My Geeky Terminator Nightmare

I had an ongoing nightmare last night-- "ongoing" as in one of those nightmares where it scares you awake, you fall back asleep, and you're right back into the same nightmare.

I was dreaming that Terminators were trying to kill me. It was worse than the movies or shows ever portrayed it though, because of how computerized our society is.

Anytime I showed my face where a security camera could see me, or even said my name or any of my friends' names out loud where it could be recorded, it would become a part of that camera's digital records. Since Skynet was in the future, all it had to do was look in those computer records and it knew every single instance of where I was. So anytime my face was caught on camera or I said a name aloud, bam, there was a Terminator trying to kill me. So I was constantly running and hiding and being attacked, with Terminators roaming around everywhere.

These dreams went on for about four hours, until Joy got up to go to a Doorbuster sale this morning and I was able to talk with her a little bit, and finally fell back asleep thinking of kitties and McGriddles.

Star Wars: Legacy of the Force - Exile by Aaron Aliston

Oh, Jacen, Jacen, Jacen. You keep breaking my heart.

Nice to see Ben is starting to realize that there are some flaws in Jacen's teachings. I now have some hope that Jacen's not going to be able to drag Ben down with him. (Although that Sith ship at the end is a rather ominous portent for Ben, as well.)

And -- I can't help it -- as much as I like Mara Jade, I always loved Shira Brie. I would never want her to steal Luke away from Mara, but the thirteen-year-old fanboy part of me that tried to photocopy all her stories into a Shira Brie graphic novel still has hope that she can be turned back to the light and become an ally.

Casino Royale

I missed this one when it came out in the theaters, and I really wanted to see it because I usually really like James Bond movies. Now that Quantum of Solace is out and is a direct sequel, I wanted to see it even more so I'd be prepared if I get a chance to go to the theaters. Dave bought Casino Royale and loaned it to me, and Jim (aka Pop-Pop) was visiting for Thanksgiving, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity, since Pop-Pop is a big James Bond fan.

I have to admit, we weren't very impressed. I was okay with this rebooting the Bond mythology in the current era, and I understand that we're seeing Bond grow into the Bond we already know, but it was just too lacking in what I consider elements essential to a Bond film. Where's the wit? Where's the charm? Where's the clever thinking? This film has a good chase through a construction site and a good shoot-out in a sinking house in Venice, but it wasn't anything I couldn't have seen in a general action movie.

Everyone is saying that Quantum of Solace isn't as good as Casino Royale, so if this is considered the better of the two then it really doesn't inspire me to want to run out and see the new one.

Heroes - "The Eclipse: Part 1"

Not quite sure how I feel about this episode yet; I may need to see Part 2 before I know for sure. I liked getting more into the characters without relying on their powers, but the whole logic of all the super powers being tied to eclipses seems a little fuzzy to me. I always thought the eclipse in the opening titles was a little more symbolic... "And everything under the sun is in tune, but the sun is eclipsed by the moon" kind of thing. It may still be a metaphor, but apparently it has a literal side too. It would be nice if we get an explanation in Part 2 (or before the show goes off the air), but I suspect it's just meant to be mysterious.

And I still want to know who's drawing these new issues of 9th Wonders...

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - "Downfall of a Droid"

Steve was right. Lots of droids. Fer is one happy fanboy.

It seems pretty obvious to me that R3-S6 (aka "Goldie" aka "Stubby") has been programmed by the Separatists. He's not just making mistakes, he's doing exactly what the enemy would want. It's one of those cases where it should be pretty obvious to Anakin.

But he is still a cool looking astromech and even cute in his expressions... it's amazing how the animators can convey an astromech shrugging and looking happy or sad without it being a caricature animation style like Nelvana's Droids series was. I'm looking forward to Hasbro putting out a R3-S6 toy. :)

(Although I thought R3s were supposed to have clear domes? Ah well, R4s aren't supposed to have domes at all...)

And IG assassin droids in action!! How cool is that. I have no idea what IG-88's origin is (beyond that the IG series killed their creators as soon as they were switched on), so I wonder if the one that was spaced is meant to become IG-88?

This is a fun show.


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UPDATE: I just got an IG-86 action figure from this episode. So if IG-86 is one of the ones that was destroyed, then it stands to reason that the other one that got destroyed was IG-87, and the one that got whooshed out the airlock was indeed IG-88!

Stargate Atlantis - "Brain Storm"

Rodney McKay is an interesting character. On the one hand, he still manages to be annoying and unlikeable even after five seasons and I find myself asking, shouldn't the character have grown a little more by now? And then he goes and has a scene or two where he seems not so much insecure as vulnerable, and Keller gives him that shiny-eyed smile and we see him through her eyes, and somehow he manages to be still annoying... but likeable.

I also liked seeing so many real-life scientists actually be in (or in some cases represented in) the show. Gives it a nice reality touch.

And one has to wonder if McKay's musings at the end of the episode is going to turn out to be relevant to Stargate: Universe....

Smallville - "Bride"

God, I hate Lana Lang.

But I have to give her this-- even though she ruined Clark & Lois's kiss, she put Clark in his place. Let him know in no uncertain terms not only that they were over, but that he never should have taken away Chloe's memory. Amen, Lana. And she looks hot with that new hairstyle and that black dress.

I continue to be very happy with how they're handling Doomsday. When I heard they were going to be using him this year, I never expected it to be a season-long story arc, or for him to look as true to the comics as he did. Now if we can only get a good look at him out of the shadows.

Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe

The episode I actually watched today is "Chapter 12: Doom of the Dictator," which is the last episode of the last serial. So I'll just address them all briefly.

I've found that watching the 1930's Flash Gordon serials has been not only enjoyable but extremely educational in understanding the history of SF films as a whole. For example, I've heard lots of people criticize George Lucas as being unoriginal, and now that I've seen Flash Gordon (and read Asimov's Foundation trilogy) I can understand why. The grand, flowing music, the wildly varied environments, the exotic characters, they're all here. There's even a city in the sky, lightbridges, beings that live in trees, the wiping dissolves from one scene to another, and of course that famous slanted crawl telling you the story so far. But Lucas put his own stamp on everything; to me it seems obvious that the similarities are not an attempt to rip off Flash Gordon but a loving tribute.

Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers, the first serial, was definitely my favorite. Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, the second serial, was fun but felt a lot more simplistic. The world and characters of Mars felt a lot more two dimensional and lacked the complexity of the first serial.

Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe is much better, in that it returns the story back to Mongo and feels more like the first serial. The rock people were especially cool, with the effect of having their dialogue all dubbed in backwards to make it sound like an exotic language. (Again, a feel that Lucas duplicated with his aliens.)

Another thing about these old serials is they feel so much more innocent. Today we tear things apart and bitch about continuity... back in the 30's they didn't expect to get over-analyzed and just went with what they thought would make for a good afternoon's entertainment. (Conquers the Universe actually seems to ignore Trip to Mars completely.) Why, of course Dr. Zarkov knows the rock people's language and can figure out all of Mongo's technology-- he's a scientist! That's all you need to know! And we can just smile and laugh about it and forgive it because, well, it's old. We accept that it's a classic and we acknowledge they had different standards at the time. (I disagree with those that say we're "more sophisticated viewers" these days... it seems to me we're just more unforgiving.)

The only thing I personally have a hard time forgiving is the recasting of Princess Aura from Priscilla Lawson to Shirley Deane. Priscilla Lawson's Aura was a hot, busty, dark-haired self-reliant bad girl! Shirley Deane's Aura was a skinny, blonde, wimpy damsel in distress. Rich told me that the many casting changes between the serials was because the actors often had exclusive contracts to different studios, so it couldn't be helped. Ah well.

All in all, I really enjoyed these, and it makes me want to look into the classic serials for Buck Rogers, Crash Corrigan, Zombies of the Stratosphere, and so on. Not to mention the Filmation Flash Gordon cartoon. But I'm going to wait until I finish Macross Frontier and Clone Wars first!

My last word on Flash Gordon: the original serials squash the Sci-Fi Channel version like a grape.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - "Code of Honor"

Why am I reviewing a 20-year-old episode of Star Trek? Because after Enterprise went off the air, I started rewatching the original Star Trek. I figured I've been watching Trek every week for 18 years, why stop just because it's been canceled? So I've continued watching on the average of one episode a week, more or less. I watched all of TOS in production order, then went on to the animateds, then the TOS films, and now I'm into Next Gen. Most of the Next Gen era stuff I've only seen once, so I'm really enjoying revisiting them.

Joy once asked me why every time they beam down to a planet, the aliens were white people with bumps on their heads. If species are going to have human skin tones, she wondered, wouldn't it make sense that there would be planets where the populations were just as similar to Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, and so on? Why not have a planet where the people all looked like Asians with bumps on their heads?

I didn't really have an answer for her then, but apparently I had forgotten that they tried to do that in this episode. According to the Next Generation Companion by Larry Nemecek, the script was originally written for this episode with the population of this planet being reptilian. In the final version, they're black. (Well, I can't really say African-American since they're all from the planet Ligon II, can I?) I assume this was done because making reptilian make-up for everyone would have been too costly. Larry Nemecek also quotes Tracy Tormé as saying that he was "embarrassed by the show's '1940s tribal Africa' view of blacks." So I guess that partly explains why they didn't frequently try it.

As for the story, it feels very much like a classic Trek episode, even without the obvious similarities to "Amok Time." Nemecek also says it was written by two friends of D.C. Fontana who were classic Trek fans, so I guess that makes sense. Also, heavy similarities to the original Trek are much more welcome now that TNG is done and over with than they were when it was new.

The big thing that stood out to me this episode was the music, which felt totally like it came out of TOS. And wouldn't you know it, it turns out the music was by Fred Steiner, who also wrote a lot of the music for the original show.

And lastly, this was the first in a gazillion Berman-era episodes with the word "honor" in the title. Yet ironically, Worf's not even in it.

Terminator : The Sarah Connor Chronicles - "Complications"

Very cool. A great story that interplays both character development and the complications of time travel and altered timelines together. Great stuff.

The only caveat I have is about Ellison stealing Cromartie's body. I don't mind that he's just made a royal screw-up, I find that rather interesting, and it's very in-character with his wanting to get to the bottom of everything. It's more along the lines of I want to see different Terminators coming after John Connor now, and I'm too afraid that Redhead-1000 is going to just fix him up.