdown for its buildup).

We rejoin the story with evil having won in the DCU. Earth is still cut off by the Green Lanterns, and has fallen to the New Gods and the anti-life equation. Those few anti-life survivors are hunted by Justifiers, humans and super humans who’ve been taken over by helmets such as we saw The Human Flame being forced into and now serve as Darkseid’s troops.

Meanwhile Inspector Turpin is desperately trying to resist Darkseid’s influence as Darkseid attempts to break his will and possess his body.

This is an awesome storyline. The feeling that the world has truely gone to pot, and that hope is thin on the ground seeps from every page. This is possibly best demonstrated by the hopeful headlines on the Daily Planet about trying to reclaim Bludhaven, only to cut to a double-page spread of the atomic knights all defeated, or by the sights of big name heroes being captured and turned into Justifiers.

We see the heroes rallying to the various Watchtowers they have setup around the world, but even then, with a lot of the heavy hitters MIA or offworld, there’s a feeling that they’re under seige and the odds are badly against them.

There’s only really one strand of hope offered in the tale, as Barry and Wally arrive in this post-anti-life world and Barry fills us in that he’s been brought back by an unknown force (be interesting to see who that turns out to be). Barry knows what’s going on (Darkseid’s fall is endangering the multiverse) and this alone fills you with the hope that whoever brought him back had a good reason for doing so. This then bears fruit when they find an anti-life infected Iris, and Barry’s kiss breaks its hold over her. Given Libra’s concerns over the Flashes in Rogue’s Revenge, its obvious that Barry, Wally and Jay are going to hold the key to resolving this crisis.

But until they figure it out, we’re left with things looking pretty bleak for Earth (and Oa, with the Granny-possessed Kraken after the central power battery - I hope we see that storyline). This is underlined by Turpin’s battle of wills with Darkseid. A battle he knows he’s slowly losing, and that last page sent shivers down my spine. I’ve never been a fan of the new gods or Darkseid, but this series is changing that.

Well, in news that seems to be shocking most of the industry, Knight Rider has received a full season order.

This is great news.  As I’ve said many times here, I’m enjoying the new series, so its good to see it getting a good chance to prove itself, especially with the fluctuating ratings, and general feeling in the industry that it would be up for the chop.   We do know that the studio had ordered four more scripts the other week, so presumably they liked what they saw.

KARR’s return (if true) should help give the show a boost as well.  Lots of trailers with clips from KITT vs KARR and Trust Doesn’t Rust to play up the return of the evil KITT should help with the general viewing public.