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Lurking Musings

~ Musings of a newly published writer

Lurking Musings

Tag Archives: Geek Quotient

The GQ of Hawaii Five – O

13 Sunday Jan 2013

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Musings

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Angel, Battlestar Galactica, Daniel Dae Kim, Downton Abbey, Geek Quotient, Grace Park, Hawaii Five-O, Heroes, Lost, Masi Oka, Spiderman 2, Terry O'Quinn, TV, X-Men


A few months back I did a post on Downton Abbey and analysed its ‘Geek Quotient’, that being defined as the number of characters played by actors who have starred in films or shows which have some form of ‘geek cred’, specifically something with overt sci fi, fantasy or supernatural elements. I said this may be a regular feature and so here is the second in the series… the newly regenerated Hawaii Five-O series which is currently in its third series.

Hawaii Five O – a lot more buffed and wet than Downton Abbey

So, as for Downton, I looked at the IMDb cast listing for the series and counted up the total number of cast members (77 at the time of writing). Then I counted up the number of those who have starred in fantasy or sci fi shows and divide this number by the total cast to get a number between 0 and 1 which indicates how geek heavy the cast is. By my reckoning, there are 45 cast members who have geek credentials making the GQ of Hawaii Five-O (2010 version) 0.584. This is lower than Downton Abbey’s 0.633.

Masi Oka: For some reason not able to time travel in this

Now, the thing about Hawaii Five O is you have several obvious big hitters in the line up. While neither of the two male leads have any Geek cred in their filmographies, you have three huge hitting Asian geek actors in the form of Battlestar Galactica’s Grace Park, Angel’s Daniel Day Kim and Heroes’ Masi Oka. Daniel Dae Kim has also put in time on shows like Lost and the TV show version of Avatar: The Last Airbender as well as putting in an appearance in Spiderman 2.

And Lost is fairly important here as many of the cast have had a role in that at some level, including Terry O’Quinn who is recognisable as having had a fairly major role in it. Lost did cause me a little concern because it is difficult to decide if it qualifies as ‘Fantasy or Sci Fi’. I am opting here for the ‘Lost is Sci Fi/Fantasy’ theory but, to be honest, I do not think it makes that much difference as most of the actors who were in Lost also have another Geek credit to their name.

Reviewing the cast list it seems as if the  main reason Hawaii Five-O scores less than

Terry O’Quinn and his Teddy

Downton Abbey is because of the much longer cast listing on IMDb. There are actually many on the list with Geek credits, including many small voice roles in superhero animations and bit parts in film like the X-Men franchise and various Asian cinema movies. However, there are also many more who seem to have this as their only acting credit or who have never done a geek thing before which is, I suspect, the real reason for the lower score.

Overall, it is interesting to see the difference between Hawaii Five-O and Downton Abbey in the type of actors used. Obviously, just as Downton makes use of many traditional english actors, Hawaii Five-O also uses local talent and this changes the sort of things they are involved in. Instead of Doctor Who and Harry Potter you have American TV shows and Asian cinema and one actor whose main claim to fame before becoming an actor was being a sumo wrestler.

The GQ of Downton Abbey

28 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Film, Musings, TV

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Clash of the Titans, Doctor Who, Downton Abbey, Father Octavian, Game of Thrones, Geek Quotient, Hugh Bonneville, Iain Glen, Jessica Brown Findlay, Maggie Smith, Misfits, Penelope Wilton, Red Dwarf, Robert Bathurst, Ser Jorah Mormont, Shaun of the Dead


This is something I think may well become a regular feature of this blog, mainly because it seems to be something I do naturally whenever I watch something on TV. The basics are simple – take a non geek TV show or film and analyse the proportion of the cast who happen to have been involved in something else with geek credentials.

I have decided to name this concept the Geek Quotient. In fact, in the tradition of Mathematicians the world over, I would propose that it be dubbed the Lascelles Geek Quotient because my ego needs feeding. You can shorten it to LGQ if you like, or even GQ but with that option you risk both being confused with a popular fashion magazine and being glowered at by my ego.

The equation is rather simple:

Divide the number of actors in the cast who have been in geeky related shows by the total number of cast members.

So, why have I chosen Downton Abbey for the debut of this exciting new concept in geek mathematics? Well, I am of the opinion that this show will likely score high based on a rather cursory glance at the cast list.

For those who don’t know, Downton Abbey is an ITV period drama set in Yorkshire in a period (currently) between the sinking of the Titanic and the advent of the 1920s. It follows the inhabitants of the eponynmous stately home, both the noble family that owns it and their many servants, as they live through such horrific historical events as the first world war and the appearance of the telephone. As is normal for such period dramas, the cast is replete with quality British actors of the type who also often get roles in sci fi and fantasy both in the UK and Hollywood. Some are even rather better known for their geek roles than their involvement in this show…

Maggie Smith as Thetis in Clash of the Titans

Now, my calculation of Downton’s GQ is 0.633 based on examining the 49 cast members listed on ImdB and determining that 31 of them have a link to some geek TV show or film. This is assuming that ‘Geek TV show or film’ is defined as something with overt supernatural or science fiction elements. Pirates of the Carribean counts, for example, whereas Hornblower (which many of the cast do have roles in too) does not. This is not a surprising result given that the cast includes Maggie Smith (with credits as far back as the original Clash of Titans films and, of course, her recent geek cred from the Harry Potter films), Iain Glen (who is notable as Ser Jorah Mormont in Game of Thrones as well as Father Octavian in Doctor Who) and Penelope Wilton (excellent as Prime Minister Harriet Jones  in Doctor Who, not to mention Shaun’s mum in Shaun of the Dead) but also has

The beard makes him completely unrecognisable…

a number of people who have done one off guest appearances on various shows. For example, Jessica Brown Findlay, who plays the youngest daughter, was in one episode of Misfits and Hugh Bonneville, who plays Earl Grantham, was almost unrecognisable behind a massive beard as a pirate in a recent episode of Doctor Who. Out of all of these, many of which I spotted without recourse to the internet, one truly took me by surprise. For much of the series, I looked at the actor who played Sir Anthony Strallen (Robert Bathurst) and tried to work out where I had seen him before. Turns out he actually played the role of Todhunter in Red Dwarf as well as Prince Henry in the original series of Blackadder…

Todhunter

Sir Anthony Strallen

So, there you have it. Do you think I have the calculation of this correct? Do you know of any other films or TV shows which might beat this score? Feel free to comment below…

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