I always liked Diane Duane's books. I absolutely loved The Wounded Sky, which this episode is based on, although it's so heavily altered that only the original concept is left. But that's just as well, as it avoids the messy "this happened to the same characters twice" that Doctor Who has run into by adapting Jubilee, Human Nature, etc. And the special effects weren't ready for a character like K't'lk back in 1987, anyway. ;) Still, this episode successfully captures the spirit of the book, especially in the "realm of thought" that the Enterprise finds iteself in, and in the character of the Traveller.
I find myself being more sympathetic to Wesley being a kid genius rewatching this, especially Picard's taking the Traveller's advice to guide him. At the time, it just felt like "Oh no, they're letting the kid on the bridge permanently," but in hindsight, knowing he'll become another Traveller and this is a necessary step for him to grow in that direction, it feels like it works. (Although Wesley's awestruck behavior at being allowed on the bridge is still cringe-worthy. The poor kid just wasn't allowed to be cool until the second or third seasons.)
And oh, the music in this episode! Not the bland, sanitized background bars that would become the norm later, but music that actually tried to capture the majesty of what we were seeing on screen, and make you feel connected to it by including the Next Gen theme in it. Fantastic.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - "Alpine Fields"
Another self-contained episode, or at least it would seem so on the surface of it. I really liked Lauren Fields, so hopefully this episode was laying ground work for her character.
I also liked that this makes two episodes in a row where we see different T-888s going after two targets that aren't John Connor.
So now Lauren and Sydney will be living the hide-and-wait lifestyle that Sarah & John are living. Once again, a family who was happily living their lives oblivious to what the future held now know and are preparing for it. It occurs to me that in trying to erase any resistance to itself, Skynet is actually creating it. It would be really cool if Lauren showed up later in the series building her own resistance team.
My one nitpick: Cameron can identify a T-888 from a photograph, but she can't identify that Roger wasn't a T-888 when he's right in front of her? I'll chalk this one up to her being frazzled and recovering from her shutdown...
I also liked that this makes two episodes in a row where we see different T-888s going after two targets that aren't John Connor.
So now Lauren and Sydney will be living the hide-and-wait lifestyle that Sarah & John are living. Once again, a family who was happily living their lives oblivious to what the future held now know and are preparing for it. It occurs to me that in trying to erase any resistance to itself, Skynet is actually creating it. It would be really cool if Lauren showed up later in the series building her own resistance team.
My one nitpick: Cameron can identify a T-888 from a photograph, but she can't identify that Roger wasn't a T-888 when he's right in front of her? I'll chalk this one up to her being frazzled and recovering from her shutdown...
Monday, December 15, 2008
Stargate Atlantis - "Identity"
Once again, the team on Atlantis runs into the same problem that SG-1 ran into.
Once again, the threat feels very real because I'm wondering if people will actually be killed off since the show is almost over.
Once again, there's a lot of running through forests. Thanks a lot for pointing that out to me, RTD. >:/
It may sound like I feel it's getting repetitive, but I don't really. I enjoyed this episode a lot more than last week's. Good characterizations, and I think it actually makes sense that some of the stuff from the Ancients would be recurring.
And I like Zelenka.
Once again, the threat feels very real because I'm wondering if people will actually be killed off since the show is almost over.
Once again, there's a lot of running through forests. Thanks a lot for pointing that out to me, RTD. >:/
It may sound like I feel it's getting repetitive, but I don't really. I enjoyed this episode a lot more than last week's. Good characterizations, and I think it actually makes sense that some of the stuff from the Ancients would be recurring.
And I like Zelenka.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - "Self Made Man"
Enjoyable enough episode. Kind of felt like a side-story, but I guess it resolved the subplot of the three dots. (Of course I thought they did that in the previous episode too, so who knows.)
I liked the concept of a Terminator that arrived in the wrong time, although I think I kept expecting it to become something bigger than it was. Maybe I'm a bit slow, but every time I thought "What about this plot point?" I then realized "Hmm, I guess this answers it." I think I'm a victim of expecting this to be something that's laying ground work for later episodes, but it really isn't, it all wraps itself up quite nicely. Let me make sure I understand how this was supposed to go:
The T-888 was sent back in time not to kill John Connor, but to kill the mayor in 2010. But he arrived in 1920, accidentally killing the guy who was going to build the tower where his assignment was to take place. So he builds the tower himself, then hides in it to wait for 2010 to come around. Then in 2008, Cameron figures it all out and shuts him down. Did I get it right?
Now, it could be argued that there were other, easier ways to fulfill his mission (Kill the mayor's parents? Wait until the mayor was born and kill him then?) but maybe he wasn't that adaptable.
I also rather liked seeing Cameron's attempts at making a friend. While it seems that she's really only trying to adapt her program to know how to improve her "human interaction skills" so she can get what she wants, I'm definitely left with the feeling that there's something more going on in there at the same time. If she was completely indifferent to the dude in the library then she could have not told him about his cancer returning at all, because it was irrelevant to her needs. I think she really did learn to make friends with him... she just had no idea how to be a friend.
But the worst part of the episode was that I kept looking at those donuts thinking "If you don't eat them soon, they're going to go stale, man. What a waste of perfectly delicious looking donuts. Geez, give me those donuts if you're not gonna eat them!"
At any rate, this was an enjoyable done-in-one episode.
I liked the concept of a Terminator that arrived in the wrong time, although I think I kept expecting it to become something bigger than it was. Maybe I'm a bit slow, but every time I thought "What about this plot point?" I then realized "Hmm, I guess this answers it." I think I'm a victim of expecting this to be something that's laying ground work for later episodes, but it really isn't, it all wraps itself up quite nicely. Let me make sure I understand how this was supposed to go:
The T-888 was sent back in time not to kill John Connor, but to kill the mayor in 2010. But he arrived in 1920, accidentally killing the guy who was going to build the tower where his assignment was to take place. So he builds the tower himself, then hides in it to wait for 2010 to come around. Then in 2008, Cameron figures it all out and shuts him down. Did I get it right?
Now, it could be argued that there were other, easier ways to fulfill his mission (Kill the mayor's parents? Wait until the mayor was born and kill him then?) but maybe he wasn't that adaptable.
I also rather liked seeing Cameron's attempts at making a friend. While it seems that she's really only trying to adapt her program to know how to improve her "human interaction skills" so she can get what she wants, I'm definitely left with the feeling that there's something more going on in there at the same time. If she was completely indifferent to the dude in the library then she could have not told him about his cancer returning at all, because it was irrelevant to her needs. I think she really did learn to make friends with him... she just had no idea how to be a friend.
But the worst part of the episode was that I kept looking at those donuts thinking "If you don't eat them soon, they're going to go stale, man. What a waste of perfectly delicious looking donuts. Geez, give me those donuts if you're not gonna eat them!"
At any rate, this was an enjoyable done-in-one episode.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Macross Frontier #17: "Goodbye Sister"
Damn, they got me good on this one!
That scene where the pilot looks into Ozma's cockpit and gasps... my heart lept into my throat, and I just thought, how could I have not seen the signs? Episode 17? Pineapple cake? "Goodbye, Sister," for crying out loud?!? Oh no, don't be... but they always do this in anime, the mentor always dies... OMG, look at all that blood! Oh Ozma...
And then we cut to the hospital with Luca saying "If he'd died, it would have been incredibly emotional, huh?" and I damn near fell off my chair laughing. I should have known better... this is Macross Frontier. Nothing's going to go exactly the same.
They got me good.
I also continue to love how Fire Bomber is "oldies" music. I feel that way around the new breed of otaku sometimes.
That scene where the pilot looks into Ozma's cockpit and gasps... my heart lept into my throat, and I just thought, how could I have not seen the signs? Episode 17? Pineapple cake? "Goodbye, Sister," for crying out loud?!? Oh no, don't be... but they always do this in anime, the mentor always dies... OMG, look at all that blood! Oh Ozma...
And then we cut to the hospital with Luca saying "If he'd died, it would have been incredibly emotional, huh?" and I damn near fell off my chair laughing. I should have known better... this is Macross Frontier. Nothing's going to go exactly the same.
They got me good.
I also continue to love how Fire Bomber is "oldies" music. I feel that way around the new breed of otaku sometimes.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars "Bombad Jedi"
I wouldn't go as far as saying that I'm a Jar-Jar fan, but I certainly don't hate him like a lot of other Star Wars fans do. Yes, I do feel he robbed the final battle scene of Episode I of any real drama, but it didn't rankle me that much. And I rather liked how he was handled in Episode II... an innocent soul manipulated by evil into giving it the power it needs. And I liked how the History Channel documentary pointed out that Jar-Jar reflects Anakin's childhood innocence, and the farther Anakin falls, the less we see of his childhood friend. And really, as grim as Episode III needed to be, Jar-Jar would have stood out pretty badly.
In Clone Wars, however, Jar-Jar has found where he truly belongs. This show has always had a feeling of fun to it, and so rather than standing out, Jar-Jar fits right in. I have to admit that I laughed out loud when he accidentally destroyed his own ship, and again when 3PO had to relate it to Amidala.
Which brings me to another thing I liked-- the fact that Anthony Daniels and Ahmed Best were doing their voices. It just felt so natural and right. Anthony Daniels really shines in this one. You would think that since C-3PO and Jar-Jar are both the comic relief characters that they wouldn't work without a straight man to play off of, but their styles are so different-- Jar-Jar the manic and 3PO the depressive -- that they actually play off each other beautifully. I hope we get more episodes of them together later in the series.
And lastly, I loved getting to see Rhodia. The world itself fits the Rhodians perfectly, and has enough grandness that it feels at home in the Star Wars universe. I was also very pleased that only the lead Rhodian spoke "Basic," and that Rhodians came in different colors and shades.
In Clone Wars, however, Jar-Jar has found where he truly belongs. This show has always had a feeling of fun to it, and so rather than standing out, Jar-Jar fits right in. I have to admit that I laughed out loud when he accidentally destroyed his own ship, and again when 3PO had to relate it to Amidala.
Which brings me to another thing I liked-- the fact that Anthony Daniels and Ahmed Best were doing their voices. It just felt so natural and right. Anthony Daniels really shines in this one. You would think that since C-3PO and Jar-Jar are both the comic relief characters that they wouldn't work without a straight man to play off of, but their styles are so different-- Jar-Jar the manic and 3PO the depressive -- that they actually play off each other beautifully. I hope we get more episodes of them together later in the series.
And lastly, I loved getting to see Rhodia. The world itself fits the Rhodians perfectly, and has enough grandness that it feels at home in the Star Wars universe. I was also very pleased that only the lead Rhodian spoke "Basic," and that Rhodians came in different colors and shades.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Watchmen - by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
Well, damn. Now I see what all the fuss is about.
Being a comic book fan (especially of my age group) and not having read Watchmen is like being a movie buff who has never seen Citizen Kane. Yet there I was. At the time that Watchmen first came out, I was more concerned with Comico's Robotech comics (and probably this other cool new title that Comico had just started called Grendel).
After the years passed it became one of those things I've always meant to get around to based on it's reputation, but never have. Like Citizen Kane.
Then I saw the trailer for the upcoming Watchmen movie, and I knew I had to see this movie... but there was no way I was going to go see an adaptation without having read the original first. So Rich kindly came to my rescue and loaned me his copy.
And wow, was I hooked into it. I've been reading it every chance I could over the last three days, and I finished it up this morning.
Which is saying a lot, in and of itself, because not all of the books that were revolutionary for the time hold up. I also never read The Dark Night Returns at the time, so I started reading it when Dark Night Strikes Again was announced. I hate to admit this, but I had trouble getting into it. I had to remind myself that this was the first time Batman was being handled this gritty. By 2001, those kinds of stories had become routine in general. So I was partially prepared to not be as impressed with Watchmen as I would have been in 1985....yet I was.
It's also saying a lot considering the story is firmly entrenched in 1985. I remember 1985 well. It was the year that Robotech debuted, the year I moved from the Pittsburgh suburbs to the Philadelphia suburbs... I also remember wondering which strike zone I had moved into. (We all knew at the time that if/when nuclear war did happen, then if you were in Zone 1 you were dead instantly, if you were in Zone 2 you died slowly from radiation, and if you were in Zone 3 you lived and wished you had been in Zone 1.) I also remember my Spanish teacher going on about the Red Threat in class, and watching Threads, not to mention The Day After in 1983. But that gives you a good idea about what the world was like in 1985. The attitudes aren't fiction, they aren't an embellishment, they're how the world really was at the time. I remember the Beirut embassy being bombed and just walking by myself around town, wondering if there was any point in figuring out what I would be when I grew up because I wasn't confident that the world would still be there that long.
This book captures all that, and it's made stronger in that we're reading about a parallel 1985 where the world was changed by having Super Heroes-- not just how Super Heroes fit into the "real world" of 1985. I think that makes the story work no matter when you read it.
The characters feel real. The story of "What happens when real people become super heroes?" has been done a lot since too, but as long as your characters are people you can relate to, it never gets old. And I found all of them intriguing, especially since really one one of them had super powers.
So I went back to the movie trailer with a new eye, and now I'm even more excited than ever to see it.
I guess I should get around to seeing Citizen Kane now...
Being a comic book fan (especially of my age group) and not having read Watchmen is like being a movie buff who has never seen Citizen Kane. Yet there I was. At the time that Watchmen first came out, I was more concerned with Comico's Robotech comics (and probably this other cool new title that Comico had just started called Grendel).
After the years passed it became one of those things I've always meant to get around to based on it's reputation, but never have. Like Citizen Kane.
Then I saw the trailer for the upcoming Watchmen movie, and I knew I had to see this movie... but there was no way I was going to go see an adaptation without having read the original first. So Rich kindly came to my rescue and loaned me his copy.
And wow, was I hooked into it. I've been reading it every chance I could over the last three days, and I finished it up this morning.
Which is saying a lot, in and of itself, because not all of the books that were revolutionary for the time hold up. I also never read The Dark Night Returns at the time, so I started reading it when Dark Night Strikes Again was announced. I hate to admit this, but I had trouble getting into it. I had to remind myself that this was the first time Batman was being handled this gritty. By 2001, those kinds of stories had become routine in general. So I was partially prepared to not be as impressed with Watchmen as I would have been in 1985....yet I was.
It's also saying a lot considering the story is firmly entrenched in 1985. I remember 1985 well. It was the year that Robotech debuted, the year I moved from the Pittsburgh suburbs to the Philadelphia suburbs... I also remember wondering which strike zone I had moved into. (We all knew at the time that if/when nuclear war did happen, then if you were in Zone 1 you were dead instantly, if you were in Zone 2 you died slowly from radiation, and if you were in Zone 3 you lived and wished you had been in Zone 1.) I also remember my Spanish teacher going on about the Red Threat in class, and watching Threads, not to mention The Day After in 1983. But that gives you a good idea about what the world was like in 1985. The attitudes aren't fiction, they aren't an embellishment, they're how the world really was at the time. I remember the Beirut embassy being bombed and just walking by myself around town, wondering if there was any point in figuring out what I would be when I grew up because I wasn't confident that the world would still be there that long.
This book captures all that, and it's made stronger in that we're reading about a parallel 1985 where the world was changed by having Super Heroes-- not just how Super Heroes fit into the "real world" of 1985. I think that makes the story work no matter when you read it.
The characters feel real. The story of "What happens when real people become super heroes?" has been done a lot since too, but as long as your characters are people you can relate to, it never gets old. And I found all of them intriguing, especially since really one one of them had super powers.
So I went back to the movie trailer with a new eye, and now I'm even more excited than ever to see it.
I guess I should get around to seeing Citizen Kane now...
Heroes - "Our Father"
Not bad, and it's nice to see that the story may be circling back to that little preview we had of Ando getting powers again.
Still a bit disappointed that Sylar can switch back and forth from trying to be good to just being toally evil again. Maybe it's because of the hunger-- sometimes all it takes is the right push for you to fall off the wagon and be knee-deep back into your addiction.
Oh, Hiro. He's managed to have all three parts of the formula in his posession, and then have them all snatched up by Arthur Petrelli before the episode ends. Little dissapointed in you there, Hiro.
And my biggest complaint about this episode-- how the hell did Arthur go back in time?!? I mean, seriously, the whole plot hinged on him being able to do that, and I have absolutely no memory that he could do that. He certainly didn't get it from stealing Hiro's power, because he had to already go back in time to steal it. Did I miss something? Can someone point it out to me if I did?
Other than that, I still enjoyed it. I loved the scenes of Claire and Hiro with their younger selves, and especially Claire being able to tell her father "You're going to have her for at least 16 years, it's okay to love her." If only all parents could get such reassurances that our kids will live good, happy lives.
QUESTION for YOU (yes, YOU READING THIS!!): According to my stats, this review is my 6th highest blog of all time, and continues to get a lot of hits. I can not, for the life of me, understand why. Would you be so kind as to leave a comment and tell me why you decided to check this review out? I would be very grateful. Many thanks.
Still a bit disappointed that Sylar can switch back and forth from trying to be good to just being toally evil again. Maybe it's because of the hunger-- sometimes all it takes is the right push for you to fall off the wagon and be knee-deep back into your addiction.
Oh, Hiro. He's managed to have all three parts of the formula in his posession, and then have them all snatched up by Arthur Petrelli before the episode ends. Little dissapointed in you there, Hiro.
And my biggest complaint about this episode-- how the hell did Arthur go back in time?!? I mean, seriously, the whole plot hinged on him being able to do that, and I have absolutely no memory that he could do that. He certainly didn't get it from stealing Hiro's power, because he had to already go back in time to steal it. Did I miss something? Can someone point it out to me if I did?
Other than that, I still enjoyed it. I loved the scenes of Claire and Hiro with their younger selves, and especially Claire being able to tell her father "You're going to have her for at least 16 years, it's okay to love her." If only all parents could get such reassurances that our kids will live good, happy lives.
QUESTION for YOU (yes, YOU READING THIS!!): According to my stats, this review is my 6th highest blog of all time, and continues to get a lot of hits. I can not, for the life of me, understand why. Would you be so kind as to leave a comment and tell me why you decided to check this review out? I would be very grateful. Many thanks.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
The Sarah Jane Adventures - "Enemy of the Bane"
Well, this story had all the elements of a great story-- returning villians, a surprise Sontaran, and best of all, the return of the Brigadier-- but I kept finding myself starting to doze off during the second half. But I'm going to chalk that up to my staying up too late last night reading Watchmen rather than blame it on this story itself.
Good old Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. It's so nice to see him and Sarah Jane together again. He's definitely having a harder time getting around these days (no running down corridors for him this time-- we don't even get to see him getting in and out of his car), but that doesn't stop him from still being authoritative and getting to even shoot a bad guy. I'm hoping this leads to him getting to come back in one of the 2009 Doctor Who specials, so he'll still get to be with the 10th Doctor.
Overall, I'd say Series 2 of SJA was a big improvement over Series 1, which was a big improvement over the special premiere. Rich told me the show was renewed for a Series 3, so that's good news.
Good old Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. It's so nice to see him and Sarah Jane together again. He's definitely having a harder time getting around these days (no running down corridors for him this time-- we don't even get to see him getting in and out of his car), but that doesn't stop him from still being authoritative and getting to even shoot a bad guy. I'm hoping this leads to him getting to come back in one of the 2009 Doctor Who specials, so he'll still get to be with the 10th Doctor.
Overall, I'd say Series 2 of SJA was a big improvement over Series 1, which was a big improvement over the special premiere. Rich told me the show was renewed for a Series 3, so that's good news.
Lonely Soldier Boy II: An Acoustic Album - by Michael Bradley
Being a Robotech fan, I was always jealous of the Japanese anime music industry. If you had a hot show, you got soundtracks, remake albums, image albums, live albums, drama albums... being a Macross 7 fan, I loved that Fire Bomber released Live Fire!! and Acoustic Fire!! and always wished that my favorite anime singer of all time, Yellow Dancer, would get the same treatment.
Well, thank the stars for Michael Bradley, the singing voice of Yellow Dancer. When he discovered that he had a following because of his work on Robotech-- especially among soldiers and their families for the song "Lonely Soldier Boy" -- he started playing the songs at conventions and set to work on a remake album, redoing the Yellow Dancer songs in a more modern-day style. He wanted to put Yellow Dancer on the cover and have it be an official Robotech album, but Harmony Gold's legal department wanted such a huge cut of the album sales that it would have been unprofitable for him. As a result, the album was released simply as Lonely Soldier Boy. It came out early this year, and has been one of my favorite albums of 2008.
When Michael Bradley then announced he was going to follow it up with an all-acoustic album, I was all smiles. At long last, Yellow Dancer was getting the treatment I always thought he deserved. (Err, she deserved. S/he. ...Never mind.)
What I didn't expect was Lonely Soldier Boy II: An Acoustic Album to be what is possibly the best Robotech music album, ever. These arrangements are just breathtaking. In addition to the five songs he did as Yellow Dancer, Michael Bradley has also included acoustic versions of the other songs he worked on for Robotech and Robotech: The Movie. Many of these tracks just leave me speechless. I got that little tingle down my spine that I used to get when I was 16 and these songs were all new.
You can hear samples from both albums (and of course order your own copies) at michaelbradleymusic.com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
