Star Wars: Darth Maul - Shadow Hunter by Michael Reaves

Spoiler Level: High

As much as I love James Juceno, I have to admit that Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter feels like a better flow from the Darth Bane books than Luceno's Darth Maul: Saboteur and Cloak of Deception did.

News of Darth Sidious's plan to have the Niemodians blockade Naboo is in danger of leaking out, and Darth Maul is sent on a mission to kill the leak and anyone he's leaked it to.

Maul is captured perfectly here; ferocious, merciless, and ultimately not as bad-ass as he thinks he is.  On the surface of it, it seems like there's no way that a down-on-his-luck rogue can keep evading him, but it's due to Maul's arrogance and overconfidence just as much as the intervention (and inevitable sacrifices) of Jedi and a lot of luck.  Maul's impatience is a flaw that even Darth Sidious acknowledges in this book, and it's easy to see how it's going to get him killed in The Phantom Menace.

Since the book takes place immediately before Maul's introduction to the Jedi in Phantom Menace, it's inevitable of course that anyone who comes into contact with Maul is doomed to at least fail, if not die.  And to his benefit, Michael Reaves opens enough doors that I didn't know if the characters would be killed or manage to go underground long enough to outlive Maul, since he too is doomed to die in his next story.

Which raises my one big question:  After Darth Maul's death, Yoda and Mace Windu are left wondering which of the Rule of Two has died.  But as far as the books are concerned (including this one), the Jedi have thought the Sith to be extinct since the last great Sith war, which would be when Darth Bane started the Rule of Two and went underground.  So how does Yoda know "Always two, there are"...?

I read the novelization to The Phantom Menace when it came out, so next stop is the first Post-Episode I book, Rogue Planet!

Smallville - "Harvest"

Spoiler Level: High

A good character episode.  The main plot was pretty predictable-- from the moment the little girl rode Lois into town and told her they were getting ready for their harvest, I realized this was a take on The Wicker Man.  But what was really good about this episode was watching Lois & Clark talking to each other and getting everything out in the open.  The beginning scene where  Lois finally learns that all the strange things that have been happening to her over the years have pretty much all been tied to Krypton was great.

And I could be wrong, but if there's a contaminant in the water and you're using it on your crops, doesn't that mean the contaminant is now in the soil?  So Clark should have been buried in Blue Kryptonite Soil, right?  Maybe I'm wrong.  I should ask a soil expert.  Paging James Cassidy!

The scenes with Alexander becoming Lex were also great.  Once again, the actor seems to have gotten Michael Rosenbaum's inflections down, which is even more impressive since he's a child actor.  I'm hoping this means that Rosenbaum will eventually return for the end of the series.

Stargate Universe - "Faith"

Spoiler Level: High

Now this is more like it.  The civilians and military may not be getting along, but they're making the effort.  Fences are being mended and people are starting to realize they're all in this together.

The story is a pretty typical one for any "lost in space" series; they come across a planet that's paradise, and some people want to stay.  And it's easy to understand why, seeing how hard conditions have been living aboard Destiny, and with so little chance of getting home.

Usually there turns out to be a dark secret to the planet that either makes everyone change their minds or kills those who chose to stay behind.  Luckily, this episode doesn't do that. Instead, this take on the story adds the twist that the planet was deliberately put there.  I share Rush's curiosity and frustration that the answers of who did it and why won't come before it's time to leave; but unlike Rush, I know I'm watching a TV show, so the possibility is open that the answers may still turn up later.  The possibility that the planet was put there as a lifeline for the Stargate team is inspiring and plausible; however it also occurs to me that it could have been placed there as a lure.  Again, we may never know.  So while those who chose to stay behind may wind up dead after all, at least it didn't end with those on Destiny listening to them screaming while they flew away.

Colonel Young's decision to let the civilians stay but order the military back makes 100% sense.  The civilians should have the right to make their own decisions and get off this ride if they want; the military officers have an obligation to the people on the ship in their care.  T.J.'s wanting to stay for her baby's sake makes sense, but I think a part of her realizes how necessary she is as the ship's only doctor.  If I was in her shoes, I would have tried to resign.  Young undoubtedly wouldn't have accepted it, but if I felt that strongly about not raising my child aboard Destiny as she says she does, I would have at least tried.

Add to all that more exploration of the ship and the discovery of what looked like a room full of robot drones, and it all makes for an episode I really enjoyed.  I hope more of them are like this.

Thanks again to Krissie's Caps for the screen capture!

Smallville - "Isis"

Spoiler Level: HUGE

YES!!!! Yes, yes, yes, yes, a thousand times YES!!!!  They had it all set up, they had Clark all ready to tell Lois the truth about himself, and they played it in the total Smallville style-- by the end of the episode Clark now had a million "very good reasons" to change his mind by the end of the episode and tell her "Never mind."  They even had me believing they were going to wimp out again.  And then Clark goes and does it!  WOO-HOO!!!! 

It also shows how the concept of Lois & Clark as a team, with Lois knowing who he is, has become such a strong part of the Superman mythos that they felt it had to be included before the series ended.  Which so totally, totally makes me happy.

Not to mention how cool it was to have Isis back on TV for the first time since 1977.  I also find it cool that this TV version of Isis is based on the current comic book version of Isis, which in turn was created as an homage to the original TV version of Isis featured in the The Shazam!/Isis Hour TV series, who was actually created by Filmation. TV imitates comics imitates TV.  You gotta love it.

One odd thing about the episode:  Clark comes up with the new Blur costume with the red jacket, and then runs around doing total Blur stuff without changing into costume in this episode.  Why?

Cool fanboy moments:  The Dagger of Teth-Adam was a real thrill, and the yellow energy ropes made me giddy at the taste of what a live action Green Lantern Corps/Sinestro Corps battle would look like! 

K9 - "Sirens of Ceres"

Spoiler Level: Medium

Another decent episode, this time focusing on Jorjie.  Darius is still annoying, but K9 growled at him this time which gave me a good laugh.  K9's POV screens continue to delight-- click on the image to enlarge it and follow K9's thought patterns trying to understand the concept of "Sunday fun."

In this episode, Jorjie finds herself sent to the Magdalene Academy because she's becoming too much of a dissident.  It seems the Magdalene Academy is using alien stones to turn the students into Stepford Children, perfect and obedient.  It's a decent storyline that surprisingly felt like it was over rather quickly.

I also rather like the fact that this show keeps expanding on the concept of London being a totalitarian state-- a pretty big concept for a kids show, and they're not shying away from it.

I'm also really falling in love with K9's new look.  I always thought it was a decent update, giving K9 a more modern look while still having all the key components of his original look.  But having watched 5 episodes I'm now starting to really find him just so damn CUTE.  And I'm not even a dog person!

Sarah Jane Adventures - "The Nightmare Man" (Parts 1 & 2)

Spoiler Level: High

Sarah Jane Adventures returns for a fourth season, and it's got a tough act to follow with Series 3 having featured the return of K9 as a regular, the introduction of Rani Chandra, and a guest appearance by the Doctor.

"The Nightmare Man" is a good start.  The titular villain is very creepy, especially to someone like me who's had a lot of bad dreams over the last few years.  The cliffhanger to Part 1 pushes the boundaries for being downright terrifying for a children's series... or at least it would have if it hadn't gone straight into the previews for Part 2.

But this show's strengths have always been in its characters, and that's still the case.  Part of the reason that the Nightmare Man is effective as a villain is because he plays on the characters fears; Luke has passed his "A Levels" and is headed off to Oxford, and his nightmares consist of everyone being glad he's finally out of their lives.  By contrast, Clyde's afraid of never amounting to anything, and Rani, who wants to be a journalist like Sarah Jane, is afraid that her drive for journalistic success (and perhaps integrity) will force her to betray her role model.  And the Nightmare Man tries to make Sarah Jane afraid of being alone again, playing on her being abandoned by the Doctor all those years ago, and reminding the audience of how much she's grown since this series started.  These nightmares aren't just boogie-man scary-movie stuff; they're real fears that real people face, and it shows how strongly the characters rely on each other.

In an American kids show, this episode would have ended with "Oxford may be ready for me, but my place is here, with my mum and my mates.  Oxford can wait!"  Since I have a ten-year-old I've seen a lot of those, so all through the episode I was wondering if he was actually going to leave or if he'd stay.  So I was somewhat surprised when the ending came and Luke drove off with K9 at his side.  I have to admit, I totally cringed at the end of the pilot when Sarah Jane adopted him, but the series really made it work.  The writers gave it just the right amount of depth and character that I felt it really made Sarah Jane grow more than her four years on Doctor Who ever did.  And Luke's naivete and friendship with Clyde made him work as a character as well.  So I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm sorry to see him go, and wondering how well the show will work without him.  As Rich said to me after we finished watching it, he's the one who cements the cast together; Sarah Jane is his mother and the kids are his friends.  Oh sure, Clyde and Rani have become Sarah Jane's Scooby-Doo Crew, but it makes more sense for the kids to be going over to Sarah Jane's house to hang out with Luke.  If I recall correctly (and with me that's always a big "if"), Rani's parents weren't that sweet on Sarah Jane to begin with.  It will be interesting to see how well the dynamic holds up with Luke out of the picture.

And speaking of Clyde and Rani, this changes their dynamic a bit as well.  Before it was three friends hanging out; now it'll be a teenage boy and a teenage girl hanging out.  Potential romance?  It did seem like Luke was trying to push Clyde in that direction.  I'm not opposed to it per se, but I have to confess I never saw it coming.  Since this show is intentionally a kids show and a little more in the vein of the original Doctor Who, I always felt like there's no hanky-panky in the attic.

It's also interesting to note that with Luke and K9 gone, this now means that none of Sarah Jane's companions (it always feels funny to say that!) are the same as the pilot.

Some final thoughts on K9:  I'm sorry to see K9 leave (again), but I have to admit, with Mr. Smith in the picture K9 is a but redundant.   Having him leave with Luke as he starts his own adventure feels very fitting, as that's how K9 Mks I and II both went. And it's not like I'm going to have a chance to miss him when I still have 22 episodes of his own show left to watch...

K9 - "The Bounty Hunter"

Spoiler Level: Fairly Highish

Not the picture I wanted to use, but my computer's acting up and it's not letting me install the codecs I need to make a proper screen capture.  This will have to do.

Another good offering.  Darius is still a whiner, but the other characters have still been decent.  The "Bounty Hunter" in question is a man named Ahab, who I believe said he was from the year 500,000.  Apparently both he and the Jixon followed K9 through the time stream, which implies that K9 was not escaping Gallifrey and the Time War after all.  I figured the whole memory loss thing was simply because they weren't allowed to use the Doctor Who mythos, but it looks like it's actually being built up into its own story arc.  Which would also explain why K9 survived the Time War, if he left Gallifrey before it happened.  I wonder if they're allowed to use Leela?

Superman: Doomsday

Spoiler Level: High

DC's first Original Video Animation (or in this case, Animated Original Movie) is arguably one of the most influential stories told about Superman: his battle with Doomsday, resulting in his death and rebirth.  It was certainly a big one for me; it was because of this storyline that I started reading Superman, and became a huge Superman fan, devotedly reading the four Superman comics (being published as a "Superman Weekly" format) for nearly a decade.

This film actually covers three comic arcs: The Death of Superman, Funeral for a Friend and Reign of the Supermen.  So it has a lot of material to cover in a mere 77 minutes.  You'd think that would make it rushed, but the story here is more of an retelling than a straight-out adaptation, and it works really well.

Let's start out with Doomsday:  now that Doomsday's origin has been told in the comics, his discovery and release on Earth can be tweaked to fit.  Originally Doomsday was just bound and buried in a vault on Earth, and broke out on his own.  The implication in later issues was that he was a Cadmus experiment that had gone horribly wrong that they tried to dispose of without anyone knowing.  But by the time the storylines had run their course that was way too mundane an origin, so when the official origin came out he was now a Kryptonian experiment that had been jettisoned into space, where he roamed the universe causing more and more destruction until he was finally trapped and buried on Earth.  So as a result, in this movie he's now stumbled upon in a buried spaceship with an alien warning.  So that's a bit of retconning that actually improves on the comics.

Clark's relationship with Lois is a totally new take:  in the original, Clark had already proposed to Lois, she had accepted, so he revealed he was Superman.  Here it's exactly the opposite: Superman and Lois are an item (and they shower in each others homes a lot), but he hasn't told her he's Clark yet.  Not that she hasn't pretty much figured it out on her own, and is in fact getting peeved with him for not opening up and telling her.  It's a dynamic that makes for an interesting story, but it kind of gives me the creeps.  Not Superman Returns creeps, but it still feels wrong:  it was always important to Clark that Lois love him for who he truly is, and this flies in the face of all that.  Yet it manages to combine the element of Lois learning the truth about him yet still have the emotional drama of the watching the man she loves battle to the death in front of her.

And what a battle it is.  Doomsday takes advantage of the PG-13 rating, mercilessly killing anyone in his path, often by doing terrible things to their heads.  There's just enough done off -camera or in shadow that when combined with a lack of blood keeps it horrifying without becoming gratuitous.  And then once Doomsday faces off against Superman, it just intensifies as neither one has to hold back-- something you rarely see with Superman.  Buildings are destroyed left and right, and while it's never come straight out and stated that there's still people in them, we see plenty of people in other buildings and no evacuations.  The final attack where Superman defeats Doomsday is actually more dramatic here than it felt in the comic.

This movie doesn't acknowledge the rest of the DCU, so the "Funeral for a Friend" arc focuses just on Lois, Jimmy and Martha Kent, and doesn't last very long.  We have a nice seen with Martha and Lois, and then pretty soon Superman's back-- but of course it's not really Clark, it's the beginning of the "Reign of the Supermen."  But four new Supermen would require a movie all on its own, so instead they ditch Steel and The Cyborg all together and combine Superboy and the The Eradicator into one character-- a clone created by Lex Luthor to be under his control, but who becomes a "dark Superman" imposing his own justice on the world.  So instead of Kal-El coming back in black-and-silver to fight The Cyborg, he comes back in black-and-silver to fight The Dark Clone Superman Who Acts Like the Eradicator.  It's a change that needs to be made for it to work in this format, and it does work.  (And they still gave him long hair.  That's another thing that kept me reading for years.)

One last thing:  maybe it's just because I've seen this one twice now, but the theme they've created her for Superman is pretty good too.  Not as good as the Green Lantern: First Flight theme, but still a worthy theme for Superman.  It's a shame it's not included on the "DC 75" CD.

So all in all this was a very good kick-off movie for the DCU OVAs (I realize I should be calling them OAMs, but I'm an anime fan from the 80's) and a good way to show Superman's most famous battle to people who have probably never read the comics.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - "Assassin"

Spoiler Level: High

Now again, while watching the episode I didn't think twice about this, but I guess with my memory it hadn't occurred to me that... um... to be honest, trying to even explain it makes my head spin, so instead I'll just quote what's posted on the episode guide  from starwars.com:


"In a chronological flow of events, the series begins with the action on Christophsis ("Cat and Mouse," "The Hidden Enemy"), which introduces Ahsoka to the Clone Wars ("The New Padawan," which was incorporated into feature film). Then, the kidnapping of Rotta the Hutt introduces Ziro the Hutt, and the movie ends with Ziro's incarceration. Many Season One and Season Two episodes then follow, with Season Two's trilogy of Boba Fett episodes introducing Aurra Sing into the storyline. The crashing of the Slave I leads the Jedi to mistakenly believe that Aurra is dead, until she surfaces in this episode, which brings back Ziro -- chronologically -- for the first time since his imprisonment. The story continues in the next Season Three episode, "Evil Plans", and Aurra will somehow be freed from captivity in time for Cad Bane's attack on the Senate in Season One's "Hostage Crisis." The drama surrounding Ziro and his freedom then picks up in "Hunt for Ziro," the ninth episode of this season."

I'm starting to think they're just writing whatever they feel like writing, irregardless of what they've already written, and then trying to figure out if they can put it all in some kind of order after the fact.

The episode itself was enjoyable.  I particularly liked the use of Yoda's theme for when Ahsoka went to talk to him, and Princess Leia's theme for Alderaan.

Stargate Universe - "Divided"

Spoiler Level: High

Well, it finally happened-- I finally reached a point where I was interested in watching SGU again!  Okay, in the interest of full disclosure, starwars.com hasn't posted the latest Clone Wars yet.  But I did want to see a new (for me) SGU over rewatching Next Gen!  So that's got to count for something, right?

An interesting thing happens when I hit bottom on a show:  my expectations get so low that either I start appreciating the things they do right, or there are no things I feel they're doing right so I bail.  If this episode is any indication, SGU is falling into the former.  Granted, I've had six months (and a warning from Rich) to make peace with the fact that the characters aren't going to act the way I would like to see them act, so it was easier to go in expecting them to continue to work against their own self-interests.

And I have to admit, I could even see their point of view: yes, in all free nations, the military answers to the civilians, as it should be.  But I disagree with Rush's inclusion of "in microcosm."  These people are there because they were assisting a military operation in the first place.  Why should that change because they're cut off from Earth?  It's also the military's job to protect the civilians in their care and to get them home safely.  By trying to take over and make all future military decisions have to through them, the civilians are jeopardizing themselves.

And here's the problem:  When the shuttle wouldn't dock with Destiny because of Rush's seizing control of the computer, it never occurred to me that he didn't know that would happen.  Oh sure, Rush and Young agreed not to try and kill each other anymore, but only reasonable characters abide by their word.  So I felt a bit of forgiveness when Rush said he had no idea.  And then he goes and lies to Eli and Young by saying that he can't stop the transfer, and is pretty much willing to let Young die to get control of the ship, and has to be talked out of it.  So y'know, 1 point up, 2 points down.

I think part of the problem I have with this show is that the character's are SO much of a retread of the BSG characters.  Young is Commander Adama, Rush is Baltar, Scott is Apollo, Greer is Starbuck.  Eli feels like the only original character with any personality.

But despite all that-- or maybe because I'm making my peace with it-- I enjoyed this episode.  Lines like "Remember, we still have to live with these people tomorrow" gave me hope.  Maybe now that everything's come to a head, they'll start looking at new ways to live and work together for their own common good.

Finally, I'd like to say thanks to Krissie's Caps for the screen capture!  This was exactly the image I was looking for!