I love droid episodes! I could go for an entire series just on R2-D2 and C-3P0. (But I'd settle for the original Star Wars: Droids on DVD in its original format with Stewart Copeland's original music.)
This one was chock full of droids, from classic trilogy droids (such as an 8D8 torture droid and two IG-88s) to the brand new and lovely Spa Attendant Droids SN-D1 and B0-N1! I haven't bought any Star Wars figures in a long time, but they'd get me with just about any droid that was used in this episode. In addition to a lot of different Astromechs, there were some cool Protocol droid repaints as well, my personal favorite being the blue one with the white stripe on his shoulder.
This one also seemed a little more obvious to me that it was a "prequel" episode, but more because I remembered that Cad Bane was involved in attacking the Senate.
As usual, the starwars.com website tends to come in handy; the episode guide there states that Anakin didn't build C-3P0 from scratch, he rebuilt him from a previous Protocol droid. It might be a bit apologist, but hey, it works for me.
Finally, Clark is wearing his new Blur costume while he actually does super hero stuff! I hadn't noticed before that he's slicking his hair back as the Blur. Doin' the Dean Cain thing of reversing Clark & Superman's hairstyles. Although now that I think about it, George Reeves always had his hair slicked back too. Hmm, maybe it's just a TV Superman thing. Or a TV Superman and/or Blur thing in this case.
(Which reminds me of something my mother-in-law said to me the other day: "Why is Superman not Superman on Superman?" And she raises a good point that hadn't occurred to me: to the more casual viewer, all the Superman elements are in place except Superman himself. Clark Kent spends most of his time in Metropolis, working at the Daily Planet with Lois Lane while being a super hero, and has even got a bunch of super friends. So to the casual viewer it looks like this show isn't about his childhood anymore, so why is he still not Superman? All the more reason why I feel he should become Superman before the season ends.)
I always like Michael Ironside. He plays a good tough guy, so he makes a good Sam Lane. And the idea that he pushes Lois's boyfriends to find out how much they mean to her was a good touch.
Vigilante Registration Act? Isn't that Marvel's shtick?
Tess is working out better as the Watchtower base than she has in past seasons. Her convoluted past gives her a believable inside knowledge on just about everything. I feel like I finally understand her motivations and she's finding her place on this show.
And last but not least, a final farewell to the Talon. Had this been Season 6 I would have assumed that Clark could have rebuilt it before the town woke up for breakfast, but since this is the final season, I think this was the Talon's send-off. And another Smallville door closes...
I enjoyed this episode enough as I was watching it, but even when Rich asked me "So what did you think?" after it ended, I wasn't sure what to answer. When I think back on the episode now, it feels like kind of a mess.
Darius is locked in an old, abandoned wardrobe by two incomprehensible hobos. But it's not just any old, abandoned wardrobe... this is the Old Abandoned Wardrobe... of FEAR!
Not only is the fear affecting all our lead characters, it's causing all of London to riot. K9, being a machine, doesn't feel fear and therefore is having trouble understanding what's going on. So of course, his friends try to take it on themselves to teach him how to feel.
On the more rational side, K9 does consult Professor Gryffen about altering his programming to be able to experience emotion, but then declines to go through with it when he realizes the full implication of how difficult having feelings would be. But when K9 enters the Old Abandoned Wardrobe of Fear, he finds himself feeling emotions after all, which at first puts him in danger but then saves his life.
Then Drake comes along and punches the Wardrobe and makes it go poof. A bit anti-climactic, really.
The concept of K9 experiencing emotions doesn't bother me in and of itself, but it's probably something done better in a story arc than crammed all in to one episode. While some aspects of it were handled well here, most of it was just... well, messy.
And since Drake's fear is aliens, he thinks there's an alien in the Wardrobe creating the fear, and since that's what the show was about I thought he was right, but no, he's wrong, there's just fear itself in the Wardrobe, just like the title says. Which is a good concept, but felt like it was carried out kind of... well, messy.
So how do you get rid of it? You can't just lock it up, it's fear incarnate f'r cryin' out loud, and besides, it's already reaching all of London from a warehouse. So the show wraps it up by having Drake punch it, of all things. Which is ridiculous all on its own, but also leaves me feeling like, "Gee, if he had just done that right away he would saved everyone a lot of trouble."
Although I did find it interesting that Drake turned out to be a cyborg. I noticed the whirring noises when he was grabbing Starkey (who still gets the best scenes), which was nice foreshadowing for the ending when he reveals his cyborg hands.
So it's a better episode than "Liberation," but certainly not up to par with the rest of the series to date.
Time to reveal another gap in my knowledge: I thought the Men in Black, as in guys who investigated aliens and confiscated anything alien left behind on Earth and then wiped the memories of witnesses, was created by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg for Malibu comics, then sold to Sony and made into a movie, where the term became popular. Boy, do I feel foolish.
(Even more foolish than the time I actually met Mr. Rosenberg at a convention. I was setting up my booth, and he wandered by and we talked for a bit. In conversation he mentioned how Sony was going to make a big-budget movie based on his "Men in Black" comic. I just nodded politely and thought to myself, "Yeah, that's gonna happen." But I digress.)
In this case, these particular Men in Black are the androids we saw in the Doctor Who "Dreamland" animated special. Originally from Area 51 where they were known as the Alliance of Shades, they've made themselves the guardians of everything that Area 51 packed away... which also includes a lost spaceship with the last of Androvax's people, the Vale. (Androvax, in case you're like me and have a lousy memory for these things, is the alien bad guy from last season's "Prisoner of the Judoon" story, who was on the run from the Judoon and could hide inside other people's bodies.) It's a tale of potential redemption, rebirth and burps. Or rather burp humor, for the British UFO Research and Paranormal Studies Society, or BURPSS. Which made me wonder aloud, since UFO is already an acronym, should it be BUFORPSS? While you wouldn't get to do the obvious burping jokes, I find BUFORPSS a much funnier word on its own. But according to the Chicago Manual of Style, it's okay to put an acronym inside another acronym, so hey, that's just me. Am I digressing again?
At any rate, BURPSS comes into the story because Rani's mum has joined the group to try to get some support for her previous encounter with Androvax last season. And in doing so, I find myself very relieved that Matt Smith's first season as the Doctor has explained away why no one believes in aliens in Sarah Jane Adventures, yet in Doctor Who's "The Stolen Earth," Sarah Jane & Luke were right in the thick of the Daleks invading the entire world. Now personally I'd rather have the world remember these changes, but hey, not every show can be The 4400. So at least the Cosmic Crack gives us a reason why they don't stick.
More romance blooming between Clyde and Rani. Aww, how sweet. And Luke gets to stay in the opening montage and talk with everyone online. Wonder how long that will last.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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 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...
Somewhere along the line fandom forgot that television, movies, comics and toys are supposed to be FUN. So many forums take everything far too seriously, and opinions have gotten far too aggressive. Let's not forget what it really is: it's called entertainment.
Here at ICE, we strive to remember that our lives do not depend on the next comic book movie being better than anything we've ever seen before in our lives. The point of all this media is to have fun and be entertained!
Criticisms and debates are totally welcomed and encouraged, as long as it can be done with some nettiquette. Flames will be deleted. There's plenty of other sites out there for that!
Let's have some fun here, people! Remember... It's Called ENTERTAINMENT!
FER'S SPOILER POLICY:
I won't give away any upcoming spoilers, but if I review it here then I'm assuming you've already seen or read it. Mostly 'cause I'm usually behind everyone else.
I ask that anyone posting comments please respect that and do the same. Thank you!
SHOW(s) CURRENTLY BEING COPIED OFF MY OLD VHS TAPES TO DVD:
· MISCELLANEOUS, which is actually a category of about 92 tapes where I stuck anything that I wasn't recording as a series.
I grew up in the Pittsburgh suburbs, then spent 10 years in the Philly suburbs, then married my high school sweetheart and moved back to the Pittsburgh suburbs.
I first got into SF around the age of 5, when I discovered that the Star Trek cartoon also had a live action version, and Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, phasers and the Enterprise all looked totally real. This led to a huge interest in space in general and science fiction in particular, that I've carried with me my entire life.
I was really into anime in the mid 80's and most of the 90's, and I was mostly known on the internet as "YellowDncr" back then. I sent out a Robotech newsletter as a part of the Disciples of Zor (a Robotech fanclub), ran "Yellow's Fansub Center," and then occasionally helped my wonderful wife Joy with her store, Joy's Japanimation. I pretty much burned out on anime because of that, but I still love Robotech & Macross.
Nowadays I spend my time taking care of my family, trying to make life for Joy as easy as possible as we raise our wonderful daughter Mylene.
