It's Called Entertainment: Fer's Forum

V - Season 2

2011-11-21T14:33:00.005-05:00

Spoiler Level: High

I have to admit, I was very impressed with Season 2 of V. (Once I finally got to see it, that is.) Oh sure, I'm very disappointed that the "Let V no longer stand for Visitor; let it stand for victory" attitude was lost again after only one episode (and could there be any bigger perversion of the meaning of "V" than Tyler spray-painting a red V as a pro-Visitor message?), but in this season the show stopped trying to imitate the original and found its own voice, and as a result it was a much better show. And since it did have its own voice, I found myself being more content with what it was than being frustrated with what it wasn't.

For starters, we learned the real reason for them coming to Earth-- and it's got nothing to do with wanting to pillage the Earth for our resources. It's not to use the human race as food, but as breeding stock. Apparently they've been stealing DNA from different races, harvesting the best of every race in the universe so they become the genetically superior beings. And the human race is next on their list.

The way they go about it gets a bit convoluted; apparently Visitors and humans can interbreed with some scientific help. But the survival of the race depends on their queen, who is only fertile during a short period of her life. So they infiltrate a few decades earlier and set up test subjects to be containers of all the best DNA mankind has to offer. Then they show up with the smaller fleet, get into the planet's good graces, and the next Queen-to-be mates with one of the test subjects, thus ensuring new offspring with all the best DNA. Then they bring in their fleet en masse, round up all our women and turn them into baby factories (yes, this show could have been called Visitors Need Women), ensuring that their race continues. I'm a little hazy on how the two points connect, but that's it in a nutshell.

Storytelling wise, this was revealed in a very even pace, much better than the first season. Each episode felt like it was advancing the story, and like we were actually getting answers. We also got to see the resistance movement finally grow, expanding both on their own and then finally hooking up with a world-wide network. Of course, it may have helped that I watched the entire season over two weeks on DVD instead of over ten weeks on TV.

And then there's Jane Badler, returning as Diana. Not the same Diana, of course, but at least the producers of the show had the sense to always dress her in red to hit the proper nostalgia buttons. This Diana is almost a good guy-- she's learned the value in human emotions and the soul, something that her daughter, Anna, doesn't agree with. It makes Diana an interesting character-- she's just as concerned with the survival of their species as Anna is, and her loyalty is definitely with her own species and not humanity, but what Anna sees as humanity's flaws and a risk to their survival, Diana sees as something that can improve their race, making them something greater than they were.

And then there's the finale.

Like most shows these days, V was canceled without enough notice for any kind of wrap-up. But the ending we're given here works for an ending. Not a happy ending in any way, shape or form, but still an ending.

* Diana's plans fail completely as Anna kills her in front of their entire race. Anna wins.
* Ryan's plans to rescue his daughter Amy fail completely as his daughter kills him when he tries to take her away. As far as she's concerned, Anna is her mother, and Ryan isn't fit to be her father. Anna wins.
* Lisa II mates with and then kills Tyler. Anna wins.
* Chad Decker's role in the Fifth Column is exposed and he's taken into custody by the Visitors. Anna wins.
* Amy helps Anna spread Bliss to humanity, enslaving the entire human race to the Visitors as the breeding ships move in. Anna wins.
* The only hope left at all is Project Ares, a secret military organization run by the world's governments hidden literally underground so they escaped the Bliss (and lead by none other than Mark Singer).

What a great set-up for Season 3. At last, everything is out in the open, and Project Ares would have had to fight a war against the Visitors to save their own people who wouldn't even want to be saved. As closure goes, this is The Empire Strikes Back-- a series of down endings, ultimately ending in defeat but with a hope for the future. Only in this case there will be no third act. And who knows, maybe it wouldn't have worked, but there is closure here for nearly all the characters, and the potential for what could have come next is fantastic.

I've said before that if they did any V novels or other media tie-ins with this show I'd give them a pass, but I have to go back on that now. There's potential here for a great story, either in prose or comics. I don't believe we'll actually get it, but if it happens, I'll check it out. Otherwise, for me the ending of this story is what we got on screen-- the Visitors triumphant, with Erica Evans and Project Ares still out there fighting the good fight to save humanity.

Robotech Ratios [UPDATED]

2011-10-20T18:02:00.006-04:00

The new Robotech Complete Series box set is out, and I have three questions before I commit to buying all of Robotech again. I'm posting this because my friend and fellow Robotech fanatic Lisa has offered to help answer them for me!

For those who don't know, Robotech was remastered several years ago. On the plus side, this remastering corrected a problem the video releases has always had: the image ratio was finally fixed. More on this later. On the negative side, they changed all the sound effects, and changed the opening titles. Instead of having one title sequence for all 85 episodes mixing all the generations together, they gave them three separate title sequences focusing only on one generation. I didn't like that; I like the way that showing all three generations made it feel like one big story. I liked the change in sound effects even less. This version was then collected in one giant box set called the Protoculture Edition, which has become a kind of shorthand for referring to this version.

Now the impression I was getting from the convention appearances of the Robotech staff this year is that with this new edition, they were able to recover the original, separated audio tracks, and so were able to restore it the sound to the original versions yet still keep enhance it for 5.1. However the sticker on the box in this picture posted by Harmony Gold from NYCC says it's the Remastered Extended Edition. So do they mean it's been remastered for this edition (as they made it sound at the cons), or is it the same as the previously released Protoculture Edition?

So, here's my questions (and anyone can feel free to chime in and answer):
UPDATED: Lisa's gotten back to me with the answers, so I'm sharing them here in case anyone else cares.

(1) Does it have the original, multi-generational opening and closing title sequences?

Original titles

Remastered Titles
VERDICT: No. This edition has the Remastered, single-generation openings and closings.

(2) Does it have the original sound effects?
Here's a brief comparison from Episode 2, "Countdown"

VERDICT: No. This edition has the Remastered sound effects.

(3) Is the image in the correct ratio?
This is a tough one to explain. Some time after 1985 but before the Remastered Extended Edition, the show was tweaked. Some of the background music was altered for different scenes. However, something went wrong on the video side. The image was now zoomed in too close. It's still 4x3 (or 1.33:1), like a regular television image; it's just that the image has now been blown up, and parts are no longer able to be seen. I've put together a few examples below. Click on them to make 'em bigger.

VERDICT: Yes. This edition has the correct ratios (just like the Remastered Edition)

So all in all, this is the same as the Protoculture edition. It may be a Re-Remastered Protoculture Edition with some of the music restored to what it originally was in 1985, but it still has the same good points of having the correct ratio and added footage, and the same bad points of the changed sounds and openings. But on the plus side, that volume of bonus features sounds SWEET.

Thanks to Lisa for doing all the detective work to try to appease this cranky old fanboy!!

CBLDF Presents Liberty Annual 2011

2011-10-14T23:56:00.001-04:00

Been feeling the itch to blog again.

I just got done reading this year's Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Presents Liberty Annual 2011. I always tried to make sure I was a member back when we ran Joy's Japanimation, because a lot of the cases where a retailer is being arrested for selling a comic book, it turns out to be a manga book. And these are always cases where the books are sold to adults. So being an anime and manga store, I always felt we were a prime target. I remember putting the CLBDF phone number in our rolodex-- I wrote on the bottom of the card, "Let's hope we never have to use it."

Since leaving the comic-selling industry, I've still made the occasional donation, usually at the urging of Peter David's blog. I bought More Fund Comics when it came out, but somehow never got around to Even More Fund Comics. It's still an important cause-- comic books are always a target because the public still views them as kids stuff, even though kids don't read comics anymore. (Seriously, according to a poll at Comic Book Resources, only 5.19% of comic book readers are under 17. The largest group was 30-40 year-olds. It's part of the reason that the comic book industry is shrinking-- there's been no new generation of readers since the 90's. But I digress.)

So I'll confess by saying I bought this comic because it has a new Grendel story in it by Matt Wagner. And yeah, it always feels good to know that I'm helping the CBLDF at the same time.

What I didn't expect was for it to possibly be one of the best anthologies I've ever read.

Seriously, there's not a bad story in the bunch. And while the main topic is of course about free speech, it covers such a range of related topics from Free Speech to Separation of Church and State to the "It Gets Better" campaign that it never gets dull. It actually felt downright inspirational.

For starters, I was pleasantly surprised to learn in Bob Shreck's introduction that he's bi too. Bob Shreck was art director for Comico, which means I always saw his name in the Robotech and Grendel comics back in the 80's, and from there he moved to Dark Horse (more Grendel for me) and Oni Comics (where I read various Kevin Smith comics). So his name is one that has always kept showing up in my comic reading history and that I've always associated with quality books. So as a bi guy, it makes me very happy that he's willing to casually out himself as part of this project. Hence the focus on the "It Gets Better" stories.

Extra points has to go to Carla Speed McNeil's piece "Dunce," which ties it all together very strongly, where she talks about the frustrations she's run into even trying to talk about her son who has Down's Syndrome, or Trisomy 21 as is apparently the new PC thing to call it. The problem is that terms used to describe people with learning problems immediately get turned into insults, so how can you talk about the problem when the words that weren't intended to be offensive now are? To me this is the comic that ties the entire book together, because it's shows how people being offended by words that have been twisted to bullying lead to both outside and self-censorship.

Another gem is J. Michael Straczynski & Kevin Sacco's "Separation of Church And State - The Best Friend the Church Ever Had!" where he explains that because the Founding Fathers specifically stated in the treaty of Tripoli that "the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion," it allowed for all denominations of Christianity to grow without the fears of conflict with each other such as the whole Catholic vs Protestant mess. We always hear about how Separation of Church and State has allowed all religions to practice here, but it never occurred to me that it also saved us from the infighting that Christianity has faced in the past in the UK. This piece should be required reading in schools.

I could go on and on, but really, you should just buy this comic and read it. Heck, I'd buy this as a monthly book. I'll certainly be buying every CBLDF Liberty Annual from now on, and that'll help give me that reminder to donate to the cause as well.

And incidentally, the CBLDF is currently handling a case where a guy entering Canada brought a hentai manga comic with him, and was arrested at customs and is now facing a prison term of up to one year. I can't imagine being jailed just because someone objected to what you were reading. The CBLDF is paying for his defense and they could use help. You can make a donation at cbldf.org. It doesn't matter how small, every bit helps.

Green Lantern

2011-07-18T13:23:00.001-04:00

Spoiler Level: Medium

Sorry I've been away so long. I burned out on blogging and it's been a busy summer. But I didn't want any more time to go by without posting my real review of Green Lantern, especially since I went to so much trouble to do my April Fools fake review.

I loved it.

The movie's been completely trashed by fans, and I just really don't get why. This is everything I wanted a Green Lantern movie to be, and I've wanted a Green Lantern movie for a long time.

I was worried that the power rings would only be used like laser guns. Nope-- the constructs are here, and lots of 'em, and they look great.

Oa is absolutely breathtaking. I was worried that with the crowds of CGI Lanterns that they would all look too much alike; I needn't have worried. Lots of great alien Lanterns stood out, including ones I didn't expect to see, like Chaselon and Olapet.

The story worked great. There's lots of outer space action, balanced out with a very human Hal Jordan. (The scene where Carol meets him in costume for the first time is priceless.) Some people have complained how the action cuts back and forth between Earth and Oa, but that didn't bother me at all. I liked the way Sinestro was handled a lot, and I hope with all the energies of a Blue Lantern that there will still be a sequel so we can see the development of the Sinestro Corps. Hector Hammond's new origin works great with the layout of the movie, and his hyper-intelligence is still alien based, so that's close enough for me. He's the perfect embodiment of Hector Hammond's character, getting creepier and more disturbing as his powers increase and his body decreases.

Just to be fair, there are three things I didn't like about it:

1. The ending of Hal's first battle with Hector Hammond was confusing; I'm still not exactly sure what happened there.

2. Hal sees the helicopter is crashing, runs off to become Green Lantern, and then the helicopter spends a good minute or two crashing and sliding around before he shows up. What happened? Did he have to recharge the ring first again?

3. While on Oa, Hal recites some information the ring downloads into his brain about Tomar Re's Sector, and how it contains multiple galaxies, which makes perfect sense if you're dividing the entire universe into 3600 sectors. However, we then see a later scene saying something along the lines of "Sector 1234: The Edge of the Milky Way Galaxy." Well that doesn't work at all. If each sector needs to cover multiple galaxies, then shouldn't the Milky Way be completely in sector 2814?

So there! See, I'm not giving the movie a free pass just because I'm a huge Green Lantern fan.

What I am is a very grateful Green Lantern fan. I wanted a live action Green Lantern that was able to use today's special effects to make Green Lantern come to life on the big screen just like the comics, and this movie delivered. From Oa to the Corps to the constructs to Parallax, this movie was everything I wanted to see. I'm disappointed that it's doing so poorly that even if it does get a sequel it's unlikely to get the money it would need to look as good as this one, but at least we got this one.

Dressing Up for the Movies

2011-06-20T07:42:00.000-04:00

I have no idea how the idea of doing this came to me, but once it did it somehow took over.

The important part to know going in to the video is it starts in the middle of me saying "I'd like to purchase a ticket," and the woman in the ticket booth responding "2D or 3D?"

I almost backed out at the last moment, not out of any sense of real fear of embarrassment (after all, a Green Lantern must learn to overcome fear, right?) but more out of a sense of "I'm getting too old for this." I mean come on, I'm 42, I got a kid... isn't this a little juvenile?

And then I thought, Hell yeah. As the Doctor once said, what's the point in being grown up if you can't be childish once in a while? And really, the fact that I am 42 is what makes it work. It wouldn't be nearly as funny if I didn't have that middle-aged gut hanging over the underwear.

Kudos to my daughter for having a sense of humor about it and being willing to film it even though she was embarrassed by her old man (and rightly so), and to the ticket woman for being a good sport.

And yeah, sometimes I do scare myself.

Green Lantern 2-XSteL

2011-06-17T00:36:00.000-04:00

2-XSteL, the smartest toy robot of Sector 2814! In brightest day, In blackest night, no answers shall escape his sight!

Couldn't make the midnight screening of Green Lantern tonight, but I'm excited enough about a real GL movie finally being here that I couldn't resist putting this picture together of my favorite toy joining the Corps. I got the idea a month or so ago when I got the 3D mask with an action figure and stuck it on my 2-XL, and 2-XSteL was born! Note that he's carrying The 8-Track of Oa.

To everyone who was interested in having me continue with the blogging, I just haven't been able to get myself motivated. I think I need (needed?) a break. Hopefully this is the start of me coming back to it. Thanks for your patience!

Any requests?

2011-05-29T05:00:00.001-04:00

I've decided I'm going to scale things back a bit. I've been posting an average of one review a day for the last six months now, and while that's been fun, it's getting to be a bit exhausting reviewing everything I watch. (Plus the laundry keeps backing up. You'd be amazed how cranky people get when they don't have clean underwear. I keep telling them, just turn them inside out, then they're good for five more days, but that doesn't seem to satisfy them.) So I've decided to only dedicate myself to continue the posts I've been having the most fun writing: Doctor Who, K9, Star Trek, movies and books. I'll probably still do the occasional review of other stuff as it strikes me, I'm just not dedicating myself to reviewing every single episode of everything.

That is, of course, unless you want me to.

I'm grateful to each and every one of my nine loyal readers (and yes, I'm counting you too Evan-- Scott Gordon is a second account for one of the other eight, which brings me back to nine), and if there's a specific series I've been reviewing that you've been enjoying reading about, I'd be willing to keep doing that one too. The thing is, when I check my stats, the majority of the hits I get are for this picture:

1,948 hits out of 8,202 hits in May were for this picture.

...so I don't have a clear idea of what people might be enjoying. So if you'd like me to continue with my reviews of Primeval, Transformers, Tiger & Bunny, SGU or Survivors just leave a comment and let me know. I live to serve.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to folding underwear.

AVP-R Aliens vs Predator - Requiem

2011-05-28T10:45:00.000-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

I was totally prepared to not like this movie. It's hard to find anything good said about it on the web (but you know my feelings on that-- "I am fanboy, hear me bitch,") and to be honest I wasn't thrilled with the premise.

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of Aliens and Predators fighting it out, but I don't want it to be on present-day Earth. These are freakin' Aliens with a capital A and alien Predators. I want to see them fighting it out in their natural habitat of outer space. I went along with the contrived concept of a Predator-built Alien Tomb on Earth in the first one because I really wanted to see a bunch of Predators and Aliens have it out, and since that was all I wanted from the movie I enjoyed it enough. My complaint wasn't that it was only rated PG-13 and not violent enough; my complaint was that it wasn't set in space in the future. And so this film comes along, and not only is it still set on modern-day Earth but now in a town and the big deal seems to be that it's now rated R, so it can be much more violent! So I never got around to seeing it when it came out.

But now Predators is out on DVD and I want to see that, and since AVP-R is the only movie I haven't seen from both franchises I figured I'd watch it first.

And you know what? It didn't suck!

Maybe my standards were low. Maybe fandom's standards are too high. Maybe I'm too easily pleased. Maybe it's all of the above.

For starters, I didn't expect it to be a direct sequel to Alien vs. Predator. I didn't expect it to follow up directly on the Predator-Alien we saw hatch at the end of that movie, so I found the fact that it was to be very cool. It also made sense why it would take place in an American town on Earth, since the "Predalien" makes the ship crash and all the face huggers escape. (Although I'm a little hazy on why the drop ship left Saturn and headed back to Earth in the first place.) So again, while I'm not thrilled with the premise of an Aliens movie taking place on modern-day Earth, they way it came about made more sense to me than in the previous film.

When I walked out of the first AVP film, some of my friends were talking about how disappointed they were with it. I said "I just wanted to see some Aliens and Predators fight. I'm happy." In that sense, I'm just as happy with this film, as the one lone Predator who received the ship's distress call has to face off against an infested town full of Aliens, a super Predalien, and the planet's locals (ie, the human stars of the movie). That makes for a cool movie of Aliens and Predators fighting.

On the down side, once that's all established it becomes every other horror movie of some alien menace picking off townsfolk one by one. The only thing it has going for it here is that the menace is Aliens and Predators. Not long into the movie I started playing the Scream game where you figure out who's going to die and who isn't based on horror movie rules.

The other big drawback is the movie is shot so dark that it's really hard to tell what's going on a lot of the time. When you're only going by shadows it becomes hard to tell if the dreadlocks you're seeing belong to the Predator or the Predalien. That frequently got very frustrating.

But those elements notwithstanding, I think I actually enjoyed this one more than the previous movie, since it doesn't take place in a tomb but in a wider environment with Aliens running around everywhere. But then again I always did like Aliens better than Alien, for pretty much the same reason.

I also liked the way it was handled. The locals start to realize they're in over the head and call in the National Guard. The National Guard gets wiped out, and after reviewing their camera footage the military decides the only way to contain the infestation is to nuke the city. So now they have the only three survivors in custody, a Predator weapon, and footage of the Aliens. That's got potential. Will it have any impact on Predators, or will that film ignore this film entirely? Beats me, but I'm glad I watched this one first, just in case.

Primeval - Series 1, Episode 6

2011-05-27T11:44:00.000-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

A very cool episode, as the stakes are upped and we get some wonderful timey- wimey goodness. The latest Anomaly incursion is not from the past, but from the future! And the future doesn't look too bright, since it's got giant killer intelligent bat-monkeys.

I question the wisdom of burying the killed soldiers in the past. Why not bring their bodies back through the anomaly and bury them in their own time? The obvious answer is because this way they've created the encampment they found, giving us a cool time loop. Which I have to confess is cool, but it nags at me that it has to defy common sense to happen. It would make more sense if the Anomaly closed, the team had to spend a few weeks or months or years (or even just days) in the past so they would have to bury their dead, then the Anomaly to get home opens up so they jump at the chance to get through it and abandon their equipment.

I'm also curious how the few baby bat-monkeys escaping into the past has affected the timeline so much that Claudia is no longer there. I'm assuming it's a consequence of something larger having happened to the timeline, which we'll find out about in the next episode. (Or I'll find out about, anyway, since I'm years behind on the show. You probably already know.) It's interesting that Claudia started seeing her reflection as an Anomaly before the timeline was changed. Maybe the timeline change was meant to happen?

And speaking of Claudia, I rather liked the character development this episode. As I said in my last Primeval review, at most Helen may have been declared dead thus making Nick single, and at the very least Nick & Helen can definitely be considered to be separated at this point, so I have no real issue with Nick & Claudia falling in love. The look Nick shoots Helen after Claudia kisses him goodbye is great. "See? I've moved on. You want to leave me for eight years, I'm not going to sit around pining for you forever." And then Helen's got to be all bitchy and throw out that she & Stephen had an affair before she left.

Which should make me think less of Stephen, but the poor guy's so bland that all I can think is that it finally gives his character a little depth. He's Nick's loyal right-hand man and the object of Abby's affections, but that's been pretty much it. Now his loyalty makes a bit more sense; it could have been out of guilt. His explanation that telling Nick what happened after she disappeared just seamed pointless does make sense.

So all in all, a great debut season. Looking forward to finding out more about the new timeline next episode!

Star Trek: The Next Generation - ''Up the Long Ladder''

2011-05-26T05:00:00.000-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

Melinda Snodgrass wrote good Trek episodes. In this one, the Enterprise investi- gates a distress call from a lost colony, who have adopted a more simple way of life by getting back to basics and farming. When their planet is in danger of being destroyed by solar flares, they refuse to evacuate without their livestock. This episode truly is Pigs In Space!

It turns out the ship carrying them also had another set of colonists, who founded a high-tech colony of clones on a different world. When the Enterprise finds them, they learn that they've cloned themselves so many times that flaws are starting to creep into their DNA, and they're now in danger of extinction.

The big issue is of course that the high-tech colonists steal some of Riker's and Pulaski's DNA so they can make fresh clones for their colony, which of course ticks off Riker and Pulaski. They beam down to the colony's clone chamber and disintegrate the clones being made of themselves. The colonists accuse them of murder, and they defend themselves by saying they have the right to decide what is done with their bodies. It's a pretty blatant parallel for the abortion debate, but it's very superficial as the discussion is never carried any further than those two lines. Since the Starfleet officers are considered the good guys and the colonists were deceptive and therefore the bad guys, it's probably safe to assume that the show was trying to take the pro-choice side of the argument, but since no argument is really made the viewer is left to side with either position that they already agree with, and in that sense the episode really wimps out by not firmly taking a side at all. The argument was made much better in "The Child."

There's also a very minor B-plot where Worf comes down with a childhood Klingon disease, and in gratitude to Pulaski for keeping it quiet from Picard Worf performs a Klingon Tea Ceremony with her. It's a good scene for both characters, another nice character developing moment, and another good example of how Pulaski was starting to become a part of the Enterprise family.

Okay, time for the geeking-out observations.

The colony ship Mariposa left Earth in 2123, which fits in nicely with Star Trek: Enterprise, as that was the time period that a lot of Earth colonies were getting started, yet still before the launch of the NX-01 Enterprise. The Mariposa is also a DY-500, which is a nice reference back to the DY-100 from Classic Trek.

The ship also came from the European Hegemony, which was, to quote Picard, "a loose alliance formed at the late end of the twenty-second century. It was the first stirrings of world government." Now this fits in nicely with Trek history, as it puts it after World War III as we saw it in the Star Trek: First Contact movie, and fits in fairly well with Trip's assertion to T'Pol that humanity has pulled together over the last 50 years. (Or did he say 100? That would work better, but I can't remember which episode he said it in.) However if you want to try and fit this in with the real world, it means that the European Union will not lead to a world government, but will more likely be broken up due to World War III. So spend those euros while you still can!

Survivors - ''Corn Dolly''

2011-05-25T05:00:00.000-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

Things start to look up when Abby, Jenny & Greg run into Charles Vaughan, Loraine & Mick. Charles Vaughan has been accomplishing what Abby wanted to do-- he's started a farm and created a place where survivors can gather and try to work together. And unlike Wormly and the previous people she's met, Charles is actually a nice guy, and is keeping people together out of mutual need and help rather than out of fear. It's a much more upbeat and optimistic outlook.

Charles has also been able to gather some numbers as best he can; it seems that only 1 in every 5,000 people survived. He has no record of any two people from the same family surviving, or any two people who knew each other surviving, or any two people who even knew of each other surviving. It really puts just how devastating the plague was into perspective.

Sadly, when the group returns to Charles's farm they learn that nearly everyone is dying from food poisoning. They had recently caught fish from a local river; apparently, it's become contaminated. It's another example of how day-to-day life becomes much more hazardous for anyone who's survived the plague. Jenny is considering staying, and Greg, who's becoming very romantically attached to Jenny, is considering staying with her. Abby of course won't stop traveling until she finds out what's happened to her son.

So of course it has to be too good to be true. Charles's fatal flaw is that he's so hung up on the future if the species that he fails to see people as people anymore. They're a resource; x number of people needed to keep the farm going, y number of people needed to start new towns and new communities. He can't even bring himself to be upset about the deaths of the people on his farm; he's more upset that this means having to start over again.

And the real deal breaker is that he feels if the human race is to survive, it's imperative that as many babies be born as possible. So he's taken it on himself to impregnate as many women as possible. Apparently without telling them about each other. And telling them all he loves them. And then he starts moving in on Abby.

The worst part is, when it comes to the need for a new generation to be born, he's not really wrong; it's pointed out that with no two people in the same family having survived, no infants could have survived, so we've probably already lost an entire generation. And with such a limited gene pool remaining, there is going to need to be a lot of crossbreeding; most likely, traditional standards of monogamy are going to need to be thrown out the window.

But that doesn't mean you treat women like cattle. Just because a woman can have a child doesn't mean she's obligated to become a baby factory, and quite frankly if the human race has fallen so low that that's the only way for the us to survive, then maybe our time has already ended.

Doctor Who - ''The Rebel Flesh,'' Part 1

2011-05-24T05:00:00.021-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

I feel like I've only seen half of the episode and therefore can't fairly review it, which is interesting because that doesn't normally happen to me with the Doctor Who two-parters. More on that later.

The TARDIS arrives on Earth in the future, at a factory that makes dopplegangers out of synthetic flesh. Since the synthetic flesh is made from acid, it's dangerous to work with and the staff all use "Gangers" of themselves to do the job. But once a solar storm hits the factory, the Gangers come to life on their own. They're confused and frightened, and the original people they're based on are just as frightened of them. The Doctor recognizes them to be real people in their own right, duplicates of the originals right down to every last memory but just as deserving of life as their originals. And most of the originals, while a bit uncomfortable with this, are open to exploring what to do about it until their leader kills her Ganger, leading to the drawing of battlelines. Oh, and due to the Doctor's trying to figure out just what the synthetic flesh was, a batch of it has now duplicated itself on the Doctor. Cue the "time-vortex scream" sound and roll credits.

Now normally at this point I feel like I've been given a lot of questions and it makes me want to speculate. But in this case, I kind of feel like things progressed along inevitable lines, so while I'm entertained, I don't really have a lot of curiosity on where the story is going to go. Not so much predictable as just... inevitable.

The Doctor's trying to reconcile the Gangers and their originals together was great; it's so typically optimistic of him. Now in the old classic Who days the duplicates probably would have automatically been out to kill their originals. When one of the originals expressed this concern, the Doctor asks him, "Are you prone to violence?" "No," he replies. "Then what makes you think your Ganger would be?" And it's a great point. And it made me think what I'd do in that situation. I think I'd actually like to sit down and have a talk with myself! Would it be enlightening? Would it be annoying? Would it be like finding a long-lost twin, or would getting to see all the little imperfections that my mind's eye leaves out be too disturbing? But no one seems to really look at this way; the Doctor is more concerned about preserving new life, and the originals are more creeped out by having duplicates of themselves. It's never stated outright, but it's obvious they feel threatened that they will lose their individuality to what they consider nothing more than a technological glitch.

So the leader turning on her Ganger and killing her ("That is so like me," she says before she dies) feels inevitable; the complete breakdown of trust between the two sides becomes inevitable; and even the Ganger of the Doctor showing up at the end felt inevitable. I feel like the second half's outcome is going to be inevitable as well-- both sides fighting each other until everyone is lost, a tragedy tale of humanity's inability to accept itself.

Hopefully I'm wrong; it would be nice to be surprised. And that's why I feel like it's unfair to review this story at this point. The intention may very well be to make me feel like it's inevitable to deliberately set up for a surprise at the end. I won't know until I see it.

Speaking of which, I'll have to wait an extra week to see it, since BBC America is skipping Doctor Who next week because it's Memorial Day weekend. Which really bugs me, because (a) it airs on Saturday and Memorial Day isn't until Monday; do that many people really travel that far for their backyard barbecues? And (b) we live in the age of Tivo. Okay, I suppose it might impact actual live ratings but it's not like it's going to make it harder for anyone to catch it. And (c), by losing the same-day airing (especially in the middle of a two-parter!) they're going to lose more people to illegal downloads. At least we'll only be behind the UK for two episodes and not for eight due to the show taking a summer break this year, but for some people that one-week delay is just too much They've proven that same-day airings boosts the ratings, so I presume it also cuts down on downloading; I guess this will reinforce that one way or the other. A nice compromise would be to offer the legal download on iTunes and Amazon at the same time as it airs in the UK, and then just air the episode a week later on BBC America, but I sincerely doubt they'll do that.

And lastly, I do rather like the feel of the story, as it feels very much like a classic series story, and it being shot in a castle helps that. I also like Rory getting a moment to shine with Jenny; someone's appreciating him from the get go, and it's obviously boosting his ego. Looking forward to the (perhaps not so inevitable?) conclusion.

K9 - ''Mutant Copper''

2011-05-23T09:02:00.000-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

The Good:

* The story has a very good premise. One of the CCPCs has been implanted with human DNA. The implantation doesn't take well and the CCPC goes rogue, becoming an unlikely ally to K9 and company.

* We get a good look at the future totalitarian England, as it's announced the CCPCs now have the right to enter homes without permission and to search without a warrant, "to make the world a safer place for everyone who isn't guilty," and we actually see citizens protesting.

* The "mutated" CCPC has some amusing dialogue, as he continues to talk in the stereotypical "English Bobby" style and actually has quite a few amusing scenes.

* New character Marcus, who also believes in rebelling against the system. He's likable and adds a nice mix to the Starkey-Jorjie-Darius love triangle; it's even nice to see Starkey and Darius allied in their mutual jealousy of the newcomer's closeness with Jorjie.

* We get some explanations as to what the CCPCs really are and how they work.

The Bad:

* Just as I suspected, the people making this show don't understand the difference between a cyborg and a robot. I'm gathering they think "cybernetic organism" means an artificial organism made out of cybernetics, as opposed to a living organism fused with cybernetics. This mistake wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so crucial to the plot. By infusing a CCPC with human DNA, they really have turned him into an actual cyborg. The real problem with this is when they keep discussing whether or not to remove the human elements and return him to being a cyborg, which kept driving us nuts, because if you remove the human elements then he's no longer a cyborg! And this wasn't just one or two lines, this was all throughout the show. Thorne even refers to K9 as a cyborg at one point. Once I hit on the "artificial organism made out of cybernetics" theory I tried really hard to rewrite my brain to process their use of the word "cyborg" to mean that, but I didn't have much success. So the lack of understanding basic science fiction terms totally undermined what was an otherwise good premise. (It also shows a lack of understanding of the term "mutation," but I won't even get into that.)

* The "mutant" copper's voice is on a ridiculously higher pitch, so I had to strain to understand anything he was saying.

* Marcus's eventual betrayal was way too obvious; halfway through the episode I just thought out of the blue, "this guy's going to turn out to be a traitor." And he was. He didn't do anything obvious to tip the viewer off; it was just the obvious formula. On the plus side, at least he wasn't evil, just more of a hypocrite.

* The biggest sin of all: When trying to decide what to do with him, K9 and crew come to the conclusion that the attempt to fuse human and robot hasn't worked, and they need to make him completely one or the other. Since they can't make him completely human, they opt for returning him back to a completely robotic state. (Which of course they keep referring to as "make him a cyborg again." Arrrrghh!) Then just as Professor Gryffen is ready to start, Thorne shows up at the door. Now that the bad guys are here, everyone starts shouting "We're not going to let you take him and turn him back into a [robot]!" Hello?!? That's exactly what you were about to do!!! There's absolutely no reason given for this. It's this complete and total reversal defying all logic that pushes this episode over the edge. I could overlook the other flaws in the episode (if I tried really hard, and believe me, I did) but this point just sunk it.

The Ugly:

* K9 laughs again.

This one does have a lot going for it, so I really wanted to put this one in the win column, but I just can't. So K9's total to date is 11 wins, 7 losses.

Sadly, K9 is still not available in the US, but Amazon has now started listing import DVDs. While they are region free, these are in PAL format, so you'll need a player that can convert them to NTSC to play them here in America. Oh, and they're out of stock. But hey, it's a start.

Primeval - Series 1, Episode 5

2011-05-22T05:00:00.000-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

Another enjoyable episode, even if it did defy logic a few times.

Connor neglectfully leaves a window open, so Rex escapes. Luckily for him, Rex decides to stay close to him and stows away in his car. It's one of those "Oh, what a bonehead!" moments that you can relate to, which helps you forgive him.

However when the giant Pteranodon then swoops down for him and Stephen yells "Make for the trees!!" but instead Connor makes a straight line down the wide open field, you lose a bit of sympathy and can't really be too sorry for him if he winds up as Dino Chow. But he doesn't.

Similarly, when Claudia slips in the blood which makes the Anurognathus flock chase her, she asks Nick if she has any blood on her. He tells her to take of her shirt, but the majority of the blood is on her pants! And where did all the extra blood stains on the undershirt come from later? It didn't really make a whole lot of sense.

Those nitpicks aside, the story was fun. It's nice to see Connor and Abby growing closer, and Nick is putting himself in an unusual position by falling in love with Claudia while his wife keeps popping back up. (Although I think he mentioned at one point that Helen was declared dead, which technically makes him single again.) For a second I thought we might not see Helen this episode, but she was nice enough to help out Claudia. And the effects of the Pteranodon were especially cool.

All in all, a much more enjoyable hour than SGU's been. ;P

Star Trek: The Next Generation - ''Samaritan Snare''

2011-05-21T05:00:00.013-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

Geordi beams over to a Pakled ship to help them out, which turns out to be a trap to capture people smarter than they are who can improve their technology. Meanwhile, Wesley and Picard take a long shuttle ride together to Starbase 515, where Wesley will be taking more Starfleet Academy exams and Picard will be getting his artificial heart replaced.

My friends and I always loved the Pakleds. "Make it go" is one of those phrases that we never quit saying. It's a shame the Pakleds were only used once, but they're kind of a one-trick pony.

The Picard and Wesley scenes are generally good, with the possible exception of when Wesley confronts Picard on the fact that he doesn't like kids. I guess Riker didn't do a very good job of making sure that Picard projected an image of friendliness. But seeing Picard eventually open up to Wesley and the two of them starting to bond works very well.

Having Pulaski be the specialist who needs to save Picard's life in the end felt a bit forced at the time, but seeing it now (and knowing she would ultimately be the one to finish the operation) it just struck me as another way they were trying to bring her into the family.

Speaking of the Enterprise's extended family, Sonya Gomez got a repeat appearance in this episode, and it was great to have someone else in engineering that we knew while Geordi was off the ship. It's a shame they didn't keep her around.

There's also some great ship shots in this episode, as they use multiple angles of the Pakled ship and the Enterprise. There's also some great shots using the Enterprise viewscreen; having that giant viewscreen that took up the entire front wall really was a great design.

Deanna stands in front of the viewscreen showing Geordi.

And lastly, we have an even more blatant example of The Amazing Transmorphing Shuttle, last seen in "Unnatural Selection." The same footage of the Sakharov with its newer design is used for take-off, but then all the exterior shots of it flying are the older egg-shaped design again. (And just to nit-pick, when they're departing Wesley identifies the shuttle as Shuttlecraft Two, but all the footage of the shuttlecraft-- in both forms-- has it marked as "01"!)

Smallville - ''Finale''

2011-05-20T05:00:00.131-04:00

Spoiler Level: High As It Gets

As I've mentioned before, I have to wait until Tuesday mornings for the WB.com to post the latest episodes. Normally that's not a problem, but in this case, the wait's been driving me nuts. I've been going out of my way to avoid everyone's reviews. Finally I decided not to wait any longer, and purchased the episode through Amazon.

I've just finished watching it.

My immediate reaction? A decent ending... but not 100% satisfying.

The satisfying:

* Apokolips looked fantastic. I mean, every shot of Apokolips is just pure gold. This is Apokolips brought to life. I never thought Smallville would attempt anything like this.

* At long last, the return of Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor.

* Some very beautiful montages of the ten year journey we've had with this show.

* Clark being an inspiration to Ollie. As I've stated in the last few episodes, this is a Clark Kent that I can believe is Superman, and it leads to his being an inspiration to everyone in the world's time of need.

* Clark having reconciled his past and his destiny, his humanity and his Kryptonian heritage.

* Clark finally flies!

* The music, and not just the John Williams music; Louis Fabre's Blur/Superman theme that's been used for the end credits since Season 8 gets a lot of use in here, until it finally gives way to the all-out John Williams score. A fantastic way to show Clark taking that final step. And the swoosh effect on the closing producer credits was great. I only wish they had kept on going and done the entire closing credits in that style to the John Williams music, but in this modern age of "squish the credits to the side while we run another commercial" it probably wasn't worth spending the extra money on.

* Getting to see The Suit in action.

The unsatisfying:

* Ten years and we get NO money shot of Tom Welling standing tall in the costume, cape blowing in the breeze behind him?!? Really?!? Once he gets the suit, all the shots with his face are from the neck up so you don't see the costume; all the shots of the costume are from a distance so you don't see his face. Doctor Fate got a full-body shot in his costume. Superman should have gotten a full-body shot in the costume.

* Darkseid's final battle being in Lionel's body. Yeah, that really didn't work for me. Not quite as unsatisfying as Doomsday, but still a disappointment.

* I've been asking for years how they were going to get around Luthor not recognizing Superman as Clark Kent right away; I thought they were going to just go with the fact that yes, Luthor knows in this version. But instead, they bring out the old memory-wipe ploy. Ahhh, I should have expected the old memory-wipe ploy. I could live with that if it just wiped out his memories of Clark; but it didn't. It wiped out all his memories. So, umm, if every single memory of his life has been wiped out, then that means he went from a total amnesiac to President of the United States in 7 years?!? Not to mention, if everything that happened to him in this series is gone, then what's his motivation?

It's a shame really, because this show just got better and better over the last three years, and I feel like they slipped a groove at the end. Nowhere near as badly as Star Trek: Enterprise did, mind you; this is an okay ending, but it's just okay, and the previous years have shown me that they could have delivered.

And so, we close the book on Smallville. It may have been a bumpy ride, but overall there were more highs than lows. I'd like to thank Home of the Nutty one last time for the screen caps, and all the folks who worked on the show for striving so hard to entertain me. Thanks to everyone involved.

This episode is available to watch for free (with commercials) at http://www.cwtv.com/cw-video/smallville/. Amazon is still only charging the regular 1-episode price even though it's a double length episode.

Tiger & Bunny - ''The Wolf Knows What the Ill Beast Thinks''

2011-05-19T05:00:00.054-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

We learn more about the strange new NEXT as he continues his killing spree, and the heroes of Hero TV try out figure out who he is and why he's doing it.

Who he is is Lunatic. And why he's doing it is that question that has faced comic book super-heroes since the 80's and especially during the 90's-- Lunatic believes in his own brand of justice, where the bad guys deserve to die.

In that aspect this show has definitely turned into more of a straight-forward super hero show, with the reality TV show factor as more of an add-on. Although it is refreshing to note that, as a rogue "hero," Lunatic has no corporate sponsors. This could be great material for a future episode, but I'm suspecting it won't even be mentioned.

The thing is, even before he's made himself public, Lunatic's attitude has already begun resonating with the people, as a young kid scoffs at Kotetsu for just arresting bad guys when he has the chance to kill them. Kotetsu, ever the old school hero, balks at the concept, but it's one I've run into with comic fans plenty of times. (For example, I used to work with a guy who also a comics fan. We got along really well but liked completely different things. He kept insisting that the Superman comics needed to have Lois Lane be murdered so that Superman could become darker and grimmer. I always argued back that there's a zillion other characters out there for that already; the point of Superman is that he's the eternal role model, the one to look up to and aspire to be like.) While the attitude isn't as prevalent as it was in the 90's, it made enough of an impact on the comic book world that the argument will probably never go away, and I feel its becoming a part of the main story here reflects that.

As always, this episode is available to watch for free at http://www.vizanime.com/tiger-and-bunny.

Transformers: Prime - ''Out of His Head''

2011-05-18T05:00:00.006-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

Things progress in logical fashion from last week's episode; Megatron's consciousness takes over Bumblebee's body, he uses it to restore his own body, and then kicks Starscream's butt.

But predictable doesn't necessarily mean boring, as Megatron's return has been a long time coming, and this was a great throw-down between Megatron and Starscream. Plus this episode gave Ratchet a nice chance to be in the spotlight.

As always, this episode is currently available to watch for free at http://www.hubworld.com/transformers/shows/prime/videos.

Doctor Who - ''The Doctor's Wife''

2011-05-17T05:00:00.012-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

Wow. One expects big things when you hear the name "Neil Gaiman," but this was just magical.

Since Steven Moffat said we were going to learn a lot about River Song this season, when the title "The Doctor's Wife" was announced I figured that meant this episode would be focusing on her. Then we saw the previews and River was nowhere to be found and I thought, "Oh, no, not another fake-out like Jenny Who." But Neil Gaiman delivered the goods big time. Who's truly the Doctor's wife? Well, who else but the TARDIS?

Having the soul of the TARDIS being deposited into a human body so we can hear the TARDIS's point of view is just pure genius. I loved that she started out immediately calling the Doctor "Thief!" since he stole her in the first place, and then the twist that she looks at it as she was stealing a Time Lord so she could see the universe was just absolutely wonderful. They were both destined to go on this trip together.

So, time for me to get nerdy on the age issue again! Idris (and I love that name-- it's like an abbreviation of "I, TARDIS." Anyway, I/DRIS) states that she and the Doctor have been traveling together for 700 years. So the Doctor must have stolen her and fled Gallifrey when he was around 200 years old, which makes sense. I would have loved a Susan reference in there as well, but I'll have to settle for the flood of other delicious references, such as the previous control rooms, the way the Doctor has always referred to her as "old girl" in the past and "sexy" more recently, and their argument on why she rarely takes him where he actually wants to go.

And corridors!! We get to see some TARDIS corridors! I was very pleased with that. I have mixed feelings about the secondary control room being the previous one. On the one hand, I was genuinely surprised, since I had thought that they'd literally destroyed that set, so that was really cool. On the other hand, it's a bit soon to evoke much nostalgia for me, so I was hoping to see one of the earlier classic control rooms. No matter-- this way still worked great.

This is my favorite episode of the season so far, and it may end up being the best episode of this season, period.

Smallville - ''Prophecy''

2011-05-16T05:00:00.016-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

As I write this, the final episode is still three days away from airing, and I won't get to see it for another week. But by the time this post goes live, it will have already aired. So the observations and speculations I'm going to make may be kind of pointless, but what the heck! I'm going to go ahead and make them anyway.

I was hoping that Clark would get the suit at the end of this episode, and then the two hour finale would be like the two hour premiere of most Superman shows, with him establishing himself in Metropolis as Superman. And for a minute there it really looked like that was what was going to happen, with Clark returning to the Fortress of Solitude and telling Jor-El he's ready. But then he pulls the crystal, the lights go out, and he walks away, leaving the suit behind him. Aww, rats.

And along those lines, it occurs to me that the Fortress of Solitude has been anything but. Clark never gets to be alone when he goes there, he's always got to deal with Jor-El being all over his back!

The story itself was okay, although it does suffer from some classic Poor Smallville Judgment that we haven't seen in a while. Oh what the heck, let's make all the wrong choices, just once more for old times' sake! Lois's fear of Toyman hurting Clark now that he's powerless makes sense, but really, it never occurred to her (a) she could simply woosh over to him and protect him like he always protects her, and (b) once she put herself under his control he wouldn't make her do terrible things?!? I get the emotion they were going for, but the logic just makes it one of those scenes were you yell at the screen, "Are you kidding me?!?" especially since they've been doing so much better avoiding this kind of scene over the last two years.

Now Lois's saying she can't marry him because it's not fair for her to take him from the people who need rescuing, while sad, makes more sense. It's also a bit frustrating because we've already seen it play out in the comics and Lois & Clark, but hey, for a new audience it's something that needs to be shown. We of course know that Clark needs to have at least moments of a normal life and not be Superman 24/7 or even he starts to crack under the pressure and that Lois will learn this soon enough... and it'll have to be soon, since there's only one episode left.

And ohhhh, that wonderful Legion of Doom sequence!!! Captain Cold!! Black Manta!! Solomon Grundy!! Looking comic book perfect!!! Oh, how sweet it is. (Not to mention that Toyman's little mind-control toys looked like Starro.) I doubt we'll see them in the finale; I think this is more to establish that just as the Justice League is coming in to their own (and did you notice that Clark actually referred to them as "the league" this time?), their rogues gallery has come together as well, and the stage is set for the never-ending battle between good and evil.

And lastly, with this episode Smallville beats out Stargate SG-1 to become the record holder for longest running science fiction show in US TV history. (Unless you count the two-hour "Absolute Justice" episode as two episodes, in which case last week's episode was the record breaker.) While I feel Stargate SG-1 was a much better show overall and is far more deserving of the title, Smallville has grown into a great show. Congratulations, Smallville.

Thanks, as always, to Home of the Nutty for the screen capture. And as always, this episode is currently available to view for free (with commercials) at http://www.cwtv.com/cw-video/smallville/. At least it was as of this writing; with "Finale" being two hours, I don't know for sure!

Survivors - ''Gone Away''

2011-05-15T05:00:00.000-04:00

Spoiler Level: Medium

Things continue to come together as Abby, Greg and Jenny find each other and team up. Even the wandering vagrant from the previous two episodes shows up at Abby's camp. Every time I think he's done his bit and is gone for good, he shows up again in the next episode. Now I'm expecting to see him again, so I probably won't.

Abby's group attempt to forage some groceries, only to find that the grocery store has been "claimed" by the militant group that Abby ran into in the previous episode, and they consider anyone who isn't a member of their group a looter. Wanting no part of them or their tactics, Abby argues that she has as much right to the food there as they do. The result is a power struggle, with the obvious balance-tipper being whoever holds the guns holds the power.

What keeps it from being a total downer is Abby's optimism. Even when she's becoming disenchanted with humanity itself, it's because she just assumed everyone would want to work together, that the plague had made everyone equal. Even while she's becoming discouraged at how people are behaving, she's still inspiring people like Jenny and Greg, who are starting to see her as a leader-- the kind that people choose to follow out of trust and loyalty as opposed to the kind people feel forced to follow out of fear. It's a ray of hope and optimism in the bleakest landscape possible.

Thor

2011-05-14T05:00:00.092-04:00

Spoiler Level: Medium

Another great Marvel movie, and a great start to the 2011 summer movie season!

I'll confess I've only read a handful or issues of the Thor comic book. Most of what I know about Thor came from the Avengers, and most of what I know about Asgard came from the fantastic New Mutants Special Edition #1 in 1985. Oh, and I remember watching reruns of the old Thor cartoons from 1966. So while I'm no expert, I know enough to appreciate all the things they got right.

And wow, did they get a lot right. The costume, the hammer, spinning the hammer, the relationship between Thor and Loki, Jane Foster, the references to Dr. Donald Blake, Odin, the Odinsleep, Sif, the Warriors Three... well, okay, I have a beef with the Warriors Three. Volstagg is way too thin.


What is, for me, the definitive Volstagg moment.

I absolutely LOVED the Rainbow Bridge. I was afraid they would consider it too cheesy and not use it, but they found a way to make it faithful and still look cool by today's standards-- it's a giant crystal bridge, pulsing and flowing with every color of the rainbow. Fantastic.

Being the first Thor film, it's also a great origin tale in its own right, as we see Thor go from over-confident, over-eager, and yes even arrogant, and watch him grow into the hero he's meant to be. As I said, my knowledge of Thor isn't extensive, so this works as a proper introduction to the character's history for me.

And damn, Chris Hemsworth is the same actor who played George Kirk in Star Trek ('09)? Wow. He didn't even blip on my radar in that movie, but here he's hot. And I normally don't go for guys with beards. What a difference long hair, an accent, and a good shirtless scene can make.

There's some great additional Marvel Universe easter eggs in this movie as well, but I'm not going to reveal them here. I think we've all gotten used to the cameo by Nick Fury by now as the build-up to the Avengers movie continues, but the others completely surprised me. Marvel is doing a fantastic job of tying these films together in little ways and truly making it feel like a bigger interconnected universe. In a lot of ways it reminds me of when comics were new to me.

My only real regret is that I didn't get to watch The Incredible Hulk Returns before seeing this movie. I've still never seen it, and I really wanted to see the only other (and widely regarded as terrible) attempt at a live-action Thor before seeing it done here, where I had confidence that they were going to do it right.

And do it right they did. On to Captain America!

K9 - ''Lost Library of Ukko''

2011-05-13T05:00:00.000-04:00

Spoiler Level: Medium

An excellent episode! Thorne is a huge improve- ment over Drake. Just as his first episode was about prisons, Thorne is still thinking of good ways to lock up those he considers a threat, and he sets up a trap to try out a new one on Starkey.

Darius isn't annoying, Starkey is more of the angry rebel, Thorne is actually menacing, and while K9 is still talking on the casual side he never crosses the line. The alien Librarian from Ukko may look a bit silly with her librarian glasses, but her sharp demeanor makes her interesting to watch. And there's the added revelation that The Department isn't only based in England, but is spread out around the entire world, making it a bit more ominous.

This episode is an unequivocal win, making K9's total score to date 11 wins, 6 losses.

Tiger & Bunny - ''Fire Is a Good Servant But a Bad Master''

2011-05-12T12:30:00.000-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

Another good character episode, this time focusing on Fire Emblem as he's accused of murdering some bad guys in jail. They bad guys were talking about how fun it is to murder hostages in general and child hostages in specific, so it's hard to feel any sympathy for them, yet Kotetsu manages to. It's that kind of value for all human life that makes Kotetsu a hero.

Even though we saw none of Hero TV this episode, it's still a very satisfying episode, as we see elements from the previous episodes are starting to come together. The criminals who were killed were from the first episode, Kotetsu recognizes an assassin (in a very cool piece of mecha) as the same guy who planted the bomb in episode 3, and somehow it all seems tied to the organization that killed Barnaby's parents. So while I may be a bit disappointed that the show has lost some of the edge that makes it different, it's still a well-written show and holding my interest.

(Although it hasn't completely lost the reality show edge-- at one point, Barnaby is content to let Kotetsu take the lead after the assassin, because there are no cameras around and no points to be awarded. It's little touches like that that keep the concept alive.)

As usual, this episode is available to watch for free at http://www.vizanime.com/tiger-and-bunny.

Transformers: Prime - ''Sick Mind''

2011-05-11T05:00:00.010-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

Megatron is finally on his way back. And ironically, it looks like the Autobots are going to help him get there.

When Optimus gets infected with a plague created centuries ago by Megatron, the Autobots have no choice but to send a team to hack into Megatron's mind and find the cure... which has the nasty side-effect of stirring his mind back to consciousness. It's a delightful irony that in order to save their leader they inadvertently save their enemy's leader as well.

It's also a nice way to give Bumblebee the spotlight, despite his not really being able to talk. Pingu is a great example of how a character doesn't need to really speak a real language for you to understand what they're saying, and Bumblebee not only shows that well here, he has the same innocent charm as Pingu.

One question-- I get that Transformers can create plagues that affect machines, but can you really call it biological warfare then?

As usual, this episode is currently available to watch for free at http://www.hubworld.com/transformers/shows/prime/videos.

Doctor Who - ''Curse of the Black Spot''

2011-05-10T05:00:00.109-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

The new season continues to be lots of fun. I can enjoy pirate stories more than, say, zombies or vampire stories, but when I saw the preview for this episode and saw that this was going to be a pirate story, I wasn't really excited. I thought the Pirates of the Caribbean movies were okay, but after seeing them once I never cared if I saw them again. To be honest, the only reason I saw them at all was because my daughter wanted to see them, and I was doing the responsible parent thing of monitoring what my kid watches. But really I just didn't care. You know what I'm going to say by now... not enough spaceships in them.

So, leave it to Doctor Who to have a pirate story... with a spaceship in it! That was awesome! That closing shot of Captain Avery and Toby watching the stars fly past them, as the crew all walked in and lined up behind them for the hero shot... now THAT'S what more pirate movies need! Spaceships!!!

I'm not kidding about this, by the way.

It's nice to see the Doctor having to keep revising his theories on what's going on. I like it when the Doctor's the one who understands what's Really Going On, but that makes it all the more fun when he realizes he was wrong. When Rich and I were discussing the episode after it ended, we both agreed that the two most out-of-place moments were when the Doctor abandoned the TARDIS and when he did a 180 and decided that everyone wasn't being killed, they were probably being taken somewhere instead. At the time I said to Rich "It's probably one of those things that would have been better explained if this had been a 90-minute story." And now that the episode has a day or two to percolate in my brain, I think I understand what changed the Doctor's mind in both cases.

Now usually when the Doctor says "I have no idea where the TARDIS is going to land!" it means he needs to stay with the ship, or risk losing it forever. But in this case he (literally) says "Abandon ship!" Why? Well, I got to thinking about how he told Amy "It's been towed" as opposed to "It ran away." He could tell there was something wrong with the dimensional planes when he tried to take off; maybe that was the key moment that caused him to start revising his theory again. So if the TARDIS was sliding into this parallel plane, then maybe the people were being taken as well. Again, following the Doctor's train of thought might have been easier if this story had taken more time to be fleshed out. But then again, the 11th Doctor tends to ramble on quite quickly and then throw in a "completely disregard what I just said," which can make following his train of thought difficult at the best of times.

And even though Rory's got full companion status now, I was still afraid he really might die. (Again.) Some nice little teases about the overall arc, as well. Nothing new on the pregnancy/future Doctor/glowing-little-girl front, but the return of Amy's dreamworld woman with the silver eyepatch. Hmmm....

Smallville - ''Dominion''

2011-05-09T05:00:00.002-04:00

Spoiler Level: Highish

See, now this is why I still don't feel like I can watch Smallville with my 11-year-old daughter in the room. This episode had a lot of blood.

Slade Wilson has turned up back in the outside world (so we're told-- we never see him), so Ollie comes back to join Clark in the Phantom Zone to figure out how he escaped. While there, we learn that the spirit of the original General Zod has merged with the body of the clone Major Zod, so now he's just one Zod with a whole lotta hate. That may sound a bit convoluted, but it actually works quite well for me. And apparently Darkseid has given Zod the power to rule the Phantom Zone. So Zod spends his time making the inhabitants of the Phantom Zone fight each other to the death for his entertainment.

I'm glad to see Ollie back, because I felt the show was always stronger with him. It's also nice to see they haven't forgotten about him being Omega marked by Darkseid, and used it to the full extent here by giving us a reason to believe that Ollie might have really been turned against Clark. The reference to Orion having defeated Darkseid was also very nice, and finally getting Clark into a red cape was fantastic.

Sadly, showing so much blood and so many gruesome details during the combat (such as the blade coming out of Clark's back) really turned me off. It just felt over the top and really unnecessary.

Lois pulling a gun on Tess also seemed a bit out of place; did she really need to go that far to get Tess to agree with her? Since Lois wasn't able to keep Tess at gunpoint for three weeks and Tess and Lois willingly took shifts, I'd say obviously not.

Thanks as always to Home of the Nutty for the screen capture!

This episode is still available to watch for free (with commercials) at http://www.cwtv.com/cw-video/smallville/.

Stargate Universe - ''Awakening''

2011-05-08T05:00:00.003-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

You know, if there's a genre for movies called "feel good" movies -- works of film created with the deliberate intention of bringing you up-- then logically there must also be a "feel bad" genre, works of film created with the deliberate intention of bringing you down. Stargate Universe is determined to be a "feel bad" series.

As with the last few episodes, there's some great things in this episode. The alien was very cool; I liked how he was very complacent, like he was just another worker, just trying to do his job when he ran into a bunch of humans. I loved the seed ship-- not only does it give us a glimpse into how Destiny works, it's a cool design and makes for some excellent ship shots of the two docking, and brings some of the thrill of discovery back to the series. The brief glimpse we get of the gate manufacturing room is very exciting, as this is probably the first time in Stargate history that we've gotten a look into the manufacturing of Stargates, or seen so many in one place at one time.

But this season is really sliding backwards, and that's the kind of thing that will make me lose interest as a viewer. I've commented a lot on how I liked Rush's progression into a decent human being during the second half of last season, and it seems like with this season they've decided to just throw that all away.

Really, guys? We had to go with Rush stranding Telford on the seed ship? We couldn't have had the ships undock on their own, or the aliens be responsible? We had to make it be Rush's decision? And let's look at that from an in-universe perspective for a moment... Rush has got control of Destiny, which the seed ship is designed to work for, but he can't switch off or reverse the energy drain from the bridge? He has to resort to undocking the ships and abandoning Telford? That's just writing it with the deliberate goal of having a feel-bad story, logic be damned. It's a major step backwards for the character, and it's getting to be the recurring theme of this series.

And speaking of recurring themes, having the closing shot of everyone by themselves in different parts of the ship while a sad, lonely song is sung has been used so much on this show that it's become a cliché. I started making up my own vocals about how life sucks before the actual words kicked in, and I wasn't far off.

I'll stick with the show because it's already been canceled so there's only 17 episodes left, I've seen every Stargate up to now, and this show has improved before. But man, it's no wonder viewers kept leaving. If I thought this show was going to run for another four seasons, I'd probably give up on it again and go finish Primeval instead.

Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea. I might just do that anyway.

As always, thanks to Krissie's Caps for the screen captures.

SGU Stargate Universe: Complete Final Season

Star Trek: The Next Generation - ''Q Who?''

2011-05-07T05:00:00.000-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

This is it, this is the one that changes the face of Star Trek. This is when we meet the Borg.

It's great to watch it in retrospect, knowing all we do about the Borg now. Originally we were seeing the events unfold from the perspective of the Enterprise crew-- not knowing what's out there, but confident in our heroes' ability to handle it. But after 21 years or so, we're now seeing events from the perspective of Guinan and Q-- we know the Borg, we know how unstoppable they are, and we know the crew has no idea what they're getting in to. When Picard walks up to his first drone and tries to begin a discussion, it seemed perfectly rational when the episode first aired-- watching it now, we know how ridiculously futile the gesture is.

A lot of things still hold up really well about this episode with the overall Trek mythos. Guinan says the Borg destroyed her homeworld a century ago, which tracks perfectly with Star Trek Generations. Q states that Guinan is centuries old, which we'll learn is true in "Times Arrow." And the Borg themselves are just as creepy as any later appearance, arguably even more so-- without the Borg Queen to speak for them, they're simply an unstoppable hive mind.

Not that everything tracks perfectly, mind you. Guinan says she wasn't there for the actual destruction of her homeworld. While her being on a refugee ship in Generations makes me assume she had been, if you're away from home when it's destroyed you still become a refugee. The voice of the Collective still sounds like a monotone voice, but it doesn't sound as much like a chorus as it would later. And then there's the whole rivalry between Guinan and Q, which never really was explained. There's never anything stating that Q has sent the Enterprise to the Delta Quadrant, like I had assumed there was-- where did that come from, anyway? If anything, they're only two years from the nearest Starbase at maximum warp, instead of the 70 years Voyager was, which confirms that the Borg had always been closer to home.

And while Q is the catalyst-- he's the one who gets to be the voice for the Borg, as the Enterprise's taunting guide-- he can't really have made that huge a difference in how soon the Federation encountered the Borg, since the Borg had already scooped up the colonies in the Neutral Zone.

I had read in Star Trek: The Magazine (which was a magazine I loved, but its title always made me laugh, because calling it The Magazine sounded like something right out of Spaceballs. But I digress. The magazine had an interview in it that said...) that Maurice Hurley, who wrote this episode, intended for the Borg and Q to have a long history together and be something of rivals, and their stories were to be constantly intertwined on a larger scale of good and evil. Then he left the show and that idea went with him, with the Q and the Borg taking totally separate routes in Trek history.

Something else interesting I discovered from rewatching this episode-- the Borg emblem is actually used. I first saw it with the Borg action figure by Playmates, and I thought to myself, where did they get that from? The Borg don't need symbols. Symbols are irrelevant. I figured Playmates had just made it up. Then when Lore had his group of emotional Borg in "Descent" they used the symbol, so I figured it was something the art department had come up with, given to the toy company, and it never made it on screen until then.

Well, I was wrong on all counts. Here it is on the wall in this episode. I've highlighted it in the screen capture. I guess symbols aren't irrelevant.

And last but not least, in contrast with the darkness of the Borg we have the introduction of Ensign Sonya Gomez, an engineer who's enthusiastic, chatty, bubbly, and a bit wet behind the ears. La Forge mentions that she came aboard on Starbase 173, which we saw the Enterprise visit seven episodes ago in "The Measure of a Man," so that's a nice little continuity touch. Ensign Gomez only got to appear in two episodes, but she did go on to become the star in the eBook series Starfleet Corps of Engineers (aka S.C.E. and later Corps of Engineers).

Survivors - ''Genesis''

2011-05-06T05:00:00.000-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

The only thing cooler than Survivors having "Genesis" as their second episode title is Red Dwarf's having "The End" as their first episode's title.

We're introduced to some new players, and even though the plague is over, conditions are so harsh you're still never sure if they're going to survive or not.

In this episode, the various survivors are starting to find each other. Some want to stay alone, but most want to band together to start new communities-- and of course, there are a few who want to make sure that they're the ones in charge.

The extremes are shown on a small scale in the case of Greg and Anne. Greg is a survivor with nowhere to go and no plan in mind; he runs in to Anne, who needs help. Anne has been staying with Vic, where they've been setting up camp in a quarry. They were gathering supplies when Vic's tractor fell on him. Greg helps get the tractor off of Vic and does what he can to help set his legs, but none of them are doctors, and there's a very real chance that they won't heal right and Vic will never be able to walk again. Anne tells Greg of Vic's plan to try and gather supplies so they'll be secure for as long as possible, but elaborates on her interpretation of the plan-- things are the new currency, and with all the things they've been gathering, they can get other people to work for them in exchange for food. Disgusted, Greg leaves, but not without going into the closest town and trying to scavenge any medicines that might help Vic pull through. Anne, by contrast, leaves Vic to die, and when she finds Greg returning tells him that Vic is already dead.

Greg is no hero, he has no master plan to put the human race back on track-- he just sees someone who needs help and does what he can. Anne, by contrast, is not only unwilling to help anyone else, but she wants someone else to do all the work to help her. Life means so little to her that she'd rather let someone die than exert the effort to help him herself.

I suppose it could be that having seen so much death, one of two things happens-- you either become desensitized to it and find life to be meaningless and valueless, or you cherish the life that's still left. And while we see a lot of the former in this episode, we also see Abby, one of the few to survive from the first episode. Her only plan is to build a community where they can take care of themselves and each other. Hopefully, the new world will follow her example more than Anne's.

K9 - ''The Cambridge Spy''

2011-05-05T05:00:00.001-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

A very good episode of K9! Professor Gryffen is playing about with his Space Time Manipulator, and Jorjie gets zapped back into the past, arriving in 1963. There she meets Darius's great-grandfather (also played by Daniel Webber) who's a very nice stand-up kind of guy. Unfortunately she interferes with his timeline, so Darius is starting to pull a Back to the Future and fade away. Starkey and K9 have to enter the Space Time Manipulator, go back to 1963, rescue Jorjie, and try to repair the damage to the timeline.

It works great. Dairus is brusque but not whiney, cowardly or otherwise annoying, and Daniel Webber does a great job of coming across as a completely different person playing Darius' grandfather Bill. Most of the dialogue works well, even K9's attempts at 1960's slang. (Well, most of them. A few are cringe-worthy, but a few of them work great, especially when he gets them wrong.) And there's even an implication made that Thorne's ancestor is partially responsible for the totalitarian state we see as England's future.

The kids also recognize Thorne's ancestor, who's played by Jared Robinsen, the same actor who plays Thorne. Since Thorne was only brought in at the end of the previous episode on a viewscreen with Jorjie's mother I originally thought that this episode must somehow be out of order; but after doing a search on Thorne to find the actor's name I realized they met him way back in episode 2, "Liberation." So even that works.

So this episode goes firmly in the win column, making K9's score to date 10 wins, 6 losses.

Tiger & Bunny - ''Go for Broke!''

2011-05-04T05:00:00.003-04:00

Spoiler Level: Kinda High.

Another episode where we examine how well Kotetsu and Barnaby are coming together as a team, which is to say not well. Barnaby is fed up with Kotetsu (again), and Kotetsu can't stop himself from getting involved in Barnaby's personal life. In this case, it's organizing a surprise party for Barnaby's birthday.

We also get a very cool villain, whose body covers itself in diamond armor. (Didn't Marvel make that the White Queen's ability at some point?) We get some great fight sequences, and a lot of it is through Hero TV's lens, although they neglect to award points as events are going along this time. Doc Saito also comes up with some cute little Tiger and Bunny icons on their armor, and we get a cool transformation sequence where we see how they suit up.

So while not earth-shattering, this show continues to be enjoyable and entertaining.

As of this writing, this episode (and all previous episodes!) are available to watch for free at http://www.vizanime.com/tiger-and-bunny. Remember, new episodes debut the same day they air in Japan!

Doctor Who - The Impossible Astronaut, Part 2: ''Day of the Moon''

2011-05-03T05:00:00.009-04:00

Spoiler Level: Very, Very High

First off, let me just say "Wow" and scrape my jaw up off of the floor. This season is really taking the long view for its story arc, following up on unresolved plot threads from last season and laying lots more for the rest of this season. At least, I hope they're going to be resolved this season. I think this episode raised more questions than it answered.

So okay, "Silence will fall" is referring to this species, the Silence, who have been running the human race for thousands of years. I've got mixed feelings on that; on the one hand, I hate it when SF attributes all of humanity's achievements to alien influences. I feel like it cheapens us as a species, and takes away the pride in our accomplishments. This episode is a perfect example-- we didn't go to the moon because we wanted to, but because the Silence wanted us to. Heck, did we even develop the technology to do it on our own? But on the other hand, the concept that they've been in control of humanity for all of recorded time is truly terrifying. The concept that we could be being controlled, rise up in revolution, overthrow our controllers and then never remember any of it because it all happens "between the scenes" of our normal lives is just mind-blowing.

But all that leads to another unresolved point: Why did the Silence want us to go to the moon? Is it only so they could create the Impossible Astronaut's space suit?

Along those lines, we now know that the Impossible Astronaut is a self-controlled, self-healing spacesuit, presumably created by the Silence, created for the purpose of containing the little girl. And... that's it.

Unanswered questions: why? Which I guess leads us to...

Amy's pregnancy: Okay, she didn't tell Rory because she was afraid there might be something wrong with the baby. Nice answer. Now to the implied answers-- I was under the impression that the Silence took her baby, and she has no memory of it, and the little girl was in fact her child, based on the photos Amy found in the orphanage. Then the kid goes and regenerates, and the TARDIS keeps reading Amy as both pregnant and not pregnant. Oookay. A "time head" indeed. As we were discussing the episode after wards, a friend of mine hit upon the idea that the little girl might be The Doctor's and River's daughter, and that the photo was actually of Amy holding their baby. I rather like that idea, but I suspect it won't be as simple as that (if that is at all simple).

So the unresolved questions are who is the little girl, who are her parents, and what's Really Going On with Amy's pregnancy?

Poor River. The Doctor's really getting comfortable with her, even falling in love with her, and as it's beginning for him it's ending for her. I have to say I'm not totally thrilled with the idea that they're always moving in reverse order; I rather liked the idea that it's more of a jumble. Maybe she only thinks it's in reverse during this meeting? Or perhaps Steven Moffat prefers to do it in reverse order so it's easier for him to keep it all straight in his head. All I know is that he better have this all written down somewhere so it all makes sense when he's all done! I look forward to rewatching all of River's stories in order from her perspective when that day comes.

Nothing really new about the unanswered questions about River; it's the usual stuff, is she really the Doctor's wife, and who did she kill and why did she kill him/her?

As to which episode title should be considered the story title-- that's a bit of a tough one with this story. On the one hand, the actual "Day of the Moon" refers to July 20, 1969, where the bulk of this episode takes place, which would seem to make it a more episode specific title, whereas the Impossible Astronaut was very prominent in both halves and is the catalyst for the entire thing. Put all that together and "The Impossible Astronaut" should probably be the story title. On the other hand, The Apollo 11 and Silence stories are the only plot lines that are wrapped up, and we're still not really any closer to understanding just what the Impossible Astronaut itself is, so from that perspective "Day of the Moon" might make a better story title. But for me personally, since "Day of the Moon" is more episode specific, "Impossible Astronaut" wins out.

And now I'm off to read Jonathan's latest "Eleven for Eleven" installment for this episode over at Dislocated Life. Yeah, I'm recommending it sight-unseen, but you can always trust Captain JLS. I generally try to do my own write-ups before reading anyone else's so I can be sure my opinions are really mine. You never knew when some outside force is influencing you...

Smallville - ''Booster''

2011-05-02T05:00:00.019-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

Booster Gold and Blue Beetle! And not just the new Blue Beetle, but Ted Kord too! I always love Geoff Johns episodes.

With this episode, Clark has really turned a corner. First off, he spent all his public time rockin' the glasses. While I don't necessarily agree with the bumbling Clark persona-- the comics have done just fine without it for over 20 years now-- I'm happy to see him establishing his secret identity. Secondly, we got that absolutely wonderful scene of Clark changing in the phone booth. And lastly (and most importantly), Clark doesn't talk down to Booster Gold and lecture him like he used to lecture Green Arrow, he inspires him. That's the way Superman should be.

As usual, thanks to Home of the Nutty for the screen caps. (Sadly, there was no scene in the episode of Booster, Beetle and Blur all together.) And also as usual, this episode is still available to watch for free at http://www.cwtv.com/cw-video/smallville/.

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Deceived by Paul S. Kemp

2011-05-01T05:00:00.001-04:00

Spoiler Level: Medium - High

Ahh, now this is more like it. This is what I wanted from the previous Old Republic novel, Fatal Alliance.

I thought that this book was going to climax with the attack on the Jedi Temple and Coruscant as seen in the "Deceived" game trailer, but instead it uses it as a launching point. Perhaps author Paul S. Kemp figured that at this point we've all seen that trailer a zillion times and it might be anti-climactic. And he might be right; as excited as I was for this book, I did find that I knew that battle too well already.

Instead we get to learn much more about Darth Malgus, the Sith Lord who kicked so much butt in the trailer, and the Twi-lek girl that's with him as the battle begins. And he is a much, much more interesting subject that the Sith we saw in Fatal Alliance. This book works much better at showing us the political machinations that come with a Sith Empire, as Malgus, while high up in the Sith hierarchy, isn't quite high enough to make sure things are done his way. It helps that Malgus isn't particularly good at politics; we see his frustration at being outmaneuvered by his fellow Sith Lords who are a bit more cunning, and more interestingly, in their different interpretations of the Dark Side of the Force; while Malgus believes that war and chaos are essential to burn away the weak and strengthen those who remain, others believe that the Force serves power for power's own sake, and that ruling half a galaxy is preferable to eternal war.

Just like his previous book Crosscurrent, Kemp shows us a Jedi who feels so enraged by a particular Sith that (s)he's willing to throw away everything to kill him. In this case it's Aryn Leneer, former padawan of Ven Zallow, the Jedi Master we see killed in the trailer. After what the Sith have done to the Jedi Temple (and Zallow in particular) Aryn feels that the Sith must be punished, but the rest of the Jedi instead are willing to continue peace talks.

And so we have Aryn on one side and Malgus on the other, each feeling that they've been let down by their respective orders, and with only one thing in common-- a burning hatred of each other. Kemp crafts a wonderful tale showing us the parallels between the two characters, with Aryn walking too close to the dark out of a need for justice, and Malgus walking too close to the light (by Sith standards) by his love for his Twi-lek slave, both feeling betrayed and deceived by their respective orders.

I'll probably still wait to read any more Old Republic books until I cycle back around to that part in the timeline (and that's gonna take me a few years), but I'd really welcome more books about Darth Malgus, especially since he has such a rich backstory. Although not as cool as Darth Bane, he is one tough Sith, and it would be great to see his origins, especially if they're written by Paul S. Kemp. So far I've really enjoyed both of his Star Wars books, which makes me look forward to his Crosscurrent follow-up Riptide all the more.

In addition to the game trailer, this book has its own trailer, along with links to preview the first three chapters at http://www.swtor.com/news/news-article/20110304-1.

Super

2011-04-30T05:00:00.002-04:00

Spoiler Level: Medium

Have you heard about this movie? If it wasn't for a friend of mine being a fan of James Gunn and Nathan Fillion I wouldn't have. It's the story of an average loser named Frank who loses his wife to a drug dealer.

The thing is, Frank's a little unhinged. After he has a vision where God uses naughty anime tentacles to tell him to become a super hero, well... what choice does he have but to become one? So he comes up with his super hero persona, the Crimson Bolt, and goes on a vigilante spree, thwacking thieves, drug dealers, child molesters and anyone else breaking the law with his trusty wrench.

Now I am not a fan of gore, and I really don't find blood funny. This movie has a lot of blood, and yet it made me laugh, and laugh hard. Why? Is it a Three Stooges kind of thing? Disbelief that he's actually doing it? Wish fulfillment, getting to see bad people get what's coming to them? Most likely it's a combination of all of these. All I know is that this movie is at times funny, at times brutal, and at times brutally funny.

Oh, and disturbing. Very disturbing. It has not just one but two rape scenes, and no, they're not funny in the slightest, although they are about as polar opposite as rape scenes can get.

It's not a super hero movie for the faint of heart, but it is a humorous look at what might happen if someone who was just slightly off balance tried to be Batman, what would probably happen to him, and what he might accomplish, both good and bad. If you can find it-- and if you can take it-- it's definitely worth seeing.

This film is currently showing at art house cinemas and is available via On Demand. I went with a bunch of my friends to the Harris Theater in Pittsburgh, where it will be showing until May 5; you can find details and show times at their website. On a personal note, it's been a long time since I've gone into the city with my friends to watch an art house movie, and I'm really glad I did. All five of us enjoyed it and had a good time.

Star Trek: Phase II - ''Enemy: Starfleet!''

2011-04-29T05:00:00.000-04:00

Spoiler Level: Medium

This week's Star Trek is a special treat. "Enemy: Starfleet!" is the latest installment of the fan film series Star Trek: Phase II. It was just released last week on April 22, giving me my annual dose of new Trek. It's also the first episode to completely remove Star Trek: New Voyages from the title.

"Enemy: Starfleet!" is a lot more satisfying than the previous entry "Blood and Fire, Part 2" (which in fairness I later learned was released with the sound to the final segments unfinished, which may have accounted for part of why I didn't enjoy it as much.) The episode runs 58 minutes but feels very well paced.

The title's a bit deceiving; The colon implies that for some reason, Starfleet has become the enemy. What it's actually about is the rise of a different Starfleet due to the USS Eagle falling into the hands of a race called the Meska on the other side of the quadrant. The Meska have studied the Eagle and started building their own ships based on Starfleet technology, and using them to overthrow and annihilate their former overlords, the Pesha (who apparently have the same barber as Sabalom Glitz). This lands the Enterprise in the unfortunate position of having to take on a smaller, enemy Starfleet all on their own.

The Meska are lead by Alersa, played by BarBara Luna, who also played Marlena Moreau (aka "the captain's woman") in the classic TOS episode "Mirror Mirror," and who also had a guest appearance in the early Phase II episode "In Harm's Way" (back when it was still called New Voyages). As a bad guy she's delightfully over the top, playing Alersa as both alluring and dangerous, yet in a kind of b-movie way. I don't know if it was intentional or not, but it makes her a very fun villain.

As you'd expect with a premise like this, this episode is heavy on action, with lots of starship battles. The Meska have overhauled the Eagle, reinforcing its vulnerable spots with more armor and adding additional disruptor canons to it, making it look a bit more ugly but a lot more tough, and making for some very cool battle scenes.

There's also a good deal of character development, as Ensign Peter Kirk is still mourning the loss of his fiance from the previous episode, and Captain Kirk is still coming to terms with the fact that he has family on board, family being something he's never really had to deal with much.

We have a big change in actors again; Spock, Sulu and Chekov have all been recast. Brandon Stacey isn't really much of an improvement over Ben Tolpin as Spock. He looks the part more, but his delivery is pretty flat. (And Ben Tolpin, by the way, directed this episode. So while I may not have been won over by his portrayal of Spock, I have been won over by his directing abilities.) Andy Bray's Chekov is a hard act to follow, but Jonathan Zungre does an excellent job. Sulu doesn't really get a lot to do in this episode besides evasive maneuvers, so I don't really have much of a feel for J.T. Tepnapa's take on Sulu yet. As to the returning actors, either I've gotten used to John Kelley's portrayal of McCoy or he's gotten a lot better over the years.

One nice touch is that the Eagle was lost eight years ago, so the ship is more like the Enterprise as she was in the pilot episodes, with a curved viewscreen and crewmen wearing the old-style uniforms. (Which I have to admit caused a little confusion for me; at first I thought they were members of the Eagle's crew that were under Alersa's control, but then Kirk says that the Meska killed the entire crew, so presumably they just raided the ship's wardrobe like Archer and crew did in "In a Mirror, Darkly.")

Another very nice touch is that this episode involves the same kind of matter/anti-matter intermix wormhole like we saw in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, so we get to see it again here in the same style. It's a very TMP moment but blended with TOS; it's one of the little ways that this show is starting to transition into the Phase II that could have been, had it been made by Paramount. (And speaking of Paramount, now that Paramount's TV division has become part of CBS, instead of opening with the old 1960's "presented in living color" NBC intro, the episode now opens with CBS's 1960's "presented in living color" intro! That got a smile out of me.)

So all in all, another great entry by Cawley & company. Links for downloading or streaming this episode can be found at Star Trek: Phase II's website at http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/episode_ES.html.

Tiger & Bunny - ''Fear Is Often Greater Than the Danger''

2011-04-28T05:00:00.038-04:00

Note the Pepsi sponsorship on Blue Rose's arm!

Spoiler Level: High

In this episode we get to learn about one of the other heroes, Blue Rose. Blue Rose is really school girl Karina Lyle, whose dream isn't really to be a hero at all, but to be a singer. She's only become a super hero because it's supposed to be the best path to stardom.

In previous episodes she's played the enthusiastic hero, but now she's obviously grown tired of it and would rather focus on her real dream of playing piano and singing. This of course brings lots of speeches from Kotetsu on the nature of being a hero, which is counterbalanced by Barnaby's more cynical desire for fame. The result is a lot of discussions examining personal motivations, why we do what we do, and the dilemma of choosing between what we want and what's expected of us.

The episode works well for me, because even though we're not seeing a lot from the camera's perspective, we are seeing how this world of super hero reality TV affects people's lives, as Karina has to juggle trying to satisfy her television obligations, pursuing her own dreams, and still have a social life and go to school. She thinks she knows what she wants, and it's not being a hero-- but as Kotetsu points out to her, helping people isn't something one can just choose to stop doing. It's the usual anime dilemma, but with a super hero twist, and it works well.

As always, this episode is available to watch for free at http://www.vizanime.com/tiger-and-bunny.

Transformers: Prime - ''Predatory''

2011-04-27T05:00:00.027-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

This episode is pretty creepy, and not because of my fear of spiders. Airachnid is big, metal, has a humanoid face and doesn't move like a real spider, so she doesn't creep me out in that sense. She does creep me out in the sense that she's a total sadist, thoroughly enjoying the pain she causes.

What starts out as a simple recon of an Energon reading turns into a nightmare when Arcee and Jack discover a crashed spaceship belonging to Airachnid, a Decepticon (voiced wonderfully by Gina Torres) who has caused no small amount of pain for Arcee. Airachnid has been collecting trophies of species she's driven extinct, and once she learns that Jack is special to Arcee only he will do as her trophy for humanity.

It's a very dark story, with lots of painful flashbacks to scenes of Airachnid torturing Arcee and killing her previous partner. Arcee fears losing someone close to her again, and since Jack is human he's no match for Airachnid.

Or so everyone believes. Jack actually proves to be pretty resourceful and do some serious damage all on his own. As someone who's not a fan of humans in Transformers, I was very impressed. This show might just change my mind on that stance.

The problem this episode does have is what to do with Airachnid once she's defeated. At one point Arcee has her at gunpoint, and if this had been Beast Wars and she had been Dinobot I would have had no doubt that she would have pulled the trigger-- but this being Prime I had no doubt that she wouldn't. And so Airachnid escapes, with Jack and Arcee musing worriedly what she'll do. And they should be worried. This is a character who just said she wiped out species for fun, and had a ship full of stuffed corpses to prove it. She was built up a bit too high to let her just take off.

But that aside, this episode continues to establish Transformers Prime as one of the better Transformers series.

As usual, this episode is currently available to watch for free at http://www.hubworld.com/transformers/shows/prime/videos.

Doctor Who - ''The Impossible Astronaut,'' Part 1

2011-04-26T05:00:00.080-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

Doctor Who returns in style, with the new show's first-ever two-part opening story! And as always, the Moff delivers more time travel themed goodness.

I was so thrilled with the beginning of this story that the Doctor was now 1103 years old. I know this is horribly fanboy nitpicky of me, but I always hated that the Doctor's age in the new show is younger than his age in the original show. The 7th Doctor gave his age as 953 in "Time and the Rani," so for the 10th Doctor to be 903 in "Voyage of the Damned" just always bugged the hell out of me. Now true, the original show has been inconsistent about the Doctor's age before, but they started getting pretty consistent from the 4th Doctor on. And I can get all apologist and say well maybe he's counting it in different ways, Gallifrey years vs Earth years or what have you, but really... they just decided to change his age for the new show and I just need to let it go. But if he's 1103 now, then I can just say he aged 150 years between Doctors 7 through 11 and the rest is all just wibbly wobbly timey wimey.

But then he goes and gets himself killed. And man, what a death. Shot twice, starts to regenerate (which was shocking enough), and then shot again in the middle of regeneration. Damn.

...So now we're back to a 908 year old Doctor, who doesn't know he's going to get shot 200 years into his future, traveling with three companions who all know. That's the kind of time-traveling Moff goodness I'm talking about! (I still hope by the time this is all resolved that the Doctor will again be 1103, but I doubt it.)

Amy's announcement that she was pregnant didn't come as too much of a surprise-- if the nausea hadn't been enough of a giveaway, the Doctor's comment that she'd put on weight and "you and Rory go back to making babies" all made me think that was the direction they were heading. A pair of married companions was already a first, but a pregnant companion is really something different! And again, I can't wait to see how this ties in to everything over all.

Speaking of parents, having W. Morgan Sheppard play an old Mark Sheppard is brilliant. Did I mention the first time I saw Mark Sheppard it was driving me nuts, because he seemed so familiar and yet not familiar? Once I saw his last name was Sheppard I began to make the connection, and eventually found that yes, Mark Sheppard is indeed W. Morgan Sheppard's son. No wonder he seemed so familiar, he had his father's accent. So having the two of them playing the same character is just fantastic. (Yet ironically, the character they're playing is American, so the have to use American accents!)

So, the big question isn't so much "Is the Doctor going to stay dead?" as it is "How long is he going to stay dead?" I'm betting that won't be resolved until the end of this season. The summer break is going to be downright painful!

And for a much more in-depth look at the episode, I highly recommend "Eleven for Eleven" over at Dislocated Life, where Jonathan L. Switzer touches on the top eleven points of the episode.

Smallville - ''Kent''

2011-04-25T05:00:00.090-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

A nice follow-up to "Luthor," and I like the parallels with the title names. I'm not quite sure all of the logic regarding the mirror box was consistent with how it was portrayed in "Luthor," but if you don't think about that part too closely it's an enjoyable episode.

I guess I assumed that the series would have Martha Kent coming back to the farm, since the Superman mythos usually has Clark in Metropolis with his mom on the farm. But that doesn't really work with Martha being a senator now, so this way works well for the show. The thought of the farm not being in the Kent family at all actually makes me a little sad, but hey, at least they didn't blow it up.

The idea that Clark Luthor is only evil because he was raised by Lionel Luthor instead of Jonathan Kent and Jor-El certainly makes this a different take on Ultraman-- I don't recall Jor-El being addressed in any of the Crime Syndicate stories I've read, but I'll bet in his universe he sent Kal-El to Earth to conquer it. That's obviously not intended to be the case here, as we're left with the hope that Jor-El will put Clark Luthor on the straight and narrow.

I also really like how Clark Kent is becoming the kind of character that inspires people to be better, such as he did with Earth-2 Jonathan and, eventually, Clark Luthor. That's the kind of character that Superman is meant to be.

And damn, Tess's dress was distracting.

Thanks, as always, to Home of the Nutty for the screen captures. And as always, as of this writing, this episode is available to watch online (with commercials) for free at http://www.cwtv.com/cw-video/smallville/.

Star Trek: Typhon Pact - Paths of Disharmony by Dayton Ward

2011-04-24T05:00:00.174-04:00

Spoiler Level: High, both for this book and for Star Trek: Destiny.

Dayton Ward's Paths of Disharmony is the fourth and (currently) final novel in The Typhon Pact miniseries, this time focusing on the crew of the Enterprise-E. In fact, it's so much like a post-Nemesis Next Gen book that if it didn't say Typhon Pact on the cover, you might not realize that it's a fundamental part of the Typhon Pact series. This book takes place a year after the Typhon Pact has been formed.

Andor is the center focus of the story. Anyone who's read any of the post-series DS9 or Destiny books knows that Andor has been having a very rough time of it lately. TrekLit has expanded on a throwaway line of Data's saying that Andorians marry in groups of four, and has expanded that to establish that Andorians have four genders, all of which are necessary in order to have a child, and a very limited window in which they can conceive. As a result Andor's population has peaked, and is now dwindling to the point where they're actually facing a population crisis. Add to that the events of Star Trek: Destiny, where Andor was one of the last planets to be attacked by the Borg, and you have one messed up world.

Despite his being on the cover, Shar is not a main character in this story. He is featured a decent amount, but this is by no means a Shar-centric story; he's just one of many Andorians who have returned home to help their planet in its time of need. I always liked Shar in the post-finale DS9 books, so I'm glad to see him again here, even if it is in only a supporting role.

The main adversary from the Typhon Pact in this book is the Tholians, but they don't show up until the last third of the book, and even then they pretty much only stop in, drop an information bombshell to get the Andorians really riled up, and then take off again. It's nowhere near as intricate as any of the previous Typhon Pact books, but it is just as crucial, because...

...Andor is really disenchanted with the Federation at this point. They feel that Starfleet failed to protect them during the Borg Invasion, and are failing to help them with their reproduction crisis. And even that's a cause for Andorians to fight among themselves, as some factions feel that the Federation is holding back too much because of its ban on genetic engineering, and while others feel the Federation is helping too much, and that allowing any genetic engineering at all pollutes the Andorian gene pool and makes them less Andorian.

It's the kind of story best done in current TrekLit, because Andor's fate is unclear. If this were to take place during Season 5 of Next Gen, you'd know that the troublemakers would be caught and, while relations may be rocky, Andor would still be a part of the Federation by the end of the book. But Paramount no longer insists that all the toys be neatly put back in place by the end of the story. Now we no longer have that safety net, so we have genuine dramatic tension. Will Andor stay a part of the Federation? Will they erupt in civil war? Will they secede and join the Typhon Pact? At this point, anything can happen, and it makes the book a suspenseful read.

This also raises another question about the future of Trek novels. The books are obviously moving towards the events of Star Trek (the 2009 movie), but the only canon events from that film for the Prime Universe are the destruction of Romulus and the (apparent) death of Spock. The non-canon elements are included in both the Star Trek Online game and the Star Trek: Countdown comic book miniseries. In those, the Next Gen cast are in completely different places, and almost everyone has retired from Starfleet. Picard, for example, is an ambassador, which seemed pretty odd at the time. The authors in the TrekLit forums have all asserted that they are in no way beholden to the comic book and/or game continuity, which had me breathing a sigh of relief.

That is, until Picard was offered an ambassadorship in this book. He's turned it down, but now that he's a parent (and yes, he and Beverly did name their son Rene Jacques Robert Francois Picard, ::sigh::) both he and Beverly are starting to feel that the universe has become to dangerous a place to raise a child on a starship. So he's considering his options.

To be honest, I just can't see how they could continue the Next Gen book line with "current" stories if they go that route. We've finally settled in with a solid cast of Picard, Crusher, Worf, Geordi, Choudhury and T'Ryssa Chen. Chen, by the way, is really maturing into a great character, and her development opposite Taurik here is fantastic. Taurik's a full Vulcan, and T'Ryssa's a half-Vulcan who took the opposite path of Spock, embracing her human heritage instead of her Vulcan side. Watching the two of them interact, with Taurik having to cope with an emotional Vulcan and T'Ryssa learning that maybe there are some good things to Vulcan ideals after all is great stuff. I'd love a book that focuses just on the two of them. But would it be Next Gen? Is TNG the story of Picard, or the story of the 24th century Enterprise? How far can you splinter this cast and still have it be The Next Generation?

Perhaps they're even moving towards an actual ending for these post-film era books, and will start focusing more on stories set during the various series again. I'd be surprised if they went that route, since (as I stated earlier) they can have real drama now, and that's something they'd lose if they took that route.

We'll see. If there's one thing I can count on, it's that there will be more Star Trek books coming.

Rain Without Thunder

2011-04-23T05:00:00.082-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

Set in the year 2042, this film is made in a semi- documentary style, and tells the stories of the women of Walker Point. In the year 2017, Congress passed the 28th Amendment stating that unborn fetuses have all the same rights as a person. As a result, abortion is now considered homicide. Walker Point is a prison for women who are guilty of having had an abortion.

What makes the film so compelling is that it shows how closely a woman's right to choose is tied to the complete spectrum of women's rights. Once the government decreed that an unborn fetus must be protected, women lost the right to do anything while pregnant that might endanger the child, such as smoking, drinking or working. Or to chose what forms of contraception they could use-- anything that isn't barrier-based and prevents a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterine wall is illegal. Or to even go to a different country where abortion is still legal. It may sound unbelievable that it could go that far that fast, but the steps presented here come across as frighteningly possible. I tend to forget that in many states (mine included) women haven't even had the right to vote for 100 years yet. When you look at how long it's taken us to get as far as we have, it's not so unbelievable that we might slide backwards, especially in the face of the rallying cry of "protecting the children."

Another interesting element of the film is that it was made in 1992, yet in many ways predicts the conservative movement that's come around with the start of the (W.) Bush administration in 2001. The difference here is that the film puts forth that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar; that people will accept moderate change more than radical change, and that with the proper drive behind it, moderate change can take us backwards just as much as it can take us forward. In the real world of the early 21st Century, we've become more polarized and radical in our arguments. I never saw any benefits to that before, but this film makes me think that perhaps the two sides being so vehement towards each other might actually be helping to keep each other in check.

Along those lines, while the film definitely has a pro-choice slant, it doesn't try to candy-coat abortion. There are graphic descriptions of both abortions and the back alley abortion clinics. It's disturbing, but it should be. No matter what side of the line you fall on, abortion is not something to be taken lightly, and this film doesn't.

You ever have one of those moments where you recognize an actor but can't place him or her, and it becomes such a distraction that you have to stop the movie and look the actor up on IMDB before you can go on watching? That happened to me with the character of Prosecuting Attorney Andrea Murdoch. I knew I recognized her, and she was someone I knew well, but I couldn't place her for the life or me. So I stopped the film and looked her up. Turns out she was Iona Morris-- the voice of Claudia on Robotech! So no wonder I was confused-- I can pick her voice out from anywhere, but I've never seen her real face before. (Well, apparently I've seen her in three episodes of Star Trek, but she was under alien make-up in Voyager and only a little kid in the classic Trek episode "Miri.")

Iona Morris

Amazingly enough, this film has not been released on DVD. Amazon still has some used VHS copies, or you can watch it like I did-- yes, Netflix Instant Streaming service again.

Tiger & Bunny - ''Many a True Word Is Spoken in Jest''

2011-04-22T05:00:00.009-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

I liked this episode a lot more than the previous one; this episode felt more in line with the first episode. Hero TV is shooting a documentary on Barnaby Brooks Jr, so he-- and by extension, Kotetsu-- are both getting followed around, having everything they do recorded. This brings back the reality show edge, as we get to see many of the events through the eye of the camera. Maybe it's the Max Headroom geek in me, but I love shots like that.

Poor Kotetsu still can't win; the TV studio wants to portray the two heroes as great partners, which they're most definitely not, and since Barnaby is the golden child then Kotetsu is perceived as the problem. When the TV crew isn't happy with Kotetsu's "natural" self and indifference to Barnaby, they begin scripting things for him to say. On the one hand, the network trying to shape reality into what they want the public to see is typical TV, but on the other hand reality TV just loves when people don't get along. In this case the corporate mentality wins out, but I can just see how this would lead to a "Big Brother House: Super Hero Edition!"

The characters continue to grow as Barnaby and Kotetsu begin to have a grudging respect for one another, even though they still bicker. We also get to learn a bit about Barnaby's past. And the background character of Origami Cyclone is starting to really amuse me.

As usual, this episode is currently available to watch for free (with limited commercials) at http://www.vizanime.com/tiger-and-bunny. Oh, and you know another cool thing about it? It even includes the Japanese sponsor cards. I only wish Hulu would actually put their "Brought to you by GEICO!" card over top of it!

Transformers: Prime - ''Speed Metal''

2011-04-21T05:00:00.001-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

One of the drawbacks to getting your television online (legally, at any rate) is that you're at the mercy of when the networks decide to post the latest episodes. I originally wanted to watch this episode when I watched the second episode of Tiger & Bunny, but The Hub hadn't posted it yet. So today (which as I'm writing this is actually last Monday) I wanted to watch last Friday's Smallville, but the WB hasn't posted that yet. So instead I watched this episode and the newest Tiger & Bunny. As a result there will be two Tiger & Bunny reviews this week, and no Smallville review until next week.

So Knockout and Break Down are still around! That's good to see, the Decepticon army needed to be filled out a little more. And wow, Knockout's vanity makes him a real coward. Was he this much of a baby in the previous episode and I just forgot, or did getting scratched just really bring this out in him? And I loved the way he yelled when Optimus pulled his door off! Nice touch.

Did anyone else hope that in the opening scene when the car flipped over the cliff, we were going to get a Speed Racer homage with a big fireball coming up? I knew it wouldn't happen-- that's just not this show's style-- but I couldn't help anticipating it.

You know you're in trouble when "Don't tell Optimus" becomes a running theme, but this episode did a very good job of letting the point speak for itself without getting too preachy. It's also nice to see that Arcee could be goaded into a race. Sometimes it's just good to see a creep get what's coming to him. And speaking of the creep, I think ten years of Smallville has forever turned the "knock 'em unconscious so they don't learn the hero's secret" ploy into a cliche for me, but that's more Smallville's fault than Transformers'.

You know, it just occurred to me, Ratchet wasn't in this episode at all. That's odd.

...And on a completely unrelated note, this is my 400th post! I've now been doing these reviews for just two weeks shy of two and a half years. This blog has gotten 43,253 hits, with my biggest month being last month, March 2011, with 9,170 hits. My most popular posts have been my Top 100 SF TV Shows list, with a combined total of 10,207 hits. And out of all that, the single most hits of all time are for the Top 100 Part 4, apparently for a picture I posted of the old Incredible Hulk TV show from the 70's. Go figure.

Oh, and I've used the phrase "So all in all" 19 times. I'm surprised it's that low.

As usual, as of this writing this episode is available to view for free (with no commercials!) at http://www.hubworld.com/transformers/shows/prime/videos.

Stargate Universe - ''Aftermath''

2011-04-20T05:00:00.006-04:00

Spoiler Level: Very High

Well, that episode was a real downer. Cheer up, Riley! Any landing you can walk away from... oh. Never mind.

So now Rush is talking to a woman who may or may not be there. Geez, he wasn't enough like Baltar? But okay, it's not always the image of his late wife, and he's already considering that it's most likely the ship trying to find a way to communicate with him. Or hey, maybe it's the higher intelligence from the previous episode! Oh wait, that would make him more like Baltar again...

The bridge is very cool. Talk about taking a great leap forward in exploring the mysteries of the ship. A bit disappointed that he's not trusting anyone with it-- that feels like the step backwards that I was hoping that he as a character wouldn't take. But hey, recovery is a process of ups and downs, it's never a straight line up.

And the majority of the Lucian Alliance have been kicked off the ship. Well, damn. Yeah, I realize they were out-and-out enemies and may have tried to kill them again, so I guess stranding them is the logical thing to do. But I'm still disappointed.

And along those lines, we start out the episode with Telford still playing the part of being with the Lucian Alliance, and then he exposes his true loyalties when he comes to Young's side in the riot, but we never get any reaction from the rest of the Lucian Alliance to that. Maybe there was some and it was cut for time. There is a lot going on in this episode.

Now if I remember right, they still have a second shuttle but they couldn't get it working, right? So either they find a way to fix it or they're now shuttleless, right?

I get the ironic parallels between Young nearly strangling a Lucian Alliance guy to death out of anger and smothering Riley out of compassion, but damn, man. And yes, it was meant to make me feel uncomfortable, but it's still no fun and makes me not like Young very much.

So all in all, while I have to admit it's a very well done episode, it's not necessarily an enjoyable episode.

On something of a side note, Netflix Streaming has now lumped all of SGU into one title, as opposed to splitting it up by seasons, and has added the first two episodes of what would be considered Season 2.5. So I won't have to have a mid-season break this time, and can continue straight on through! I'll still be finishing up about a month behind Syfy, but I'm okay with that. Streaming programming rules.

SGU Stargate Universe: Complete Final Season

Elisabeth Sladen, 1948 - 2011

2011-04-19T16:13:00.000-04:00

From the Doctor Who News Page:

Elisabeth Sladen, 1948 - 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011 - Posted by Chuck Foster

It is with great sadness that we have to report that the actress Elisabeth Sladen - forever known to us as the Doctor's best friend, Sarah Jane Smith - has died. The news, which was broken on Twitter earlier today, has since been confirmed via Twitter by Doctor Who Magazine.

A full obituary will be published soon.

...I don't have anything to add. I'm too stunned.

Tiger & Bunny - "A Good Beginning Makes a Good Ending"

2011-04-19T05:00:00.004-04:00

Spoiler Level: Medium

The second episode of this series sees Kotetsu and Barnaby have their first official team-up. Kotetsu is altruistic and inspired; Barnaby is only in it to get the most points and win the game.

It's still a good episode, but it doesn't have the edge that the first episode had, most likely because we see very little from the perspective of "Hero TV Live," the reality show the heroes are all competing in. This episode's focus is more of a straight-forward hero story, with us getting to learn about Kotetsu's past and seeing what made him become a hero, and how he clashes with Barnaby. Kotetsu is endearing as the lovable loser, the guy who wants to do right by his daughter and help people but always seems to get it wrong. And Doc Saito, inventor of Wild Tiger's new suit, is a very humorous character.

But I have to confess, if this had been the first episode, I wouldn't have been as taken by it. It's much more of a straight-forward anime episode. It makes sense that the whole reality-show concept would be taking a back seat to getting to know all the characters, but hopefully future episodes will be able to do that while exploring this world of reality shows gone overboard at the same time.

As of this writing, this episode is available to watch for free at http://www.vizanime.com/ep/3176-a-good-beginning-makes-a-good-ending. And remember, we're getting these episodes the same time as they're airing in Japan, so let's show them some support!

Survivors - ''The Fourth Horseman''

2011-04-18T05:00:00.053-04:00

Spoiler Level: Medium

Survivors is Terry Nation's other claim to fame, after the Daleks and Blake's 7. I watched the first two or three episodes back around 1994, and while I enjoyed it, it creeped my wife out too much so I never got back to it. Now that my friend Rich and I are all caught up on the DCU OVAs, I'm giving it another go.

The story, in case you're not familiar with the series, is one of our common societal fears: that a superflu gets loose and starts wiping everyone out. What makes Survivors stand out from other stories I've seen of this nature (such as Jeremiah or The Stand) is that it takes the entire first episode for this to happen. We start out with life going just fine for everyone. Oh sure, there's news of a flu epidemic, but it's mostly in other places and there's very little news of anyone actually dying of it. But as more and more people come down with it and call out from work, things begin to start running poorly; the trains are all off schedule, the telephone lines stop working, and then areas begin to lose electricity when the power plants don't have enough people showing up to work to run them properly.

And that's another interesting aspect of this show; it's firmly set in what was then the present, ie the 70s. So when hospitals are told by the government not to release the actual numbers of how many people have started dying from it, they can actually keep it contained. There's no internet, no cell phones, no Twitter, no way for an intern to post "over 200 dead today" and have the world know. And with the disease traveling as quickly as it does -- about six days-- by the time people do realize what's going on, there aren't enough of them left to cause riots. (It also makes me curious how this aspect was handled in the remake, but I won't be seeing that version for at least another 38 weeks!)

Another element that this show has over others like it is that it really drives home dependent we've become on our mechanical-based manufacturing society. As one of the survivors points out, the resources that are left will only last for up to a generation, maybe less; once they're all gone, then who knows how to make more of even simple things, like a candle or a hammer?

So that's a big part of why I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of this series; this looks to be the most realistic post-societal survival story ever.

Kilroy Was Here by Styx

2011-04-17T05:00:00.088-04:00

Another one in the "stuff it took me nearly 30 years to get around to" category. Everyone knows "Mr. Roboto," and it's fairly common knowledge that song was part of a larger story, Styx's concept album Kilroy Was Here. "Mr. Roboto" came out at a time where I was a real stick-in-the-mud. I couldn't relate to popular music, although I heard plenty of it because everyone around me (ie, my sister and my girlfriend) was constantly playing it. During that time "Mr. Roboto" was something of a haven for me, a song I could get into because it was obviously about a guy impersonating a robot so he could escape from something. Now that was cool. I would have bought the entire album to try and get the rest of the story at the time, but I was spending all my money on Star Wars figures. But every now and then I'd look at the album and think, I should really check into that.

Fast forward about ten years. My musical tastes have broadened by about 270 degrees, and I've come to appreciate all those songs from the 80s that I found such an annoyance at the time. But I still haven't checked out Kilroy Was Here. My money is now going to every album and remix I can find from bands such as Genesis, Information Society, Pet Shop Boys, and Adamski. Oh, and Playmates' Star Trek action figure line. My then-girlfriend has a copy of the album, so she makes me a copy, but it's already several generations down and the copy I get is on a pretty poor quality tape, so although I give the album a try I just can't get into it. Sometimes reproduction quality does mater.

Jump ahead about another twenty years, to today. eMusic has the album, I've got the credits, and all the local radio stations are playing "Mr. Roboto" like it just came out last month, so the album's on my mind again. Kilroy's time has come.

The "story" isn't very linear; I gather that Kilroy is something of a political prisoner, in a world where morality has run wild. For the real story I had to do some research online. (Maybe if I had bought the CD or the record album, it would have had liner notes that would have helped?) Besides "Mr. Roboto," the tracks "Cold War," "High Time," and "Heavy Metal Poisoning" are probably the strongest parts of the story. Others seem to fit in almost tangentially, such as "Just Get Through This Night," where it seems our hero is pondering the other paths his life might have taken. And then there's "Don't Let It End," which doesn't really feel like it has anything to do with the rest of the album, but is tied in very nicely in the closing number "Don't Let It End (Reprise)," where it sounds like Kilroy has joined forces with Jonathan Chance to make a stand and bring rock & roll back to the people. It's more of a concept album than a story album, talking about the oppressive future regime for the length of the album and then finally doing something about it in the last track. While it may not work as well as Electric Light Orchestra's Time album, as a concept album it works just fine for me.

I get the impression that you either love or hate this album, even among Styx fans. Now I'm a big fan of synth music (see above mentioned synth bands) and I especially love it when a rock band can get a good balance of guitars and keyboards. That's something this album excels at, so musically it just hit all the right notes for me. The synths really grabbed me, especially in "Cold War." I always felt that when a band was all guitars it cheapened the guitar sound; when you have a good keyboard getting a good jam going and then a guitar blares in, it really makes the guitar stand out, and this album is a great example of that. And tracks like "High Time" really have a theatrical quality to them, which helps sell the concept as well.

And my friend Frank once told me all he had to do was put spaceships in an album and I'd eat it up. I guess the same pretty much goes for robots. I expect to be listening to this album a lot this year.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World

2011-04-16T05:00:00.084-04:00

Spoiler Level: Medium

This is one of those films I wanted to see when it first came out, but like most movies I didn't get around to it. The trailer looked very impressive.

Well, the film lives up to the trailer. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World perfectly captures the spirit of the Nintendo generation otaku.

Scott Pilgrim is your average twenty-something. He's in a band with some friends, he's had his share of romances, and he has no career to speak of. Then he meets the girl of his dreams. The only catch is he has to fight each one of her Seven Evil Exes to the death.

It's a story straight out of a manga (or in this case, an Amerimanga, based on the graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley), and never before have I felt a live action film captured the tone of manga so perfectly. And that even goes for anime versions of manga, since anime has its own tone.

But what really pushes this film over the top is the other genre it emulates-- the old 8-bit video games. The Universal Logo rolls out to 8-bit music at the beginning of the film, the fight sequences are set up like Street Fighter matches, and the exes explode into coins when they're defeated, with point values over them that increase with each new ex.

Visually the film is very striking, using special effects for every day scenes, looking like manga brought to life. It's a technique used to a lesser effect that met with scorn in Ang Lee's Hulk and to a stronger effect in Speed Racer. In both cases I liked it, but a lot of people I talked to didn't. Based on the DVD sales of this movie, I suspect fandom has embraced it this time, most likely because of the gaming angle.

The characters are endearing, the dialogue is witty, the acting is well done. The humor lies in the film's ability to both over the top and yet low-key awkwardness at the same time-- for example, at one point Scott makes a dramatic entrance against one of the evil exes-- and then kind of stops, looks to his friends for confirmation, and then gets back to being dramatic.

It's a fun film from beginning to end, and I'll bet a lot of people will be cos-playing these characters for a long time to come.

K9 - ''Black Hunger''

2011-04-15T05:00:00.037-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

Back to K9! I haven't been watching K9 as much this last month, because I've been going to the movies instead. But there's nothing at the theater I want to see this week, so it's back to K9 instead.

This episode starts off pretty well. K9's dialogue has gotten a bit silly of late, something that in a previous episode was chalked up to his memory banks having been filled up with a large library of movies. Most of the time it's not bad, but sometimes (such as when he laughs or goes "Wheee!") it's just way too much. So I was very happy that he was talking very technical and more like his old self when this episode started.

Darius stumbles across an aggressive microcellular cleaning system called "Black Hunger,"and makes off with it. What he missed was the little fact that it just want wrong and killed one of the workers that was using it. The system itself is pretty interesting-- it releases a swarm of black alien-augmented yeast that eats up anything organic, and then you suck it all back up into the containment unit. But when Darius gets caught, he refuses to help return it (what a guy), leaving it up to K9, Starkey and Jorjie.

From there the episode veers off course and makes a fast ninety degree turn straight into the dirt. K9 and company run into a CCPC, and K9 decides to bluff their way past it by telling it he's taking the kids out for a walk. Now a dog taking his kids out for walkies is funny, but the kids then start actually barking and jumping around like dogs. Say what? It's revealed that Black Hunger is a project of Drake's, so Drake orders all the CCPCs after the kids. K9 tries to lure the CCPCs away by yelling "Can't catch me! Wheeeee!" and flying away. Uh, oh. Starkey runs into a dead end of garbage and tree brush, so he unleashes the Black Hunger microbes, and then decides he doesn't have time to gather them up again. What, now?!? Wasn't he the one saying how dangerous it was? And they finally evade the CCPCs by standing still and hiding behind a twig. Ugggh.

It's almost like the episode was written by two different people, and you can tell right where the script was handed off. (But it wasn't; for the record, the entire thing is credited to Chris Roache. It's also his only episode of the season.) It goes from being intelligent, well-thought out and even a bit creepy straight into being campy, idiotic and ludicrous, and it's not a subtle or gradual transition either. You hit that scene of the kids acting like dogs, and it's like the episode jumped the shark and landed right in the tank.

We do get an interesting ending, as Drake has finally screwed up one time too many, and is now being replaced by Inspector Thorne. Thorne's one line comes across better than Drake's entire run, so I'm hoping for some good things from him.

So despite a very good start, the whole last half of this episode falls apart too much to consider this a good episode. K9's score to date: 9 wins, 6 losses.

Primeval - Series 1, Episode 4

2011-04-14T05:00:00.008-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

Dodo birds!!! Awww, they're so cute!! Were dodos really this cute in real life? It makes me sad that we'll never know. It's a shame some of them couldn't have stayed and repopulated the species, like the humpback whales in Star Trek IV.

For a minute there I thought we were going to have just a character episode, finding out Helen's story, watching the relationship between Connor, Abby and Stephen unfold, seeing Connor's friends close in on the truth, with the dodo birds being the only creature to come through the Anomaly. But then the parasite had to go and (literally) rear its ugly head and give us a real threat, turning the story into a tragedy. Needless to say it's easy to relate to Tom and Duncan, and it was fun seeing all the stuff in their flat-- for example, I loved how some of the walls were literally wallpapered with comic books, and I'm pretty sure I saw an ALPHIE robot on their desk. They were fun characters, and losing Tom is like losing one of our own.

And the Grand Central Anomaly Station was awesome. I did not see that coming, and it explains how Helen's getting from time period to time period. Very, very cool.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - ''Pen Pals''

2011-04-13T05:00:00.010-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

Data picks up a radio signal asking if anyone is out there, and answers it. What spirals from there gets the crew of the Enterprise deeper and deeper into bending the Prime Directive. Kirk would be proud.

One has to question Data's judgment through most of the episode. His decisions, while logical for showing compassion for another living being, seem a little rash for a Starfleet officer-- especially one without emotions.

Like the rest of the season it's a strong character episode, and not just for Data. Wesley gets a fair amount of time in the spotlight when he's given command of a survey team, and everyone else gets to have good scenes as he comes to them all for advice. And probably the best character scene in the episode is when Pulaski dares to imply that Worf's black-and-white reading of the Prime Directive is cowardly, and Picard rushes in to do damage control!

This is also one of those episodes that pretty much set the status quo for the Berman era of Star Trek. Debating the Prime Directive from so many different angles makes for great Trek-- when it was new. But once they laid down their guidelines in episodes like this, it made it much more cut-and-dry on future Trek shows. (Which was part of why I was so looking forward to Star Trek: Enterprise-- no Prime Directive! Then they go and screw it up with having the Vulcan's already having their own non-interference policy. But never mind that, I'll save that rant for when I eventually get to "The Communicator.") But for this point in Trek history, getting to dissect the Prime Directive made for some great drama.

Stargate Universe - "Intervention"

2011-04-12T05:00:00.068-04:00

Spoiler Level: Medium

SGU Season Two has come to Netflix Streaming! And I'm happy about it! That itself shows how far this show has come for me during the second half of the first season.

When we left our intrepid band of heroes, the Destiny was being invaded by the Lucian Alliance, quite a few people had been shot, and it looked like quite a few others were about to die. Most of the ways everyone managed to escape death are fairly believable, and when they start to stretch believability we're given a glimpse that something else is trying to save them, and it's watching what they do and passing judgment on the choices they make. As to what that something is, well... I hope they hadn't planned to reveal that in Season 5, or we're screwed.

Lastly, we now have a group of people stuck on the ship who were out-and-out enemies, and everyone's now going to have to learn to work together for their mutual survival. Juuuust in case you didn't already think the show was like Star Trek: Voyager enough. The whole Maquis / Starfleet thing never really worked for me in Voyager, but before I give you the wrong idea that I think this is a mistake, let me say that I feel it should actually work better here. Military versus Civilians didn't work for me at all, because they're all from Earth and it would only be logical for them to pull together in a time of crisis, since they all have the same goal. But SGC versus Lucian Alliance? That makes much more sense. Their goals will overlap as far as getting back to the Milky Way, but beyond that they're going to have very different goals, especially over the long-term control of the Destiny. This should help give the show conflict and drama that I can get behind.

And lastly, let me once again thank Krissie's Caps for the screen capture!

Tiger & Bunny - "All's Well That Ends Well"

2011-04-11T05:00:00.001-04:00

Spoiler Level: Low- Medium

I've been trying out a few new anime titles here and there, but in general have found my interest is mostly in either the classics (such as Space Pirate Captain Harlock, now officially available from Toei and Crunchyroll), or updated versions of the classics (such as Galaxy Railways. Hmm, maybe I'm only into Leiji Matsumoto stuff?) I tried out the first episode of Aquarion but it didn't grab me, and I've had so many other things to watch that I haven't really been looking for anything new, especially in the anime department. While I no longer resent anime like I used to, I can't say I've really been interested in it either.

Tiger & Bunny might just change all that. I tried it out based on the recommendation of Captain JLS, who's also been a little burnt out on the anime scene, so I figured if it was good enough to get him hyped then it must be worth checking out. And it definitely is.

Tiger & Bunny tells the story of a future where super-powered people (referred to as NEXTs) have been around for 45 years. So how does society react to this? By putting them on reality television, of course. And not just a documentary-style Cops-type reality show, oh no; "Hero TV Live" is a competition show, with points awarded for the number of villains captured, people rescued, and various other game show factors. Each hero has a sponsor whose name is proudly emblazoned on their costume, and sponsors include Bandai and Pepsi.

And the first episode did something an anime show hasn't done for me in a long time-- after the first episode, I wanted to see what happens next. That's what good anime should do.

And Tiger & Bunny has another edge to it-- it's being simulcast in Japan and in the US, courtesy of Viz, on their website vizanime.com. Fresh, new episodes are legally being made available every week, subtitled in English, the same day they air in Japan. Ha! Take that, ya bit-torrenting bastards!

I don't know how long they intend to leave each episode up, but as of this writing this episode is still available at http://www.vizanime.com/ep/3149-all-s-well-that-ends-well. It has limited commercials, but (a) that's totally worth it for same day release, and (b) it works with the format of the show, since the show is about a tv show. If you've ever liked anime and/or reality shows, you should definitely check it out.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Ron Jones Project

2011-04-10T05:00:00.000-04:00

Wow! Apparently, I'm not alone in feeling that some of Next Gen's best musical scores came from Ron Jones. As I mentioned in my TNG review last Monday, I discovered Vol. 6 of Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Ron Jones Project when looking up links for "The Icarus Factor" on Amazon. The fact that it was up to six volumes made me curious about what exactly it was and how many more volumes were out there. Well, apparently it's only every single music score he made for Star Trek!

The series runs for twelve volumes, covering all the music from Jones's 42 episodes during the shows first four seasons.

And the best part? You can cherry-pick 'em. Amazon, iTunes and eMusic all offer each track on all 12 albums as individual downloads. I started out building my own "best of" collection, but I'm discovering the more I hear the more tracks I want to get. I may wind up with all 12 volumes before I'm done after all.

And I know I'm working against myself here, but I've got to recommend eMusic as the way to go. eMusic is a monthly subscription service, where you pay a monthly fee and get a certain amount of downloads per month. They started out doing more independent music, but have gone much more mainstream over the last few years. The down side (if you're a more casual music listener) is that you are making a monthly commitment; the upside is that it is significantly cheaper. All the tracks I bought through eMusic cost me $0.49 each as opposed to $0.99 at the other sites; the albums cost $5.99 as opposed to $8.99. Yeah, yeah, I get a cut from Amazon if you click through using my links and I get nothing from eMusic, but I have to point out the best option when I see it. I'll never get this monetizing thing right...

So, here's all the links to all the albums. As I said, in addition to eMusic and Amazon, they're also available on iTunes. Enjoy!

Source Code

2011-04-09T05:00:00.053-04:00

Spoiler Level: Atomic. There's really no way I can discuss my thoughts on this movie without giving away several key elements of the plot. And for once, I'm only a week behind when it was released. So only read on if you've already seen it or if you don't care what you learn! And if you do care-- this is a great movie. Go see it. Okay, you can go now.

Source Code is directed by the same guy who directed Moon?!? I didn't realize that until just now when I got the poster image. Well that explains a lot. Both are very human stories about one man whose life isn't what he thinks it is, who are being controlled by people without their knowledge, and who eventually take their lives into their own hands, irregardless of how overwhelmingly the odds are stacked against them.

Captain Colter Stevens is an unwitting participant in an experiment. He's being sent back in time, where he arrives in the body of teacher Sean Fentress on a doomed train in Chicago, a train that was destroyed by a terrorist earlier that morning. Colter's job is to figure out which one of the passengers planted the bomb. He only has the last eight minutes of Sean's life to accomplish this-- and if and when he fails, he'll be sent back to try again, and again, and again.

It's Quantum Leap meets Groundhog Day, but with a deeper twist. Because Colter isn't just going back in time. When his mind is linked up with Sean's, for those eight minutes he's creating an entire new alternate reality, separate from his home reality-- a reality that those running the experiment call the Source Code. Any changes he makes there have no effect on his original timeline, but since history is the same in both worlds, he can explore the world inside the Source Code in depth and bring back information on the terrorist so he can be caught before he strikes again in the original reality. But what about those other quantum realities he's created? Do they only exist for eight minutes, ending when he dies, or do they continue on without him?

The more time Colter spends on the train, getting to know the people on it-- especially Christina, the beautiful girl sitting next to him-- the more determined he becomes to find a way to save them all. It's hard for him to accept that even if he saves them inside the Source Code, they'll still be dead when he returns to his original reality. On his final attempt, he no longer cares-- he just needs to save them all in one reality for his own conscience's sake. And he succeeds beyond his wildest dreams, as that reality continues on, with him now getting to live out the rest of his life with Christina.

Except there's one person he didn't save-- Sean Fentress. Colter may not have meant to, but he's now quite literally stolen Sean's life. Now, sure, Sean was going to die anyway, but what about Sean's friends and family? One of the subplots of the film is about Colter trying to reach his father when he goes back in time, since he hasn't been able to contact him while he's been a part of the project, and it's a very moving part of the film. But what about Sean's father? Colter isn't going to know a thing about him or any of the other people in Sean's life.

The film also raises another intriguing point when it's revealed that since Colter came from the original reality (let's call it Reality A), in the altered reality he now lives in where he rescued everyone on the train (let's call that one Reality B) there's no need to send him. Therefore Reality B still has a Colter waiting to be sent. Now let's follow that for a moment-- Reality B now has two Colters. So when Reality B has a crisis where they can use Colter-B, Colter-B will begin creating new realities just like Colter-A did. Colter-B will be sent into a different person's body, since it will be a different crisis, and the odds of Sean Fentress being in both crises are unrealistic. So let's assume that, being the same man of ability, emotion and conscience, he succeeds in the same way that Colter-A did in creating a Reality C that continues on. This Reality C's divergent point would have started with both Colter-A and Colter-B in it, so Colter-B would now be living out his life in another person's body, leaving no need for that universe's Colter to have been sent... meaning there would now be a universe with three Colters! And so Reality-C wouldn't launch their program until a third crisis came along, resulting in the cycle happening all over again. And again... and again... and again. How long until there's enough Colters existing in one reality that he ends up meeting one of himselves? Would the Source Code Project even realize the full implications of what they were doing before they'd altered the entire human race into alternate versions of one man?

This is all the stuff I found myself thinking of after the movie ended. And that's what makes this movie great.

Space Academy - "Castaways in Time and Space"

2011-04-08T05:00:00.007-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

Well, that was a plunge straight down in quality.

Commander Gampu and Laura are exploring a black hole, when they get sucked in. Except here a black hole is simply a blank spot in space that has no reflective properties. And they don't really get sucked in by gravity so much as they pass through a force field surrounding the black hole which damages their ship. Anyway, from there they crash land on a planet inside the black hole, and it's up to Laura's brother Chris, Tee Gar and loner Paul to rescue them, but first they have to get past a giant reptile monster.

This episode is written by Samuel A. Peeples, who also wrote the classic second pilot for Star Trek that succeeded in getting the show picked up, as well as an episode of the animated series. As such, I wouldn't have expected him to fail Astronomy 101, but, well... there it is. He also does a lot of technobabble which sadly sounds like stuff just being made up without any thought to whether it means anything or not.

What really makes this episode tough to watch, however, is Ric Carrot's acting as Chris. He's got to show angry determination to not give up the search for his sister, but it just comes across as the actor trying too hard. He was actually a fairly prolific actor in the 70's, and this show's actually fairly late in his career, so it's kind of surprising that he comes across so poorly. Brian Tochi, on the other hand, does a very good job as Tee Gar, coming across as sincere and believable.

Ty Henderson has a lot to do as Paul in this episode, and he does a decent job. This episode marks Paul's official introduction to Blue Team. Paul was seen in the previous episode, but he stayed behind in the control room and mostly spoke to Commander Gampu. He has one scene where he's speaking to the rest of the team, but he refers to himself as just "Academy Control" and his signal is broken up. So even though he was already there, he wasn't part of Blue Team yet. The story of Paul's learning the moral that it's better to be a part of a team than to only care about yourself is played a bit heavy handed, but it's okay for children's fare of the time.

I continue to enjoy the model shots of the Space Academy and the Seeker, and the visual effects for the black hole itself worked well. The monster is so bad it's good.

But overall, I'm hoping the rest of the series is more like the previous episode and less like this one.

Primeval - Series 1, Episode 3

2011-04-07T05:00:00.000-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

The earliest nightmare I can remember having was when I was around four years old. My family was driving our station wagon across a big grassy lot. We were driving to a giant, round water tank, where we were going to go swimming. I climbed the ladder up the side of the tank with my parents behind me, eager to get in the water, but when I reached the top and looked in there was a giant alligator swimming in the surface of the water coming right at me. I woke up and ran to Mom & Dad's bedroom, and was afraid of alligators and crocodiles for years after that. And yet despite that, I wasn't scared of the prehistoric crocodile monster in this episode at all, and actually thought it was pretty cool, in a "woaaah, did you see that thing?!?" kind of way.

I relate this story only to drive home how much I really, really, really hated the spiders in the previous episode.

I'm also very happy to see the Helen story arc advancing so quickly. This is the kind of thing that it would have taken Smallville all year to get to. Sometimes less is more.

I'm also glad they didn't trivialize the soldier who accidentally swam into the Anomaly. (Oh, and you would think if Helen has been traveling through these things for the last eight years, she would have come up with her own name for them, wouldn't you?) And while I don't remember if they went ahead and let the poor innocent girlfriend take the fall for her boyfriend's death, I have to wonder if that's the smartest tactic for keeping the story quiet. I mean, isn't she just going to get on the stand and insist he was eaten by a giant crocodile? Okay, so people might think she's crazy, but won't that make the press run with the story even more?

Typing "crocodile" so much is making me miss Hostess Chocodiles.

No link for Chocodiles.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - ''Wookie Hunt''

2011-04-06T05:00:00.002-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

Wookies versus Trandosh- ans!! Hot damn!! You know, every now and then this show fulfills my fanboy dreams. The "Expanded Universe" has always said that Kashyyyk and Dosha were in the same system, and that the two races were mortal enemies because the Trandoshans liked to capture Wookies for slave labor. And here we get to see a bunch of Wookies kicking Trandoshan butt! Awesome!!

This story really showed how Ahsoka has come into her own over the last three years. It seems to me she's ready to become a full-fledged Jedi Knight. It would also make sense, because it would then mean that Anakin and Ahsoka would start going on separate assignments all the time (something they already toyed with at the beginning of this season) and it would feel a little more believable that there's no mention of her in Revenge of the Sith.

So, all in all this has been a pretty interesting season-- we did a lot of bouncing around in the time line, brought in Darth Maul's brother, met Tarkin, and explored Anakin's destiny. All in all, a very enjoyable year.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - ''Padawan Lost''

2011-04-05T05:00:00.000-04:00

Spoiler Level: Medium

The Clone Wars returns for a two-parter to close out its third season, as Ahsoka is kidnapped during a battle by a group of Trandoshans to be hunted down for sport.

This episode is great for fleshing out Bossk's species, and works all the better for not having Bossk in it. Bossk was the second ever Star Wars action figur mail-away figure offer, so he's something of a special character for me, and it really bugged me that the show had him speaking Basic. I'm okay with some Trandoshans in general speaking Basic, I just don't think Bossk should be one of them. So here we get a good dozen new Trandoshan characters, some who speak Basic and others who just do a lot of cool hissing and growling, which is what I always felt the Trandoshan language should be, so I'm very happy.

The Trandoshans are generally known as slavers, and while they don't do any slaving here they certainly have the same disregard for any sentient life other than their own. By capturing and hunting so many other races for sport, it still plays into the same mindset, not to mention creating so many creepy background scenes of others they've hunted. Check out the Wampa hide:

Which brings me to another point about this episode-- the animation looks almost painted. It gives the whole thing a very exotic look.

I'll be back tomorrow with part two, the season finale!

Star Trek: The Next Generation - ''The Icarus Factor''

2011-04-04T14:59:00.000-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

Now this episode is what separates The Next Generation from Voyager. It's a character episode from start to finish. No alien life forms taking people over, no mysterious diseases, no red alerts. Just pure, 100% character drama.

Riker is offered a command of his own for the second time, which (if he accepts) would take him to the remote Vega Omicron system for an extended mission. His adviser on the assignment is his estranged father, who also just happens to be an old flame of Pulaski's. Meanwhile, Wesley, Geordi and Data are trying to figure out what's got Worf so cranky, which turns out to be due to his reaching the tenth anniversary of his Age of Ascension and not having any other Klingons around to celebrate it with.

It's pure Trek space opera, with character development galore. We get to learn more about the Klingons, we get to actually meet a parent of a main character, and we get a lot of great character moments (such as when Data tries to tell Worf he has friends who cares about him, and Worf belows "Begone! ...sir.") What makes this episode work so well is the chemistry between the characters.

I don't want to turn this into a Voyager rag session, but its very format -- being stranded on the opposite side of the galaxy-- made it tougher to do episodes like this. Sure, you could still do a story like Worf's (if anything, it might work better with it being impossible to be able to celebrate with other Klingons), but there's no chance for parents or old flames to come on the show, and thus help flesh the characters out.

I love Ron Jones's music. Every time the musical score stands out to me, it turns out to be by Ron Jones.

So all in all, this is the kind of episode that makes Next Gen fun.

When setting up the links for this episode, I discovered there's entire soundtracks of Ron Jones's Trek music! I'll be buying this puppy.

The Adjustment Bureau

2011-04-02T05:00:00.003-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

This is the first time I've walked into a movie cold in a long, long time. All I'd seen about it was the promo poster pictured here, and the only thing I'd heard about it was that it was written by Phillip K. Dick. Those two items were enough to get me to go see it. To be completely honest, I even kept forgetting the name of the movie I was going to see. That can be the best way to see a movie sometimes, because everything comes as a surprise.

David Norris is a politician running for Senator from New York, when two major things happen to him-- he runs into a woman he feels destined to be with named Elise, and he stumbles across an organization that controls what's Really Going On.

The Adjustment Bureau is following a Plan, and we mere humans aren't supposed to know anything about it. Now that Norris knows, he needs to keep his mouth shut about it and just go back about his life. Which he seems like he'd be willing to do, except for the fact that the Plan calls for Norris and Elise to never see each other again. And that's the part Norris can't accept.

From there the movie becomes an action thriller, with Norris trying to find and build a life with Elise again while constantly evading the Bureau's efforts to keep them apart yet not being able to explain why he's doing the things he's doing.

The film raises lots of great questions about predestination versus free will. Earth is obviously someone's experiment, 6.91 billion people with their own capacity for free choice, all subject to random chance, yet at the same time all being subtly manipulated without their knowledge, steering individuals to make the choices that the Adjustment Bureau wants them to make. Exactly who and what the Bureau are is never fully explained, although it's clear that they've been guiding humanity since its inception, under the guidance of the Plan laid out by the Chairman. Is the Chairman God, and are the Agency His angels? Possibly; if nothing else, they're most likely the cause of humanity's belief in God. Are they something more sinister? Possibly; how can anyone deny two people true love and still be good? But the Plan all seems to be for the greater good of humanity, so they're definitely not evil. It doesn't just ask if we really have free will, but more importantly, do we deserve it?

And this is where the film's strength lies. It's a fun action movie with unusual motivations that make you think and wonder, and I use wonder in the sense of both being curious and of being in awe of something bigger than you.

Green Lantern

2011-04-01T05:00:00.081-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

Anyone who knows me knows I don't believe in or advocate illegal downloading, but when I read last night that a work print of the upcoming Green Lantern movie had been leaked to the web I had see it. Everyone who knows me knows I have become a HUGE Green Lantern fan over the last decade, and I don't think I've looked forward to a movie this much since Phantom Menace, so I had to download this and watch it ASAP.

Perhaps I should have learned from history. Sadly, this movie makes Phantom Menace look like Empire Strikes Back.

Ryan Reynolds does a fine job, and the special effects that were completed in this print looks decent, but the changes they made to the Green Lantern mythos are just so far off the mark that it makes me long for the days of the Incredible Hulk movies, where Daredevil was a ninja and Thor was two people. Yes, it's that bad.

I can handle some changes, like Hal Jordan being more manic and cocky than he is in the comics, becuase (a) the character needs to grab mainstream audiences and that's what's popular, and (b) Hal's personality got changed around a lot depending on who was writing him anyway.

Long-time readers know I've always been understanding about changes for a new medium, but the changes here are pointless at best and insulting at worst. Oa is no longer a planet, it's a now a pocket universe on a "higher plane of existence." I guess so it's easier for the Guardians (who are now also green) to watch the entire universe at once. Green Man looks nothing like a, well, green man anymore. Why? What's the point of that? If you were so in love with your new design, why not just make him a new GL? Then there's Kilowog, who Dennis Haysbert plays with a Scottish accent. Well that's just great, a big mostly-green stubby-eared CGI guy with a Scottish accent. Kilowog has become freakin' Shrek! And Sinestro is gay, and constantly hitting on Hal. Not in a funny, played-for-laughs kind of way either, but in a creepy, look-how-you-can't-trust-this-guy kind of way. Now Sinestro doesn't become a bad guy yet in this movie, but anyone who knows anything about Green Lantern knows that Sinestro is Hal's number one nemesis, so that combined with the way he's portrayed here makes it come across as homophobic. And I'm all for gay rights and equality and visibility (hell, I'm a card-carrying member of the HRC) but giving Sinestro an extended gay love scene was just too much.

For what it's worth, Hector Hammond is portrayed as a total perv yet totally straight, which I guess was their attempt at doing a balanced portrayal. And it is consistent with the way Hammond's been portrayed by Geoff Johns in the comics, so at least they got something right.

Oh, and the musical score sounds like screeching cats. Literally. It sounds like James Newton Howard took a dozen cats, stretched them out on a rack and started whacking them with a mallet in a demented desire to get each one to yowl at a precise pitch. What the hell is up with that? Didn't John Williams totally kill the "space sounds bizarre and eerie" approach in the 70's? If they're trying to go retro, it doesn't work at all. Then again, I didn't like the musical score to the Battlestar Galactica remake either, so what do I know.

Other than all that, the film has potential. Like, say, in the way that Attack of the Clones was an improvement over Phantom Menace.

Lastly, I want to point out that this is exactly why you shouldn't download movies. This is just a work print, so with some carefull editing (is there time for reshoots?) what comes out in July might not suck this bad. And it could be that being such a big Green Lantern fan, my expectations were just too damn high. But if you absolutely, positively think you can not wait like I thought I couldn't, then here's the link to the bit torrent for the Green Lantern movie. But don't say I didn't warn you.

So all in all, it's probably better to not pay any attention to this post anyway.

UPDATE: April Fools! I actually like Phantom Menace.

Space Academy - "The Survivors of Zalon"

2011-03-31T05:00:00.110-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

Space Academy was one of the "must see" shows during my childhood. It was a Saturday morning show, made by Filmation, a company whose product was everywhere on Saturday mornings when I was growing up. And like most Filmation products, it was never seen again once it finished its network run.

Because of its limited availability, I never had anything but my memories on whether it was any good. I remembered it fondly, but then again I thoroughly enjoyed Lost in Space at that age too, which just as thoroughly disappointed me when I saw it again as an adult.

Now that I'm 42, not only am I less easily amused, but I have higher standards for kids shows as well. Just because a show needs to be written for a younger audience does not mean that it needs to be bland, patronizing or out-and-out stupid. Sarah Jane Adventures and Wizards of Waverly Place understand this; K9 occasionally has problems remembering it.

Last weekend I found a DVD box set including not only the entire run of Space Academy, but Filmation's other live action science fiction shows, Jason of Star Command and Ark II as well, all in one nice box set for a mere $10. Ten bucks! It was one of those South Park Wal-Mart moments, where I was trapped by the enticement of something I didn't necessarily need by the staggering low price. I couldn't go on without buying it. I had to find out how well they held up.

And the answer is... surprisingly well.

The writing, model work, special effects and music are all very strong for television in 1977. The effects are better than Doctor Who's 15th season, which premiered at the same time. Being a tech-head I especially love the modeling work done on the Space Academy itself, the Seeker ship, and the Seeker's launchbay. The sets all look great, portraying the clean, slick designs we all expected from the future in the 70s, when the technology of the computer itself was still seen as something new and shiny. It also has a very catchy, upbeat theme song. I didn't notice any of the typical Filmation stock music, although their stock sound effects are here in abundance.

Space Academy premiered September 10, 1977, just three and a half months after the premiere of Star Wars. This means one of two things-- either they had already been working on the show and the timing was a coincidence (and most likely gave them a boost), or a Filmation exec got this show moving the moment he walked out of the theater. After watching the first episode, I suspect this series probably owes more to Space: 1999 and Star Trek than it does to Star Wars. It's got that sense of exploration, of meeting strange alien life (in this case, made out of energy) and a desire to learn from it.

If the show falls apart anywhere, it's in the acting. Jonathan Harris (Dr. Smith of Lost in Space fame) totally carries the show as Commander Gampu. Harris plays the part of a wise teacher and commander completely seriously, and comes across great. The kids, on the other hand, often come across as stiff and uncomfortable, and the results are often cringe-worthy. But this is their first episode; maybe Harris will rub off on them and they'll improve.

In this premiere episode, one of the students is monitoring a planet that's due to explode when she picks up signs of life on the planet. When they investigate, the students encounter a young orphaned boy living alone on the world, protecting two glowing gems. The gems are children to a glowing red sphere, who is trying to make sure that its children mature by also becoming beings of pure energy when the planet explodes. Desperate to protect its children, it traps the students on the planet in a force field and holds Commander Gampu in orbit so they can't interfere with the birthing process. Gampu must then plead with the alien parent, explaining to it that what means life to them will mean to death to the humans on the planet.

Now seriously, couldn't you see that story on classic Trek or Space: 1999? And it also gives Harris a chance to put in a great performance, showing his concern for the students under his care.

The character of Laura Gentry (played by Pamelyn Ferdin) was also really standing out to me; I knew that I recognized her, but for the life of me I had no idea where I knew her from. It turns out she played one of the little kids on the classic Trek episode "And the Children Shall Lead." And I'm pretty sure when I last rewatched that episode, it was bugging me there that I knew her from somewhere as well-- apparently, I had a faint memory of her from here! At last, the circle is complete.

So all in all the pros way outweigh the cons, and if the rest of the season holds up as well as this first episode did, then this is going to turn out to be a show well worth seeing again as an adult.

If you have a Half Price Books near you, check it to see if you can find the same great deal I did. If not and you're still interested in the show, here are the Amazon links. The discs are also available to rent through Netflix.

Paul

2011-03-30T05:00:00.001-04:00

Spoiler Level: Medium

Oh, man. I laughed so hard I nearly passed out. No lie.

Paul is a great movie because it works on two levels. One on level, there's the obvious homage to Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T., and to the fanboy subculture in general. There so many in-jokes I could never count them all. A few zinged over my head, but not many. (Or not enough, some might argue.)

But unlike Free Enterprise, for example, the film doesn't require you to get them. Many of them are played in such a way that even if you don't get the reference, the way they're delivered is funny all on their own. (Okay, Higher-than-Medium Spoiler Level here as an example. Highlight it to read it.) For example, when Blythe Danner faces off against Sigourney Weaver, she exclaims "Get away from her, you bitch!" Out of my group, three of us laughed because it's Sigorney Weaver's most famous line from Aliens now being directed back at her. One of us laughed because it was Blythe Danner being portrayed as a little old lady, and here's this little old lady taking charge and kicking butt. And there's numerous scenes like that. I remember finding Spaceballs disappointing because I felt Mel Brooks explained all the jokes. The jokes aren't explained here, so either you catch the reference or you don't-- but even if you don't, the scene has been crafted in such a way that the line is funny all by itself. It's the perfect solution, and one that could only be achieved by people who genuinely love the source material they're lampooning.

And then there's the characters themselves-- Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as two Brits dealing with America for the first time, Seth Rogan as (the voice of) the rude & crude title character Paul, Kristen Wiig as Ruth Buggs, a devout Christian who has her world turned upside down. Not to mention the people who end up chasing them, including Ruth's father, government agents, and angry rednecks. That's the film's other level; it is, first and foremost, a flat-out comedy. You could never have watched a single frame of science fiction in your life and you'll still find a lot to laugh at here.

This definitely goes in the list of top fanboy movies. Come to think of it, the only other two on the list are the brilliant aforementioned Free Enterprise, and Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. And come to think of it again, I don't think I've laughed at a movie so hard since Kevin Smith. And that's saying a lot.

Primeval - Series 1, Episode 2

2011-03-29T08:49:00.000-04:00

Spoiler Level: Medium

Did I mention that I really, really, really, REALLY hate spiders? My god, this episode was worse than Arachnaphobia. It played on every fear of spiders I have. My skin was crawling, I was flinching at every itch on my body, and I was looking behind me. And that was with me closing my eyes whenever I could. Congratulations, Primeval, you've succeeded in scaring the hell out of me.

Once we got to the giant centipede it wasn't so bad. The centipede was creepy, but creepy in a way I could handle. It worked better than the Centaurapede from K9, but that may be because I was already creeped out by the time it showed up. And as long as I'm comparing Primeval to K9, it occurred to me today that the character of Lester in Primeval is what the character of Drake is trying to be on K9. I don't know if it's better writing here or better acting on behalf of Ben Miller or a combination of both (although I suspect it's the latter, with apologies to Connor Van Vuuren).

The characters continue to be enjoyable, with a nice love triangle forming between Connor, Abby and Stephen (aka "The Young and the Beautiful"), and with Helen's story moving along fairly quickly. That's the nice thing about British shows; with only 6 episodes to the season, they don't waste time.

Once again, I also like the bigger implications, that certain evolutionary gaps were potentially caused by the anomalies. I hope they keep following up on that line of thinking.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - ''Time Squared''

2011-03-28T10:04:00.001-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

I was going to go for a typical "double Picard" shot, and I thought, y'know what? Everyone does that. I'm going to go with one of the cool ship shots that I liked. So here's the Enterprise getting sucked into the Space Funnel.

I love time travel stories, but this one's just missing something. Maybe it's the fact that being thrown out of time messes up Future-Picard and his shuttle so badly, since we've never seen time travel have that kind of effect before or since. But just to play devil's advocate, every different method of time travel in Star Trek seems to have different properties to it with different consequences, so I'll just jot down in my little notebook of Temporal Laws of the Star Trek Universe that "time travel caused by an anti-matter explosion inside a sentient space funnel reverses the polarity of the time traveler and their equipment until they return to the departure point from their timeline."

Other interesting little tidbits:

* We see Riker cooking for the first time, and he references his difficult past with his father, which is a very nice set-up for the following episode.

* Picard tells Troi to stay with Future-Picard so she can sense any change and notify him immediately, but after a two minute conversation with Pulaski she gets mad and leaves, apparently forgetting Picard's orders.

* When the Space Funnel zaps both Picard and Future-Picard, Picard leaves the bridge and heads to sickbay. Troi and Riker stay on the bridge and exchange worried looks, then Troi leaves to go after Picard. Cut to commercial break. When we come back, Picard's entering sickbay, but Troi's beat him there!

* Apparently the intelligence Troi was sensing was originally meant to be Q, and this episode would serve as a lead-in to "Q-Who," but Roddenberry nixed that. (With thanks once again to Larry Nemecek's The Star Trek: The Next Generation Compendium. Yes, I read the write-up after I watch every episode.)

I also like that Future-Picard is able to explain to Picard what's going on because, logically, in his timeline he was focused on trying to figure out what the Space Funnel was, while in our timeline Picard spent the same time trying to figure out what Future-Picard was. Neat.

The Dreaming Void by Peter F. Hamilton [UPDATED]

2011-03-27T05:00:00.028-04:00

Spoiler Level: Low-Medium

The Dreaming Void is a very good novel and a very enjoyable read. It also frustrates the hell out of me.

The story takes place in the year 3589, which really appeals to me. I like the idea of a story that's so far ahead in time that society has been radically redefined. And the book delivers on that promise-- the galaxy of 3589 has practically conquered death, with a new body being able to be made to order, with all your previous experiences downloaded into it. Almost nobody dies; they just suffer body-loss. And you can make your new body look however you want it to, so everyone looks like they're in their twenties even though they're centuries old.

It's also kind of frustrating because society is so radically different that it takes a while to figure out just how this society works. For example, there are Higher humans and Advanced humans, the unisphere and the gaiasphere, biononics and genetic improvements that all seem to not be genetic at all but computer based. It's a lot to take in with very little explanation-- you have to just figure it out as you go. Although there is finally an explanation on the differences between all of these and how they came about... 474 pages in. And by then you've pretty much figured it out, that page just fills in the details. And just who the hell is Ozzie, anyway?

One of the things I love about the book is that it has many, many different characters taking part in many different storylines, all of which are driven by the fact that a religious group called Living Dream wants to make a Pilgrimage into the Void. Unlike most galaxies that have a black hole at the center of them, it turns out ours has the Void at the center instead. And every now and then the Void expands and devours anything around it. But one man named Inigo started receiving dreams from inside the Void, and now his followers want to go there. Others are afraid that going there will trigger a massive devourment phase that will destroy all life in the galaxy.

And the nice thing about this set up? It's all in place by page 24. Out of 582. So you know how I complain that Jack McDevitt books tend to give away major parts of the book on the back cover? Can't say that here.

The frustrating downside to this is that no major plot points are moved forward on this until the end of the book. And then, nearly all of them end on a cliffhanger!

Now the characters and situations and worlds are genuinely all very interesting. I was never bored with the book for a minute. But dammit, I want to see this interesting premise move forward, and after 582 pages and over five weeks of reading, I have to get the next book to see the overall story arc move one step?!?

And yes, it took me over five weeks to read this book, even with my coming back to it often and ignoring most of my comics. Thick book, small print, slow reader. And I realize it's not the author's fault I can't read faster; man, I wish I could install some biononics or Advancer upgrades or what have you so I could have read this in my usual 10 days. But that's just the speed I read. Which means if I want to satisfy the curiosity I felt when I read that initial back cover blurb, I have to invest another good six weeks (the next book is a good 90-some pages longer), and guess what? It's a bloody trilogy! (And no, I didn't realize that when I picked it up. I did realize there was a second book, but I didn't realize the whole thing would be over 1800 pages.)

And I haven't even touched on the fact that it takes place in the same universe as his two previous books, Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained. For the most part that's not a problem because it's set 1,500 years after those books, so the events of those books are ancient history and easily picked up on as simple backstory when referenced. It's only when characters start popping up from those books that I start to feel like I'm missing something important, but it does a good enough job of giving me what I need to know.

Now by contrast, the story of the dreams that are coming from the Void are paced just right for me.

The book alternates chapters; we get one chapter set in the outside galaxy following the lives of many characters, followed by a chapter of the dreams received from a microuniverse that exists inside the Void, following the life of Edeard, the man who changed their world. The microuniverse inside the Void is very much like the middle ages, with one notable exception-- everyone there has telepathy and telekinesis. It takes a little while to get the hang of Edeard's world as well, but his world is much simpler and much easier to grasp. And most importantly for me, in a story telling perspective, his story comes to a climax that sets the stage for something bigger in the next book. It's a good breaking point.

And really, that's my big complaint. I wanted this book to satisfy my curiosity of the premise, while upping the stakes and giving me a good breaking point. The inner Edeard storyline does that; the outer Inigo storyline doesn't. And it's hardly the author's fault that he didn't write the book the way *I* want books to be formatted.

I don't mean to sound so bitchy, and maybe it's just because I've had my meds reduced (well there's a giveaway), but dammit, I feel disappointed. I feel like I invested so much into this book and now it tells me that to see the part of the story that should have come in around page 200 I now need to invest it all over again in another 600 page book.

And I probably will, because after all is said and done, it is a good book. If it's about the journey and not the destination, then it's an enjoyable journey. Did it entertain? Yes, yes it did. And this is one of the cases where I have to remind myself (say it with me folks) that it's called entertainment.

But man, I can't help but feel let down.

I wish I could read faster.

UPDATE: Having had a night to sleep on it and let it settle in, it occurs to me that I've walked away from books that ended like this without caring what happened next, or even dropped books in the middle once my curiosity was satisfied and never came back to them. The very fact that I did get this upset about it shows how much the author made me care about the world he's created here. So some well-deserved kudos to Peter F. Hamilton for being able to do that. I will definitely read the follow-up, The Temporal Void... but probably not until I'm on vacation and can dedicate a lot of time to reading it.

I still wish I could read faster.

Beyond the Time Barrier

2011-03-26T10:08:00.001-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

This is an old black-and-white movie from 1960, one year before Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. It's a product of its time, playing on the concept of man going into space being a complete unknown, and (of course) serving as a warning against the use of nuclear weapons.

Major Bill Allison is flying the first space plane, designed to fly straight up into space. During the flight, his plane ends up breaking the time barrier, and he arrives back on Earth 65 years later, in the year 2024.

And here is why I find these kind of movies fun-- we get a look at what they predicted Earth's future would be like. After the first manned moon landing, the Earth banded together and colonized Mars and Venus in 1970. But fallout from nuclear weapon testing has worn away the protective layers of Earth's atmosphere, resulting in the Earth being bombarded by cosmic radiation. In 1971, this radiation caused a plague, causing people to mutate and resulting in future generations being born deaf, dumb and sterile.

Ahhh, if only the Earth had banded together after the first moon landing, instead of only going a half a dozen times and then never going back again. I also loved how they were predicting colonies on Mars and Venus just ten years into their future. I'm guessing we didn't know how brutal the conditions on Venus are back then? However I have to give them points for coming close to predicting the hole in the Ozone Layer and Global Warming. And even Major Allison's jet is similar in concept to Virgin's space plane.

Most of the dialogue and some of the acting is pretty bad, so much so that I was surprised this movie was never used on MST3K. Heaven knows my wife and I were playing MST3K with it on our own. The science is pretty laughable as well. ("Gravity has no effect on time!") And then of course there's the cigarettes, with Air Force officials lighting up in the hospital. But that's part of what makes these old SF movies fun.

As to things I genuinely did like about the movie: They actually had access to an Air Force jet, which was pretty impressive, and the model work when the jet is dropping its stabilizers looked a lot better than I expected. There's some very cool paintings used to show the future city, which granted don't fit in with the actual movie footage well, but are still neat to look at. And the future city is obsessed with triangles. The place is full of them, the doors, the walls, the support pillars, everything is triangles, even the dissolve wipes from scene to scene, all of which makes for some very neat camera angles. I liked the triangles.

So really, it's not as bad as an Ed Wood movie, but still bad enough to be fun, and good enough that I never got bored with it.

Primeval - Series 1, Episode 1

2011-03-25T10:00:00.002-04:00

Spoiler Level: Low

With all of my shows taking a break until April, I decided to check this show out since I've heard such good things about it.

First thing's first... Oh my, no episode titles. How edgy. How avant-garde. How boring it makes for a blog review title. Seriously though, it doesn't really bother me, but it makes me wonder, why are we seeing a backlash against episode titles? For example, did anyone notice that Stargate stopped putting episode titles on screen when they switched to SGU? I can't think of any show I watch that puts the episode titles on screen anymore. It's like episode titles have become so twentieth century. Not that I mind that the entire show is just "Primeval," and maybe once I see the entire show I'll feel it really works for it or something, but right now it just strikes me as a move away from creativity and into homogenization.

But none of that really matters, because the episode itself was a great starter, and definitely made me want to see more. I knew the premise was about creatures from the past slipping into the present, but I kind of thought the heroes would be more on the defensive and reacting to each new monster as opposed to trying to figure out why the portals are happening, if they've happened before, and who else has been using them. When Professor Nick Cutter declares "Everything we know about the universe is wrong" I believe him, and it makes me look forward to finding out what the truth really is.

Not to mention that everyone's just so darn good-looking on this show. That doesn't hurt, either.

Next episode: giant spiders with pincers. I hate spiders. I mean, I really, really hate spiders. That does not inspire me to want to watch it. But I will.

The Cape - ''Endgame''

2011-03-24T22:27:00.001-04:00

Spoiler Level: Medium

Well, this was a pleasant surprise. Apparently NBC decided to post the last episode online. I feel kind of foolish now; I stopped checking on this show once they announced no more episodes would be aired.

"Endgame" was filmed before they got the notification that NBC had cut their order down to 10 episodes from 13, so the makers of the show didn't get a chance to wrap it up. Having said that, "Endgame" is at least more satisfying of an ending than "Razer" was.

The evidence that Vince gathered on Peter Fleming in the previous episode has gone public, so Fleming weasels his way out of it by doing what he does best-- framing someone else to take the fall for him. In this case it's Marty Voyt, Vince's best friend who helped set him up in the first place. As I suspected in "The Lich," this is Marty's redemption story, as he comes clean to Vince's wife about what he's done and why he did it-- which is to say, to protect his family from Fleming. And we did see Fleming threaten Voyt's family in those early epsodes, so that reasoning works.

This is a typical late-season episode, in that big things are starting to happen, and the pieces are all being put into place for the final battle. Fleming's defenses are starting to unravel, and you can tell that Chess was going to start taking the center stage again very soon. Vince gets to be with his wife again, albeit as The Cape, and has to be talked out of revealing that he's still alive to her, with reassurances from Orwell and Max that he can tell her very soon. It's a shame we won't get to see any of that happen now, but at least we have some closure between Vince and Marty, and a feel for the ending that would have been.

As of this writing, this episode is still available to view for free -- with the same one lone commercial played at every single commercial break -- at http://www.nbc.com/the-cape/video/endgame/1313753/.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - ''The Royale''

2011-03-23T05:00:00.085-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

This episode gets a bad wrap. Yeah, it has some bad moments, but all in all it's a fun little episode.

The Enterprise comes across the remains of an old NASA expedition, much farther out than any such expedition could have reached. On the planet's surface, Riker, Data and Worf discover a great big nothing with a pair of revolving doors. Entering leads them into a bizarre recreation of an old Las Vegas hotel. It's not long before they discover that the entire thing was made by aliens as a place for the last surviving astronaut from the NASA mission, based on a cheap paperback novel found on the NASA ship. But just like the Hotel California, at the Hotel Royale you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.

There's very little I really don't like about the episode, but one of the things I do dislike is that there was no good way at the time to do an effect of the Away Team going through the revolving door and coming out into the same room (à la the most recent Doctor Who short, "Space"). It just makes it look like Riker, Data and Worf are the Three Stooges and aren't smart enough to know how to use it.

The story itself is a cool concept, and it's always fun to see characters out of their element. The scene where a phone rings and Worf isn't quite sure what to do with it is great, and Data's gambling at the end is priceless. And I always liked the part where they identify the timeframe of the mission based on the fact that the US flag has 52 stars. (Wonder if that will ever happen? We've got 22 years left before this becomes inconsistent.)

Speaking of inconsistencies, I never would have thought to look this up if it wasn't (once again) for Larry Nemecek's The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, but this episode uses Fermat's Last Theorem as a parallel for the NASA mission; while they may have learned what happened to them, they still don't know why it happened or how they got to be so far out into space. Picard muses that, like Fermat's Last Theorem, it's a puzzle that may never be solved. (Which kind of bugs me; it would have been just as easy to write an answer in the journal they found. It stikes me as attempt to be mysterious that doesn't really work.) As of the book's printing (at least my copy, which is the May '95 revision), Nemecek says that as of 1993 Fermat's Last Theorem was close to being proven, and a quick Google search shows me that it was in fact solved... also in May of 1995!

My Star Wars Vintage Collection R2-D2 Dilemma-- RESOLVED!

2011-03-22T05:00:00.006-04:00

Well, I finally come to a decision. And in my usual style of making mountains out of molehills, I decided to make a production out of it. And believe it or not, I got it all on the first take! Wow!

Transformers: Prime - ''Deus Ex Machina''

2011-03-21T05:00:00.015-04:00

Spoiler Level: High

Another good entry, albeit with a few complaints that probably aren't worth getting into.

Miko and Bulkhead are in the spotlight again; When Ratchet detects that some Energon has been detected in Greece, Miko and Bulkhead investigate, only to discover an ancient painting of a Cybertronian artifact: and Energon Harvester, capable of extracting Energon directly from the ground. Or worse yet, from the body of a Transformer. From there it's a race between the Autobots and two new Decepticon characters, Knock Out and Breakdown, to find and retrieve the artifact first.

Knock Out and Breakdown are cool characters; they're both vehicles, which is cool from the start. Starscream's open disdain for any Decepticon on wheels suits him well. I kept recognizing Knock Out's voice, but couldn't place it; turns out he's voiced by Daran Norris, who played Gordy on Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide. He also voices Cosmo on Fairly Odd-Parents, but he uses a completely different voice for that one. The things I learn from my daughter's TV habits. Breakdown, on the other hand, is one of those big, silent types who doesn't say much, but prefers to speak by blowing stuff up. He's not totally silent like Bumblebee or Soundwave; more like he only says a few words when the time is right, like Silent Bob. Or Ferb. And they don't leave at the end of the episode, so perhaps we'll actually get to see them again.

I'll go ahead and get into my complaints anyway. Bulkhead figures out where Starscream's going to go, but doesn't work it out until after all the other Autobots have rolled out. He does seem to have at least clued them in so they could show up when the action's ended. And if Starscream keeps killing his own troops (and taunting them that he could kill them), I can't imagine why Knock Out and Breakdown would stick around. Perhaps they won't.

Oh, and it was good to see Megatron again, even if he is still offline.

So all in all, an enjoyable outing. Here's hoping we'll be seeing more of the expanded Decepticon army.

Doctor Who - ''Space'' and ''Time''

2011-03-20T05:00:00.005-04:00

Spoiler Level : Low

I really don't want to give too much away on this one, partially because it's less than 48 hours old, and partially because the BBC is actually allowing a Doctor Who video to stream outside the UK!

This year's Red Nose Day featured one story broken into two four-minute mini episodes, "Space" and "Time." So be sure to check out the link below to watch them. And if you're so inclined, it wouldn't hurt to make a donation and let them know that sharing a charity event like this worldwide will result in worlwide donations. And yes, they do take PayPal in US Dollars.

Even though it's only eight minutes, these "minisodes" still capture the heart of modern Doctor Who, with lots of flirtatious fun between the characters, lots of good laughs, and the trademark Moffatt timey-wimey temporal dillemmas. If this is any sign of whats to come with a married couple in the TARDIS, then we're in for a great season this Easter!

(Oh, come on. Like there was ever any doubt.)

The Doctor Who segments, along with tons of other Comic Relief / Red Nose Day material, is available worldwide on the official Red Nose Day YouTube Channel, www.youtube.com/rednoseday. Just the Doctor Who segments (along with a link to make a donation) are available at the Doctor Who News Page at http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2011/03/dwn180311200008-space-and-time.html.