/dev/random/

amen · 23-12-2011 4:06pm

Ohh I like the Phillies one. Ties up the 70s show and Dr Who nicely.

DirtyBollox · 29-12-2011 11:07am

Nothing to do with me but there is a site out there who try and post a new short scifi story every day of the year, today's is absolutely awesome

and for any mobile phone users

It’s not really time travel. Not how that expression is traditionally meant, anyway.
It has long been a maxim of those involved in my kind of research that you can look back and travel forward, but never the other way round. In a way, everything we know about forensic science is a way of looking into the past with slowly increasing resolution. My work is just another step down that road. A bloody big step, but a step nonetheless.
Every movement leaves a trace. Some leave more of a trace than others, most leave a trace so small as to be beyond invisibility. Theoretically, if you had a completely closed environment, you could infer everything that happened within that environment from an accurate enough look at its current state. In practice, that’s nonsense. The world is much too complex, too many variables need to be accounted for. Plus, once you look at things closely enough, you can’t be entirely sure of exactly where everything is, let alone where it was.
Electromagnetic signals are a lot simpler, comparatively speaking. With enough computing power and enough time, it becomes only really really difficult to figure out what a signal was, rather than impossible.
The Hartnell Array has made it even less difficult than that. I won’t go into details about how it works: every time I try to explain it to the chiefs of staff I can see their eyes glaze over. Instead, I try to talk about what it can do.
With enough time, and enough energy, any signal that was ever broadcast can be recovered.
Obviously, the implications are considerable. I’ve had scientists from every field asking for time on the Hartnell Array once its up and running. Even before it was finished it was booked up for the next decade. However, the British Army paid for it, so the British Army get first use.
Well, second use. Officially we’re testing its capabilities for another two months. Unofficially I’m enjoying the major reason why I agreed to build the thing.
“Everything in order?” I ask Dr Patel. She doesn’t understand my enthusiasm, but she humours me.
“Signal reconstruction is complete. Playback is ready whenever you want.”
I settle into my chair, and hit play. The music starts at once, as does the image, blurrier than I remember from my childhood yet no less magical. In awed silence I become the first person in more than half a century to see these images.
Recovering television isn’t difficult compared to some things. There were so many broadcasts at such a strength that you can pick and choose. The only real decision was what to recover first, and for me there was no question.
106 lost episodes, of which I was now watching the nineteenth. We were getting them at a rate of four a day. We’d have every one within the month. I sent the pristine recordings to the BBC within the day, but that first viewing was mine alone.
Dr Patel walks in as the episode finishes and smiles indulgently. She never liked the show, but I think she’s happy that I’m happy.
“Everything in order?” she says, handing my words back to me.
“Perfect.” I say “I think we should go after The Daleks’ Master Plan next.”

The Mad Hatter · 31-12-2011 10:00am

Why you should never drunk text a whovian...

A friend of mine randomly got a drunk text from a stranger. She then did something that has earned my respect and awe. A transcript of her conversation follows. Some of this may be familiar to you.
Warning: VERY LONG. Also, words that I don't like have been bleeped out. Use your imagination.
[Transcript] Drunk Person: "tortyly drunk riht now. straight men everwhere."
Erykah: "Oh, thank God! I finally made contact! Listen, I need your help, but you're in great danger."
DP: "ni**a say wat?"
E: "Listen, my name's the Doctor. I'm a time traveler, or I was. I'm stuck in 1969 with my friend and I need your help to get my spaceship back."
DP: "u hav a spce****?"
E: "Yes. It's a big blue box that says 'Police Call Box' on it."
DP: "dat doesnt sound liek a spceshp. gay."
E: "Hey! Don't diss the TARDIS!"
DP: "tarsiddd???"
E: "No. TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimension In Space. You see, I'm a Time Lord from ANOTHER planet called Gallifrey."
DP: "y u not there now?"
E: "Well...A long time ago, there was a war and all my people died except for me. I'm the last Time Lord. So I travel through time and space lending a hand wherever I can."
DP: "woahhhh. thats relly sad."
E: "Yes, it is. But now is no time to cry. You're in a lot of danger and you need to help me."
DP: "waot. how r u in 1996?"
E: "I'm in 1969. And it's really complicated."
DP: "oh."
E: "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff."
DP: "im cofussed."
E: "Well, try and keep up! Never mind the wibbly stuff. All that matters is that they've taken it! The angels have the phone box."
DP: "wut angels?"
E: "Have you ever seen like a statue of an angel? At a church or a cemetary or something?"
DP: "ya."
E: "Well, they're not angels. They're creatures from another worlds. Aliens like me, except they're very, very bad."
DP: "dat maeks sense. they alwys creepeed me out. i thought theyre jus statues tho."
E: "Good eye, you've got. But they're not. They're only statues when you're looking directly at them. Once you look away, they become deadly."
DP: "whaaa?"
E: "Listen, Lonely assassins, they were called. No-one knows where they came from. They're as old as the universe, or very nearly. They've survived this long as they have the most perfect defence system ever evolved. They are quantum-locked. They don't exist when being observed. The moment they're seen by any other living creature they freeze into rock. No choice. It's a fact of their biology. In the sight of any living thing, they literally turn to stone. And you can't kill a stone. Course, a stone can't kill you either. But then you turn your head away, then you blink, and oh, yes it can! Notice how they always look like they're crying in the cemetaries? They're always covering their eyes?"
DP: "dats nuts! ya, ive seen dat."
E: "There's a reason for that. They're not weeping, they can't risk looking at each other. Their greatest asset is their greatest curse. They can never be seen. The loneliest creatures in the universe. And I'm sorry, I am very, very sorry, it's up to you now.
DP: "but wut can i do? tis was all thrustted uopn me!"
E: "The blue box, it's my time machine. There is a world of time energy in there they could feast on forever. The damage they can do can switch off the sun. You have got to send it back to me!"
DP: "ahhhhhh!!! im scrrd! idk wut 2 do! im srsly gon hav a pnic attck."
E: I'm afraid I can't help you any further. I'm stuck in 1969, but I think you're clever enough to think of something. FIND THE BLUE BOX AND GET IT BACK TO ME! The angels have it and you NEED to find it or it's all going to be over."
DP: "dont go doctr! help me!11211!!"
E: "They're coming. The angels are coming for you. But listen, your life could depend on this. Don't blink! Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast, faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don't blink! Good luck!"
DP: "ik! angels hng out in gravyards rite? ill check thar 1st."
E: "Wherever you feel the need to look. I have no idea because I'm trapped 42 years in the past. Wherever you do go, just remember DON'T BLINK."
DP: "omfg. holy ****. i'll find teh box and teh angels and ill text u wen i find it. goodbi doctr. uve liked changgged me life."

Basq · 31-12-2011 5:18pm

flazio · 01-01-2012 11:30pm

Totally loved the line in tonight's 'Sherlock'

When I say Run, Run

BaconZombie · 04-01-2012 12:57pm

MitchKoobski · 04-01-2012 8:57pm

Nobody in particular playing a random song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKrt5IVXQ7k

MitchKoobski · 05-01-2012 7:00pm

Okay for anyone who hasn't gotten it, thats Murray Gold.

Sonics2k · 05-01-2012 11:08pm

crazyderk · 11-01-2012 2:51pm

Awesome thread!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCnXBD8TKJg

Sleepy · 16-01-2012 1:51am

T-shirt on thinkgeek. WANT!

BlitzKrieg · 17-01-2012 8:02am

You know how some people consider Doctor who a guilty pleasure?

Well one of my guilty pleasures is the tv series leverage which is a rather dumb but a lot of fun heist tv series.

But...They have made not one but two references to Doctor Who recently

from the subtle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM3iTPghcMQ

to the blatant:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_J1apQr6-M

BaconZombie · 19-01-2012 1:08pm

Sleepy · 19-01-2012 1:56pm

That's no stand-off... the silence can make you forget them. The neuralizer could make the silence forget everything since their birth (assuming it would work on their physiology).

/anal retentiveness...

CramCycle · 19-01-2012 3:15pm

If you want to be anally retentive, why not ask why the MIBs would want an alien to forget them, considering they presumably don't even know who the silence are (because they don't remember them, not because of the different universes). I thought MIBs generally only used that device on humans?

BaconZombie · 19-01-2012 5:50pm

From /r/DoctorWho

[–]palehorse864 33 points 10 hours ago (36|4)
J:This Doctor. He says he's from some planet called... Gallifrey?
K: Can't be.
J: Why not?
K: Gallifrey's gone kid, whole planet, disappeared. We don't know what happened to it, we're pretty sure it was bad though

Sleepy wrote: »

That's no stand-off... the silence can make you forget them. The neuralizer could make the silence forget everything since their birth (assuming it would work on their physiology).

/anal retentiveness...

You also have to ask it the tech in the neuralizer derived from The Silence { or the tech of their Commanders }.

CramCycle wrote: »

If you want to be anally retentive, why not ask why the MIBs would want an alien to forget them, considering they presumably don't even know who the silence are (because they don't remember them, not because of the different universes). I thought MIBs generally only used that device on humans?

CramCycle · 19-01-2012 7:11pm

BaconZombie wrote: »

...

Daemos · 19-01-2012 9:44pm

Possibly old news but I only found out today

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/09/doctor-who-videogame-eternity-clock

Doctor Who is getting into console gaming, with BBC Worldwide signing a deal to create a series of titles that will initially be available on Sony PlayStation devices.

The first Doctor Who game, called The Eternity Clock, will be launched early next year on the PlayStation 3, the handheld PlayStation Vita as well as on PC. The Vita, a competitor to Nintendo DS, launches in the UK on 22 February.

BBC Worldwide, the corporation's commercial arm, said it was "investigating" the possibility that the games, which will require players to "master the complexities of time travel", could launch on other platforms in the future such as the Xbox.

The three game series will be based on a new storyline, written in collaboration with the BBC Wales team responsible for the TV show, with stars Matt Smith and Alex Kingston recording voiceovers for their characters. The Doctor Who games are being developed by Supermassive Games.

Robert Nashak, executive vice-president of digital entertainment at BBC Worldwide, said the games aimed to bring the "wonder, adventure and madness" of Doctor Who to the games console market.

A spokeswoman said BBC Worldwide has created one Doctor Who console game in the past – called Return to Earth for the Nintendo Wii – but that was a one-off title. She said the latest announcement represents a major ongoing strategy.