Flood Firefight is being added in Halo 3: ODST for the first time in 12 years, with a new update to Halo: The Master Chief Collection for the launch of Season 8.
After twelve years, Halo has finally added the Flood into Firefight. In the patch notes for Season 8 of Halo MCC, 343 industries announced a few new additions to the game that would be coming in this round of new content. This includes a new map for Halo 3 ported directly from Halo Online that is inspired by the classic Halo 2 map Turf, some new armour sets for Halo 3 and helmets for Halo: Reach inspired by ancient history and mythological figures, and some new weapon and vehicle skins.
Among these announcements, however, was the detail that Halo 3: ODST’s Firefight mode will be getting an update to its customisation options, allowing for wave-by-wave editing of the Firefight experience in much the same way as Halo: Reach’s Firefight functions. This is great news for players, because it offers more customisability, but it also opens the door for some very interesting possibilities that, thankfully, MCC’s developers seem to have explored to their fullest extent.
Included with these patch notes were two pictures, one of which showed the loading screen for the Turf remake, called Icebox, and the other showed an example of a custom Halo 3: ODST Firefight game in which the player is fighting against two Flood Combat Forms. This is big news, because up until now only Covenant enemies have featured in Halo’s Firefight mode, and although fans have been asking for the Flood to be included in the mode for many years, fighting against the Flood in Firefight has never been possible without mods. Until the release of MCC Season 8, that is.
Another interesting idea that was alluded to, but not directly stated, by a 343 industries employee replying to fan messages is that Elites will also be added to the customisation options of Halo 3: ODST’s Firefight. This is also very interesting, because if this is true, it will be the first time that the Elites will be included as an enemy in Halo 3’s engine. In the original Halo 3, Elites are allied to the player, and in Halo 3: ODST, no living Elites appear in the Campaign or Firefight. This will open the door for completely new encounters in Firefight, and some have even suggested the idea of the Flood and the Covenant fighting each other during a Firefight game, which would add a completely new twist to this game mode.
With these new additions to Halo MCC, fans continually look to the future and speculate as to what new things could be added to MCC in the future. The implementation of Flood into Halo 3: ODST’s Firefight have had many fans hoping that the Flood will soon come to Halo: Reach’s Firefight, but unfortunately that is unlikely due to the fact that the Flood never appeared in Reach – Halo 3: ODST can have the Flood ported into it’s modes because it uses the same engine as Halo 3, which features the Flood. The fact that Halo: Reach never featured the Flood makes it unlikely that they will ever appear in the game, outside of mods of course.
However, there are a lot of things that are more realistic that have been suggested as potential future additions to MCC, both by fans and by the developers themselves, albeit in informal tweets or interviews. One idea that has been circulated is the possibility of adding more armour customisation to classic Halo 2’s Elites using assets from the campaign, for example allowing players to use the Ranger, Honour Guard, Arbiter, Councillor, Spec Ops Commander and Heretic Elite armours in multiplayer.
There are other possibilities that have been theorised by fans as potential additions that could be made to the games, for example adding armour from Halo 3 into Halo: Reach and Halo 4, adding new skulls into the campaigns, adding new armour and skins to Halo 2: Anniversary’s multiplayer mode, and adding more usable content into the classic Halo 2 multiplayer that makes use of assets that are featured in the code but not currently used, such as the Shadow or Prophet Throne.
Although it is inevitable that support for Halo: The Master Chief Collection will eventually end, the future for the collection seems bright as there is still a wealth of possibilities for new content to be added in the coming months, and the release of official modding tools for each Halo game by 343 industries further increases the possibility for modding and community-created content that we could see for MCC soon. We have already seen some fantastic community-created content, such as complete campaign mods for Halo 2. Despite the recent controversies surrounding Halo: Infinite, the future for Halo still seems positive.
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Fans of Classic Doctor Who can rejoice knowing that two prominent Second Doctor stories starring Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling are set to receive full animated reconstructions in 2021 – fans have long awaited the reconstruction of the iconic Second Doctor story The Evil of the Daleks, and according to recent information released by the Radio Times, this well-known Dalek story is next on the list to be animated, bringing this long-lost Dalek serial back to life. This story particularly notable for being the debut story for Second Doctor companion Victoria Waterfield, as well as the first story to feature the Dalek Emperor.
As two of the previously released animated episodes were The Macra Terror and The Faceless Ones, fans have speculated that the next story of Season 4 – The Evil of the Daleks – would be next on the list to be animated. According to the Radio Times, this would appear to be the case. Following this, the next story to be animated will be The Abominable Snowmen, meaning that the end of Season 4 and the beginning of Season 5 will be complete. Fans will now be able to watch the episodes leading up to the departure of long-running companions Ben and Polly, and finally see the debut story of new companion Victoria Waterfield thanks to these animated reconstructions.
The most recent animated Second Doctor story to be released was The Power of the Daleks Special Edition, a remastered version of the 2016 animated reconstruction of the Second Doctor’s debut story, and the animated reconstruction of The Fury from the Deep is set to be released in late 2020. It would seem as though the animators working on these projects are prioritising Second Doctor stories first, which makes sense as these are the ones that fans have been most eager to see. However, it will likely not be long before the missing First Doctor stories, such as The Daleks Master Plan, receive the full animation treatment. Before then, however, there are still many missing Second Doctor stories that fans can look forward to seeing animated, such as The Wheel in Space, The Underwater Menace and The Space Pirates.
As recently discussed in our post about the potential for animating Big Finish audios once the missing episodes have been reconstructed, the future seems bright for Doctor Who animation, as there are still many excellent stories yet to be animated. Who knows? Once the missing episodes have been animated, we could see a limited range of Big Finish audios receive the same animation treatment, creating a whole new way of creating new animated Doctor Who stories starring the full original cast. We Time will tell, it always does.
Fans of the Doctor Who audio production company Big Finish were faced with some bittersweet news yesterday as it was announced on social media that the Monthly Adventures series would conclude with its two-hundred and seventy-fifth instalment in early 2021, marking the end of the mainline series of high-quality audio productions created in the style of Classic series episodes that have delighted Doctor Who fans for the last 20 years.
The Monthly Adventures, also alternatively called the Main Range or Monthly Range, started in 1999 with The Sirens of Time, a multi-Doctor story starring Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, and has continued with one release each month, with each release consisting of four 25-minute episodes that are identical in format to Classic Doctor Who episodes, even down to the cliffhanger and theme music at the end of each part. The setting of each audio story in the Monthly Adventures varies dramatically, much like in the televised series, although the audios take the opportunity to experiment with greater deviations from the standard format of the show such as the reintroduction of ‘pure historicals’, stories that do not feature any aliens or non-humans and focus more on the time-travel element of Doctor Who.
Initially a niche ‘expanded universe’ audio series, the Monthly Adventures (and Big Finish itself) began to gain more popularity with the return of Doctor Who to TV in 2005 and the audios have been elevated to a unique position of ‘B canon’ for many fans due to their genuine nature and care taken for the show’s lore and continuity. Fan-favourite releases from the Monthly Adventures series include Jubilee, Davros, Master, The Chimes of Midnight, The Kingmaker, Spare Parts, The Silver Turk, The Holy Terror and many, many more, with some audios featuring returning villains like the Daleks, Cybermen, Davros but others featuring completely unique villains.
Starring the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors with occasional appearances from the Eighth Doctor, the Monthly Adventures has continued to grow Big Finish’s popularity as a company, though newer fans had begun to voice their concern over the lack of a distinctive jumping-on point, particularly as the vast range had begun to incorporate story arcs that not only spanned multiple releases but also multiple Doctors.
Big Finish has also announced changes to the subscription system to account for the range ending mid-month, for full details you can read Big Finish’s post on their official website.
What’s Next for Big Finish?
Fans of Big Finish need not despair, as the announcement of the end of the Monthly Adventures was tempered by a concurrent announcement that the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors will be receiving their own independent ranges, presumably similar to the fan-favourite Eighth Doctor box set series like Dark Eyes, Doom Coalition and Ravenous. Essentially, it means releases are being rescheduled to four episodes every few months instead of one episode every month, though this is currently speculative. This announcement also extended to every Doctor from William Hartnell up to and including Matt Smith, even the late John Hurt, a considerable reshuffle of releases for Big Finish.
Nicholas Briggs, creative director and executive producer for Big Finish is quoted on the Big Finish website: “As well as making our ranges much less confusing for Big Finish beginners, these changes will allow us more exciting new possibilities and creative freedom. By freeing the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors from the constrictions of the Monthly Adventures schedule, and giving them their own distinct ranges, we will be able to introduce more surprising cast combinations, different story lengths, and more story arcs.”
The Monthly Adventures Finale
Another silver lining to this apparent grey cloud is the idea that the Monthly Adventures will finish with release number 275, currently listed as ‘TBA’ on the Big Finish website. In theory, this release could serve as a ‘finale’ to the Monthly Adventures series – perhaps it will feature long-running enemies of the series like the Daleks or Cybermen, or Big Finish original villains like the Viyrans or the Eleven. With such a huge range to draw ideas from, there are hundreds of potential story ideas, so it will be interesting to see what direction Big Finish takes the de-facto ‘finale’ of the Monthly Adventures.
Fans speculating on social media appear in favour of the idea of a multi-Doctor story, which would be fitting considering the very first Monthly Adventures audio was a multi-Doctor story with the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors that release number 275 could revisit. Perhaps the Eighth Doctor will make a triumphant return to the Monthly Adventures, or we will be treated to the first appearance of the Fourth or Tenth Doctors – although they are likely more occupied with their recently announced multi-Doctor special, ‘Out of Time 1’, which gives fans some high hopes for the future of the Doctor Who audios. With Big Finish, the possibilities are almost endless. As a wise Ood once said, “This song is ending, but the story never ends.”
It has been over a year now since the last major Dalek Asylum Custom Collections Tour on Sacred Icon, and although a small teaser was uploaded several months ago, the customs have changed significantly since then – but as of this month, our preparations are complete, and so now is the time to announce the Asylum Project, a new and updated showcase of over a hundred unique Dalek Asylum custom figures. Together, they form a huge diorama of the Dalek Asylum, with each and every model being meticulously created by hand, renovating old, broken or otherwise unwanted Dalek figures to create a vast art installation.
The Dalek Asylum
As seen in the Series 7 episode Asylum of the Daleks, the Dalek Asylum is a hollowed-out planet filled with vast underground chambers and a honeycomb of interconnecting corridors that the Daleks use as a dumping ground for the most insane amongst their number. Daleks that are so battle-scarred, insane or unhinged that they are unable to function among the Dalek race, but have otherwise done no wrong, are committed to the Dalek Asylum for safekeeping out of a twisted since of respect for the pure hatred that these creatures represent. Once a fully-automated self-repairing facility, the Asylum has decayed over the millennia of abuse to the point that it now exists as little more than a dark recluse for its deranged denizens, as many of its actual repair or rehabilitation facilities have long since been damaged beyond repair.
Either as a result of its unfathomable age or Dalek time-travel meddling, the Asylum contains many examples of Classic Daleks alongside their bronze Time War era brethren, and several factions of Daleks from centuries ago the in their history still fight age-old wars amongst themselves within the deepest parts of the Asylum. Alongside that are factions that have sprung up within the Asylum itself, such as bands of the more insane inmates that upkeep their own casings by hunting the newest inhabitants and ‘recycling’ them, leading many to sport mismatched casings made up of bits and pieces of several types of Dalek. Several of the scientists that were once stationed to study the inmates of the Asylum have since been admitted themselves, and these usually form the brains behind the organised bands of scavenging Splicer Daleks throughout the Asylum.
Arguably the most dangerous part of the Asylum, however, is the ‘intensive care’ ward – a location designed to house nothing less than the most insane Daleks in the Asylum. Many of these are examples of lone survivors of famous Dalek campaigns against the Doctor, and after thousands of years of vain attempts to calm these vicious specimens, the ward now exists as a glorified prison for its occupants – and with good reason. The Daleks that reside here are so murderous in their eternal rage that they have been deliberately containing within separate cages with their weapons removed as a safety precaution to prevent them from killing each other. Should they ever be released among the other inmates of the Asylum, they would surely stir up enough bloodlust among the imprisoned Daleks that they would attempt to escape, a possibility so terrifying that it scares even the Supreme Dalek.
The Asylum Project aims to capture the the essence of this unique setting by portraying a diverse and eclectic selection of Dalek inmates from a wide variety of points in Dalek history. Almost every type of Dalek is represented here in some form, and one of the joys of using the Dalek Asylum as a template for a custom project is the range of freedoms it provides for Dalek customs. Several examples of the Daleks seen in this collection are totally new designs that incorporate elements of several different Dalek designs, and this is due to the design philosophy for this art installation of broadening the scope of the Dalek Asylum from what we saw on-screen.
The Asylum Project
For those not already aware, my name is Cameron, and I run the Sacred Icon blog, writing blog posts about several science fiction franchises from Star Trek to Transformers. However, a franchise I tend to talk about a lot on this blog is Doctor Who, because it is honestly my all-time favourite series and arguably my favourite thing about Doctor Who it the Daleks themselves. Ever since I was a child I have been fascinated with the Daleks, and this has fuelled by passion for creating custom Dalek figures. As so many Dalek figures one can find on eBay and in other places around the internet are damaged, it can often be difficult to come up with new and creative ideas for the huge numbers of broken, incomplete or otherwise unusable Dalek figures that are floating around. However, when the concept of the Dalek Asylum was introduced, this created a goldmine of potential ideas for Dalek customs, and I endeavoured to actualise as many of those ideas as I could in Dalek figure form.
Ironically, though the production team behind Asylum of the Daleks went to the trouble of acquiring lots of Classic Dalek props to use in the episode, the actual variety of ideas we saw on-screen was fairly limited – many of the Daleks appeared merely broken or slightly damaged as opposed to the insane, battle-scarred warriors that they were described as. Even worse, the Classic Daleks were woefully underused, to the point that Moffat felt the need to being Classic Daleks back again just two seasons later to compensate. In fairness, they were working with full-size props and were on a time and budget limit, but nonetheless the customs in my collection involve a more diverse array of Daleks and explore additional concepts to those seen on-screen. As such, not all of the Daleks in the collection are screen-accurate, indeed only a handful are based on specific Daleks from the episode itself. One of the best things about the idea of the Asylum is that the Daleks within are sourced from many different points in Dalek history, including points in their timeline that we, the fanbase, have not seen. As such, making Asylum customs opens the doors for more creative freedom when it comes to colour schemes and general designs. For more information on the Dalek props used in Asylum of the Daleks, check out this comprehensive guide created by the wonderful folks over at Dalek 63:88.
Overall, the process of creating Dalek customs is always relaxing and enjoyable to me, but there is something special about creating customs for the Asylum collection, as each Dalek adds to the collective history of the collection. The Asylum Project is a source of immense personal pride for me, as I have put a lot of time and effort into ensuring that each individual figure is as good as I can make it. The entire project has taught me a lot about model making (particularly on the health and safety side) and I am proud to share my collection of custom Daleks with the world. I hope you enjoy browsing them! For those who are interested, there is the potential for some of these Daleks to be put up for sale at some point in the future. I am considering setting up a Youtube channel to further showcase the figures in video form, rather than static images, so perhaps the figures will go up for sale concurrently with that, when it eventually transpires. For now though, none of these figures are for sale. However, I will be offering tips throughout the figure showcases of how to create your own Dalek customs, and with that in mind I have also written a brief ‘how-to’ guide regarding setting up your own Dalek customs workshop.
Making your own Dalek Customs
For a fan of the Daleks there is perhaps nothing better than creating Dalek Customs, as the availability of cheap broken Dalek figures on sites like eBay coupled with the relative ease of creating a convincing destroyed Dalek has led many fans to having a go at fixing up their own custom Dalek. However, it takes more work that you would initially think to design and build a really good destroyed Dalek, and even more to pull off a perfect repaint of a pristine Dalek figure. Part of what this project is all about is encouraging would-be Dalek Custom creators to make their ideas reality, and if this installation proves anything it is that you can create some amazing things with simple materials from around the house that you would never think to use otherwise. For example, a lot of the Dalek mutants seen throughout the collection were made primarily out of old headphone wires and tissue paper. Upcycling and re-using of old junk plays an important part in customising Daleks, and it is an excellent way to make creative use of computer waste and difficult-to-recycle plastics that would otherwise be sent to rot in landfill.
To create your own Dalek custom, the first thing you will need as a Dalek to base it on. These are usually easy to find – if you have been a fan of the show since your childhood, chances are you have a Dalek figure lying around somewhere – or, if you have children who have recently grown out of their Tennant-era toys, consider bringing a new lease of life to these otherwise abandoned relics. As previously mentioned, sites like eBay are useful for picking up bundles of broken Daleks, and sometimes a huge batch comes along for ridiculously low prices that are really useful for Dalek Custom army-building. Also be sure to check out local car boot sales or charity shops – you never know what you might find, and old action figures are definitely something that pops up a lot in those sorts of places.
Second, you will need the arts and crafts materials themselves – depending on what kind of custom you want to make, you might need anything from paints and brushes to glue and cutting tools, but remember that almost anything can be used in a custom figure – what matters is how it is done. For example, hot glue is an excellent means of bonding plastics, and it also doubles as convincing Dalek goo when it dries and is painted over in green. However, you could just as easily use plastic glue or any strong adhesive that you have at home for your custom. Though it is good to have high-quality paints such as the Citadel paints from Games Workshop, most paints work on Dalek plastic and several of the early customs in the Asylum collection use Humbrol paints that date back to the 90s, proving that just about anything is possible.
Be sure to be sensible with the kind of arts and crafts that you are using, as although it might seem like a good idea to go out and buy a hot glue gun to get started on your first custom, if you have no idea how to use it properly, you will inevitably end up with a nasty burn. This metaphorically applies to almost all elements of DIY – enthusiasm for the task is meaningless without the skill to do it properly and, most importantly, precaution is required to get the job done with no injuries. It is therefore best to start small when it comes to your first Dalek custom, and ideally you will want to use materials you have at hand without having to spend any money at all. Buying the equipment necessary to have a flexible arsenal for creating a diverse range of Dalek customs would likely cost upwards of £100 including paints, tools and brushes, so start cheap until you know if you have a flair for DIY.
Next, you will need ideas. This is arguably the most important aspect, as a good idea is what drives the creative process of making the custom, so without a solid idea the project will rapidly lose direction. If you are stuck for ideas, feel free to use any of the figures in these showcases as templates for customs, and if you’re really stuck you can always try re-watching Asylum of the Daleks, and that is not something that you will find is regularly recommended to you. However, as poor as the episode itself is, you can still find some inspiration among the wasted potential. A good way of thinking up a damaged Dalek custom is thinking of interesting ways in which Daleks could be damaged or destroyed, and go from there. Think of ideas like “What would a Dalek that fell down a mineshaft look like?” or “What would a Dalek’s casing look like if it were attacked by a bear?”.
Once you have the Dalek, the appropriate tools and an idea, all you need next is the will to create a custom. Getting to grips with using model-making tools and precise paintbrushes can be tricky at first, but don’t be afraid to start a practice run and find that you have to start again. As any comparison between the two custom collection showcases on this blog will inform you, there is always room for significant improvement. Keep at it and you will soon start to see the results that you want. To that end, I would like to recommend the paints and brushes from the Games Workshops, now rebranded to Warhammer shops in some parts of the UK, whose tools are perfect for this sort of work. The staff are always friendly and will answer any questions you have about model-making. I personally use the Warhammer shops both in Liverpool and Warrington town centers on a regular basis, and I have had nothing but positive experiences there.
Dalek Upcycling
Who knew that making Dalek customs helps the environment? But if you think about it, creating Dalek customs is an artistic and creative way of making use of pieces of plastic that would, lets face it, otherwise be filling landfill. Many of the bundles that I buy on eBay or receive as donations are old collections of broken toys, either being put up for sale by the former children who owned them or the parents of children that have grown out of action figures. As such, had they not fallen into the hands of someone who could make use of broken Dalek figures, they would have almost certainly have been thrown away.
However, the eco-friendly nature of this hobby goes further than that – the more elaborate customs make use of a plethora of upcycled computer parts, plastic pieces, wires, electronic parts, old stationary and much more. Even though only a small number of Daleks in the Asylum collection are elaborate customs that required lots of parts, I still need to ask around my friends, in the workplace and even charity shops for old computer parts, wires and otherwise disposable electronic components. Scavenging these parts that would otherwise have ended up in the bin is one small way of helping the planet, and it is nice that this is a great eco-friendly side effect of the hobby that I am passionate about.
The Asylum Project and Sacred Icon
So what’s next for this blog? The answer is simple – Dalek Customs. This project has taken up a large amount of time and so I want to give the customs the attention that they deserve, as such the posts will be numerous and contain in-depth descriptions of how each custom was made as well as a short description of how it might have ended up in the Asylum in-universe to give you an idea of my thought process as I created the customs. Each custom will also have several pictures taken from different angles.
In terms of the blog posts themselves, I have arranged them into categories based on their classification, Classic Series Daleks and New Series Daleks, as well as their condition, destroyed or intact. However, I will be releasing the posts in a varied order, so each posted blog will alternate between intact New Series Daleks, destroyed Classic Series Daleks, destroyed New Series Daleks and intact Classic Series Daleks, as well as any other additional posts in the series. It is also worth mentioning that, although not part of the Asylum Project specifically, there will also be other custom showcase posts at the end that will analyse my other non-Asylum Dalek customs – including my Big Finish Dalek customs.
The Halo fanbase is in uproar after huge announcements related to Showtime’s Halo TV series seem to imply that the show will take a radically different approach to the story than the games did. The once intangible and near-mythical Halo TV series, which seemed to be in limbo for the best part of five years, has recently made waves with exciting announcements – first, that the show actually exists, and second that it had cast its Master Chief. From there, however, things started to get strange and perhaps even a little scary for die-hard Halo fans.
To get the ‘bad news’ out of the way first, it seems highly likely that this new TV show is set in a different universe to the Halo series we know and love – either that, or it is playing extremely fast and loose with the canon. Story details ranging from changes to dates, characters, locations and events seem to imply that both the Covenant and the UNSC will be very different in this new retelling of Halo’s beloved story. Arguably the most significant change is to do with the Keyes family, most notably the idea that Doctor Halsey is Keyes’ ex-wife. Those who are familiar with the lore will know that, although Keyes and Halsey had a child together, they were never married in the original timeline. Secondly, their daughter Miranda is described as a Doctor rather than a Commander, and that her speciality is Covenant languages and cultures.
Though these changes seem interesting, particularly in that Miranda has chosen a more scientific-based role rather than a military one, they have been unfortunately brushed aside by those who are complaining about another change to the Keyes family in this new TV show, as Captain Keyes is played by Danny Sapani, who played Colonel Manton in the excellent Doctor Who episode A Good Man Goes To War, and EastEnders actress Olive Gray will be playing Miranda Keyes. To those not in the know, these two actors are black, and as the Keyes clan was Caucasian in the games, this seems to have caused quite a stir. Doctor Who’s male-to-female regeneration has recently shown us that change is not always as hard to accept as it initially appears. As many stalwart fans have pointed out, as long as both Jacob and Miranda Keyes have their British accents, it shouldn’t matter what colour their skin is, particularly in the homogeneous 2550s.
Hopefully most Halo fans will be more worried about the changes to the lore, something actually worth complaining about. The biggest deviation from the norm of Halo is the announcement that Charlie Murphy’s character Makee is a human who has been raised by the Covenant. This seems bizarre at face value, as the Covenant was driven to destroy Humanity out of religious fervour in the games, as they believed that all Humans were an affront to their religion. Nonetheless, this does not mean that a Human being raised by the Covenant is completely impossible, though many fans have pointed out that at this point it seems as though the Halo TV series is defined by its blatant disregard for the lore.
Halo TV Show Theories
So with the basics of the controversial details of Showtime’s Halo TV Show listed above, it is now time for some damage control. How can this show reconcile the drastic differences in the canon with the firmly established lore of Halo that we know and love?
Theory 1 – It Just Will
The first theory is the worst theory – the idea that the TV show will simply try to bolt this story onto Halo and expect fans to just go with it. Admittedly, this is highly unlikely. It might be easy for fans to assume that the production team behind this TV show don’t care about Halo lore given the evidence, but it is unlikely that 343 industries would green-light this project knowing that it would upset fans after release. In truth, it is far more likely that 343 industries wants all this ‘bad news’ to be announced well in advance to give fans a chance to assimilate it.
Theory 2 – The Show is an Alternate Timeline
This seems like a logical, if wholly un-Halo, way to get around the strange changes to the lore in this new TV show. There are two broad ways this could be done – an ‘in-universe’ alternate universe as in Star Trek, or a ‘canon’ alternate universe like Disney’s Star Wars. It could be that the fact that the series is a ‘parallel’ universe plays into the plot in some way, perhaps even to explain some of the blatant inconsistencies that already plague Halo’s lore. Either way, it would account for the differences in Miranda’s job role, the Covenant doctrine, and (for those who care) the Keyes’ family pigmentation.
Theory 3 – Miranda will Survive
This is less of a broad theory and more of a specific prediction related to Miranda. As we know she has taken a scientific career path and not a military one, we can infer that she has a closer relationship with her mother than her father, as in the games she chose the military to follow in Keyes’ footsteps. Will this choice ultimately affect her fate? In Halo 3, Miranda’s gung-ho attitude was eventually her undoing, whereas a more reserved and calculated Doctor Miranda Keyes might not make the same mistake.
Theory 4 – Makee is a Secret
This final theory relates to Makee, and the idea that she is a human who has been raised by the Covenant to hate Humanity. Whilst this sounds odd on the surface, we do not know the specific details, so we cannot judge the validity of this idea until we see it executed in practice. But how could this idea work? There are two most likely methods. First is that Makee is a secret Covenant project, perhaps even a weapon. Second is the idea that Makee has been raised not by the Covenant as a whole, but by a single member – perhaps a Sangheili or San’Shyuum – who keeps her a secret.
Conclusion
In all seriousness, it is understandable why Halo fans are confused and perhaps a little alarmed over the decisions that have been made relating to Showtime’s Halo TV series. After all, Halo is a behemoth of a franchise that has managed to keep its lore (mostly) intact for nearly 20 years, which is quite a feat considering how much expanded universe material there is. Halo fans are as dedicated to their franchise as Star Wars fans, Star Trek fans and Doctor Who fans are to theirs, which is no easy feat.
Despite everything said above, it is even understandable why some are concerned about the Keyes recastings – after all, change for change’s sake is usually a bad move. But, to those who are concerned about this decision, 343 industries confirmed that the casting was carried out based on who was best suited to play the role. The caucasian Captain Keyes was rendered, not cast, and anyone playing him for real would ideally need gravitas and a suitable screen presence, two traits that Danny Sapani showed during his brief time on Doctor Who.
As far as the changes to the lore go, we can only wait and see. There are some other interesting morsels here and there that imply a much grander and multi-layered human side to the story, such as the casting of Shabana Azmi as the infamous Admiral Margaret Parangosky as well as Bokeem Woodbine as dissident Spartan washout Samuel-066. It could well be that the story of the Halo TV series is deeper and more multi-faceted than the games could have been, which makes sense given the fact that Game of Thrones is allegedly a prime source of inspiration. Halo fans may finally get a depiction of the legendary intrigue, guile and back-stabbing of wartime Human politics, particularly if ONI is set to play a significant role. Nonetheless, there will inevitably be more rumour, controversy and pointless speculation to come – as far as Showtime’s Halo TV series goes, we’re just getting started.
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Since filming for Series 12 of Doctor Who began in Gloucester, fans have been secretly hoping for a glimpse at what is going on behind the scenes of Jodie Whittaker’s second series as the Doctor. Fans are particularly anxious to learn what enemies the Doctor will face this series, as the Thirteenth Doctor’s debut series was noticeably lacking in threat factor aside from Tzim-Sha and a Dalek. It is good news then that the BBC seem to be more forthcoming about what this new series will feature, however, as they have revealed that the Judoon will be making a return through photos released of the filming in Gloucester.
The most interesting image depicts the Doctor in a standoff with a distinctive Judoon Captain, who sports a mohawk, flanked by Judoon soldiers who appear to be holding a brand new type of blaster. Since their introduction, the Judoon have been depicted as an intergalactic ‘police-for-hire’, stormtroopers with a strict legal code who are employed as hired thugs to execute criminals or carry out other security duties. As such, they often clash with the Doctor on the subject of ethics, as they are known to be brutish and single-minded in their task, and have even been known to execute people on the spot for any perceived crime.
However, the Judoon are not always a foe to the Doctor, and several instances have portrayed them in a positive light. The famous cameo in The Stolen Earth shows that the Judoon guard the Shadow Proclamation, the Galactic Lawmakers, and a Judoon aids Sarah Jane and her friends in the Sarah Jane Adventures episode Prisoner of the Judoon. They have also made the jump to audio, as Big Finish’s Classic Doctors:New Monsters audio Judoon in Chains depicts the Sixth Doctor defending a Judoon on trial for his life. As such, it is not yet completely clear whether or not the Judoon in Series 12 will act as an ally or an adversary to the Doctor, although judging by the released picture, it would seem they are butting heads over something.
In a stunning move, 343 industries have exceeded fans’ expectations two-fold by not only announcing that Halo: Reach will be added to MCC, a wild but popular fan request, but also announcing that the long-awaited PC release for MCC is imminent and, remarkably, the game will be available on Steam. This is perhaps the biggest piece of Halo gaming news since the announcement of Halo: Infinite, and fans are ecstatic.
This can only mean good things for the Halo community, as provided that 343 doesn’t make the same mistakes as they did with MCC’s Xbox One release back in 2014, the Halo community is going to grow with a new influx of PC players who are either newcomers to the franchise and are curious or nostalgic former fans, perhaps those who never bought an Xbox One and switched to either Playstation or PC, who will now take the opportunity to revisit the franchise.
Xbox 360 Era Halo Games are coming to PC at last on the MCC –
Another important thing to note is that the release of MCC on PC will mark the first time that Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and Halo 4 will be released officially on the PC. In fact, a mainline Halo game hasn’t been released on PC since Halo 2 Vista in the mid 2000s, so this announcement is a big leap forward for Halo in the PC community. With the inclusion of the full classic multiplayer systems for all the Halo games, as well as Firefight, Spartan Ops, Forge, Theater, and not to mention the Campaigns for every classic Halo game, MCC in its current state is quite an impressive game in terms of content.
However, there are some technical conditions to this release regardless of what version of MCC you have – for console users, Reach’s Campaign and Firefight are premium DLC, whilst the multiplayer and forge are available for free. For PC users, each game in the MCC will release separately in chronological order – that is, starting with Reach, then CE, then 2, and so on. 343 industries have decided to release MCC on PC in this way to ensure that there are as few issues as possible with the release and to mitigate any immediate problems. Whilst this may frustrate some PC users who really want to play Halo 2 Anniversary or Halo 3 on PC, this is a good sign that 343 industries are have learned from the mistakes of the original release of MCC in 2014.
More NEW Content for the MCC is Coming
To get involved in what is essentially the Beta for Halo MCC (starting with Halo: Reach) on PC, and the concurrent Beta for Halo: Reach on the console version of MCC, it is possible to sign up to the Halo Insider program via the Halo Waypoint site.
The PC release and the inclusion of Reach are not the only pieces of good news, however. 343 industries also confirmed in the same announcement that the long-awaited Custom Games Browser is also coming to MCC. This will allow players to search for live Custom Games and join them as they would a Social Matchmaking game. This makes it much easier for players to set up their own Custom Games with enough players to test a forge map, try out a wacky game mode, or just host their own matches on the classic maps or modes they love that don’t pop up as often in Matchmaking. This is already a feature of Halo 5: Guardians and it was perhaps the best thing added to the game since Jorge’s Chaingun, and it was able to give the game a dignified send off as its impressively long post-release life came to an end at last.
However, as bombastic and exciting as all this glamorous news is, let us not forget that this isn’t even the full extent of the work that 343 industries is doing on the Master Chief Collection. In fact, months before this update dropped, a previous update to MCC that added new Skulls to Halo: CE also came with a promise that more content is being created for the classic Halo games, particularly new game modifiers in the form of either Skulls from later Halo titles being created for their classic predecessors, or even brand new Skulls that are being developed and tested by 343 industries behind the scenes. Factor in the Halo: Reach release, and the fact that Halo is coming to PC, and this opens up some exciting new opportunities, particularly with the idea of Custom Skulls, an idea that several fans have put forward as a possible means 343 industries could use to bringing modding to MCC on PC. Speaking of which…
Modding Halo MCC on PC Will be Possible – But Not on Release
Although not every fan would necessarily ask for it as a feature, the idea of including modding capability for Halo: MCC on PC has been thrown around. For one, we know that modding Halo on PC is hardly a new idea – mods have been created for Halo: CE (via the official Halo: Custom Edition), Halo 2 Vista (but only just) and even Halo 5: Forge for PC, and we have already covered a popular new mod that was recently released for Halo: CE on Sacred Icon before – known as Halo: SPV3, this incredible mod is a full conversion that adds features from many other games to the original Halo and expands the weapon sandbox, levels and enemy variety. Could this kind of content become available for all the games included in the MCC for PC in the future? Could we see a new renaissance of the Classic Halo portfolio thanks to the ability of the community to continuously create new content?
Given that games like Skyrim or Star Wars Battlefront II, both games that have been available for a considerable number of years, still have a massive playerbase thanks to the release of new mods, it could well be possible that the Halo community, which has suffered more than a few distinct schisms and crises since 343 industries took over the series, may finally come together once again in the way that the original release of the MCC back in 2014 was intended to.
Here’s a few hints of what to expect from this site in 2019:
Big Finish Reviews
With more and more Big Finish audios being announced every week, it can be hard to keep up – and reviewers try their best to cover as much as possible on a regular basis without bankrupting themselves in the process. Nonetheless, Big Finish’s extensive back-catalogue of Doctor Who audios that were released monthly from late 1999, there’s plenty that can be picked up cheap on the Big Finish website.
This means plenty to review, and the Best of Big Finish series will continue in 2019 with more audio reviews, some branching out into the spinoff series like I, Davros and New Series sets like Classic Doctors, New Monsters.
Doctor Who Reviews
Starting with a review of the New Year’s Special, for now titled Resolution (hopefully short for Resolution of the Daleks) we will be delving back into reviews of Series 11, starting with an overview of the series discussing what it did right and how the production team could build on it to make Series 12 even better.
We will be ranking the episodes in Series 11 and also ruminating on what changes we could see in Series 12 and the future of Doctor Who in general. Although there will be no Doctor Who series in 2019, expect a variety of Doctor Who content surrounding the show, including a review of the newly animated The Macra Terror, a Second Doctor story that has been missing for decades.
Asylum of the Daleks Diorama
In celebration of the 55th Anniversary of the second serial of Doctor Who and the first episode of the show to feature the Daleks, a serial aptly titled The Daleks, Sacred Icon will be showcasing a diorama of custom-made Dalek Asylum inmates. As a melting pot of all different Daleks throughout their history, the Asylum brings together Dalek designs from all different eras of Doctor Who and is a perfect celebration of the iconic monsters.
The first episode of The Daleks, titled ‘The Dead Planet’, involves the Doctor, his granddaughter Susan, and her teachers Ian and Barbara landing on Skaro and encountering the show’s first alien menace – the Daleks. The first episode ends with the infamous cliffhanger involving and unknown threat menacing Barbara and she wanders around the empty city, and ends with her chilling scream and the thing reaches out to her. As such, the actual Daleks themselves are not shown until the next episode, ‘The Survivors’, which aired on the 28th of December 1963.
More Halo Content
Although we do not yet know the release date for Halo: Infinite, it seems certain that the game will release in late 2019 or early 2020. 343 Industries will be releasing teaser material soon and so expect discussion posts about these, as well as reviews of any trailers or preview material.
Also coming in 2019 on Sacred Icon will be more pieces to do with the Master Chief Collection, including reviews of the new updates and how the multiplayer has changed by 2019.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Review
As a follow up to Star Trek – First Impressions of Deep Space 9, we will be reviewing the highlights of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine up until and including Season 5, as well as more Star Trek related content. Expect reviews relating to Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager, as well as a possible review of a ‘classic’ Star Trek game called Star Trek: Shattered Universe.
And finally…
The Picard TV Show?
Another potential release for 2019 is the Picard TV show, set to star Patrick Stewart and continue the story of Jean-Luc Picard in the Prime Star Trek timeline, following the events of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Nemesis. Star Trek fans hope that the iconic captain will be back on our screens in 2019.
If the show does release next year, then expect an episode-by-episode review from Sacred Icon. For more content, check out more from Sacred Icon:
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