Back on TV this weekend: Doctor Who, The Venture Brothers special

Just a reminder that Doctor Who returns this Saturday, with a look at a classic time travel trope in ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’. This start to the second half of the season is followed by the last ‘Doctor Who: Best of’ show: ‘Best of the Companions’. Check out this exclusive sneak peek of the new episode, or, if you’re not caught up on Series 6 yet, BBC America will be doing a marathon of the first half of the series before the new episode at 9 PM.

Also, in news that may only be exciting to Dunc and myself, The Venture Brothers returns on midnight on Sunday, August 28 with a special mockumentary on Hank’s band: From the Ladle to the Grave: The Shallow Gravy Story. The new 15-minute episode follows a VB marathon starting at 9:30 on [adult swim]. Crave more gravy? Get more info on Shallow Gravy EP from Amazon and iTunes. Go Team Venture!

The fandom minute: L/M on Etsy, Star Wars car culture, 70’s school stuff, Palpy’s plummet, and cake!

Luke/Mara wedding cake topper by Hildoom @ EtsyThere really is something for everyone on Etsy. I’m prepping a few posts for next week, and I ran across a Luke and Mara Wedding cake topper. (What a post-ROTJ EU pairing has to do with The Clone Wars I have no idea.) The seller, Hildoom, also has a Yoda Birthday Cake topper for sale.

Cars. Jalopnik is on something of a streak, exploring the hot rod culture of Star Wars and likening the ABT Audi R8 V10 to something that “Anakin’s coke dealer” would drive.

Back to school. StarWars.com takes a look back at the 70’s with retro class cear from Helix.

Lists. Palpatine makes #1 on Sci-Fi Squad’s top ten sci-fi deaths.

Cakes. A neat Millenium Falcon by Da Bombe Desserts.

If only… io9 suggests swapping the writing staffs of The Clone Wars and the The Venture Brothers, which may be the only way to get me to cheerfully watch the former.

Video Monday

Triumph of the Empire, an Imperial propaganda film entirely in LEGO. Inspired, obviously, by Triumph of the Will (which should be no stranger to well-studied fans,) when I first watched this I thought it was from the latest LEGO game, but apparently not. Amazing.

Speaking of LEGO… The Han Solo Affair. This one is done for LFL/LEGO – the company has also done Monty Python and Spiderman films.

Three in the Afternoon is a fanfilm about dorks with lightsabers. That doesn’t suck. (Trust me: Most of them do.)

There are a couple of Star Wars references in Weird Al’s latest video, ‘White and Nerdy.’ Are you shocked? I’m shocked.

More!
The Mother of All Movie Trailers. Edward Norton!
Dancing Jango
Stephen Colbert and Buffy team up. Why? BEARS!
Henchmen Strike Back! Why aren’t you watching The Venture Brothers?

Random Secret Cracktastic Bonus Video: Stephen Colbert’s ‘Charlene (I’m right behind you)’