Never Not A Nerd

If someone asked me to name someone who personified “delicate looking killing machine” or to name a woman who, based on her work, could easily beat down most men I would have to say Summer Glau.  She doesn’t look like much, but has had luck, and in the eyes of many nerds, most of her success playing strong female roles.

Her first ‘major’ role was in the way too short-lived show Firefly as River Tam, a supporting character that could easily defeat over 20 men in a single fight without being hurt.  She also played River Tam in the movie Serenity, the plot of which was largely based around her character.  She then went on to play Cameron Phillips, a Terminator sent back in time to protect John Connor, in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.  Her latest ‘notable nerd role’ was a 3-episode stint on Joss Whedon’s  recently canceled Dollhouse.

Fight scene from Serenity after the cut.

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Wow, we haven’t done a People We Admire since Halloween?  Well, no worries, I’m here to fix that.

David Tennant is the current, soon to be former, Doctor Who.  He is the tenth actor to take on the role, and for a lot of people he will be the most memorable.  Tennant brought a spectacular energy and eccentricity to the character.  In his brown or blue suits coated by a long trench coat, Tennant made the character his own, as his predecessors have, but used a personality that made it thrilling to watch him solve mysteries and crises throughout time and space.  I felt it would be nice to take a look at this talented actor, as this Saturday his final portrayal of Doctor Who will air on BBC with Doctor Who: The End of Time Part Two.

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Fans of zombie movies will know this man well. While his 1968 film Night of the Living Dead, which he wrote and directed, wasn’t the first zombie film ever made it is recognized as the film that gave zombies their piece of pop-culture.  He followed it up with Dawn of the Dead, the film many consider to be his masterpiece.  Since then he has made Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, and Survival of the Dead (as far as his zombie movies go). Survival of the Dead has recently played at some film festivals and will most likely be released to the public one way or another in the coming months.

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For horror icons, not too many are as well known as Freddy Krueger.  Much of that is thanks to Robert Englund, the actor who has portrayed Krueger in every movie of the Nightmare on Elm Street saga, before the remake.  Englund is the type of actor who can manage an incredibly creepy demeanor and threatening persona.  Besides A Nightmare on Elm Street, Englund is also known for having been in the original V miniseries.  Beyond that, we don’t really need to know much else because it’s Robert Englund.  This man is just too awesome for words.

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The past couple of weeks I’ve let myself slide with the People We Admire feature. Today I am attempting to redeem myself with a double dose of female scientist…to admire. Both of these women have been dead for over 50 years, but that doesn’t mean you can’t admire them.  People still admire Jesus.

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This week I felt it would be nice to take a look at a comedian that manages to experiment with his trade in a way that doesn’t make him look like a horrible Las Vegas-based hack.  Demetri Martin has only just begun to have his taste of celebrity and yet he is already producing a great many things that prove incredibly funny.  He is the star of Important Things with Demetri Martin, where he has been able to show off his talents for comedy in a number of different formats.  However, he’s also managed to show off talents beyond his guitar work and humorously ridiculous drawings.

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This week’s feature is on one giant nerd/actor: Sam Witwer. Witwer is a young actor whose credentials are out of every nerd’s wet dream. Though he is mostly known for playing Doomsday in this past season of Smallville, Witwer has been in many of sci-fi’s big name franchises. He was the voice and design for Starkiller in Lucasarts’ The Force Unleashed and played the role of Crashdown in Battlestar Galactica. When asked by the media why he enjoys working in the science fiction/fantasy genre, he responds by proclaiming himself a geek for this kind of stuff.

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For the second week in a row we have a man who has involvement with a project releasing October 13th.  Nolan North is the voice of Nathan Drake in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, a video game that comes out exclusively on the PS3 October 13th. North has been doing voices in video games and cartoons since 1999, and his resume is quite long.  His breakout year was 2007 when he voiced Raphael in the TMNT movie, voiced Desmond Miles in Assassin’s Creed, and starred as Drake in Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.  His two other starring roles have been as the Prince in last year’s Prince of Persia and as Jason Fleming in Shadow Complex, the Xbox Live exclusive game released yesterday(expect a review soon).  I’m sure we’ll hear him voicing many other characters in video games to come, as now he is seen as one of the bigger names in video game voice acting.  Video of North as Drake and talking about the game and his career under the cut.

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Tim Schafer has been in the video game business for a while now.  He started as a play-tester at LucasArts and then went on to co-write and program the point -and-click adventure game The Secret of Monkey Island, which was released way back in 1990.  He also worked on the sequel to Monkey Island, a sequel to Maniac Mansion, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango before leaving LucasArts in 2000 to form his own company.

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Ahh, Ms. Blair Butler, proof that good things do come out of the Midwest(I’m joking Midwestern people).  Blair has done and is involved with many things that nerds everywhere should be envious of.  She was head writer for G4′s video game show X-Play, she has appeared on Comedy Central’s Premium Blend, and is currently the host of G4′s web show Fresh Ink Online.  How can you not admire a woman who is really into comic books and video games and is funny?

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