Dollhouse, season two

SPOILER LEVEL: Medium

Well, that was a fun ride! The elements I liked best about the first season was how far the Dollhouse reached, the implication of how much of the world might already be in their control, and
the implication (from "Epitaph One") that it was all going to go to hell and take the world with it.


And this season didn't disappoint. After one or two simple episodes, it felt like this show jumped into the fast lane of showing us how the Imprint technology was being abused, and it never slowed down. I'm not a big fan of science fiction that acts like "this could be really happening somewhere and you just don't know about it"... I prefer a story that changes the world and shows us how society then has to deal with it. And while Dollhouse only gave us a two-episode glimpse at how it affected the world, it told a great story of showing how the world slid down into it.

I'm not sure how I feel about the big reveal of who was behind it all-- on some level it feels like a stretch, but when I stop and look back on it a lot of little things do make more sense now. I guess I'm just disappointed because that was such a likable character-- but that was the point, I was supposed to feel betrayed.

I know some people have said they feel this season was too rushed, but I think this show has benefited from only being two 13-epsiode seasons-- I think it made for some tight story telling where you really couldn't wait to find out what happened next, with no wimp-outs. Great job!

Star Trek - Inception by S.D. Perry & Britta Dennison

SPOILER LEVEL: Low

This is a great character-driven book, focusing on a young Commander James T. Kirk's time with Carol Marcus, and Spock's time with Leila Kalomi (from the episode "This Side of Paradise").

The main plot deals with Carol & Leila's project (yes, they know each other here, but it plays out alright) dealing with protesters who fear that mankind has become too dependant on technology-- but really, that's just the window dressing. The real story here is seeing how much in love Kirk & Carol are, and how their separate dreams and goals are destined to take them in different directions. And of course, as the title would suggest, how Carol comes to be pregnant with Kirk's son David.

A worthwhile read and a wonderful break from all the massive post-Destiny continuity books!

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

SPOILER LEVEL: None

I think, along with the series finale "Daybreak" and the battle scenes from "Exodus Part 2," this may be my favorite installment of the new Battlestar Galactica.

I get that the original BSG mini-series was going with the perspective of what it would be like to really be there, to not know what was going on and yet still have to make life-or-death decisions accordingly. But man, this version just made so much more sense. It really tied everything together and made it sing.

I think there's so much more to be gained storywise from being able to see both perspectives. To see into the head or who you're fighting. I think the first 7 or so episodes of Southern Cross suffer from the same thing-- once you start seeing things from the perspective of the Robotech Masters, it starts getting interesting. "The Plan" works in the same way-- seeing why the Cylons are doing what they're doing, seeing them do it, and seeing how it affects them and the changes it brings to their culture really helps the whole show make a lot more sense.

This is a great note for Galactica to go out on.

Star Trek: Phase II "Blood and Fire, Part Two"

SPOILER LEVEL: None

I don't know if it was the long wait between Parts 1 & 2, but I just didn't enjoy this part as much as I did Part 1. It was well made of course, meeting up to New Voyages/Phase II's usual high standards... but it just felt slow, like it was dragging on. I can't find what the exact running time was, but I felt like it could have been edited a little tighter than it was.


The ending was moving, the effects were incredible, the acting was very good... but the finished project just felt sluggish.

V: To Conquer the Throne by Tim Sullivan

SPOILER LEVEL: Medium

Watching the new V made me want to see a story from the classic V. I never got past the first chapter of this book when it first came out, so I figured I'd read it now.

I rather enjoyed it this time. Tim Sullivan's writing style isn't great, but it's very British in this book, which fit it rather well. I found if I took the attitude that I was reading a Target Books novilisation of a 1980's BBC production of V, I liked it even better. Ah, if only it had used single quotes for dialogue and British spellings!

The lead woman is an American living in England, which doesn't work at all. She's as American as Perpigillium Brown. In fact, I started picturing Nicola Bryant playing her after a while. But the book does get into how the Visitors were trying to win over the people of England, and what a difficult challenge that is when faced with fierce British patriotism. It also uses it as an opportunity to talk about the IRA, and the friction between them and the English Resistance despite the common threat of the Visitors.

Even though it was set during V: The Series, the book still plays itself as if it's taking place during the original mini-series, and I feel that made for a better book. All in all this was a worthwhile read and just what I was in the mood for.

Avatar

SPOILER LEVEL: Medium

Well, there's probably not much I can say about this movie that everyone else hasn't already said. I've never seen "Dances with Wolves," so the story being "Dances with Smurfs" doesn't bother me. I really got into it, both visually and storywise. Seeing the humans destroying so much of Pandora really did make me misty-eyed.

This was also the first movie I ever saw in IMAX, which was much better than the Greensburg Carmike 15. MUCH better. Much, much MUCH better.

Star Trek: Mirror Universe - The Sorrows of Empire by David Mack

SPOILER LEVEL: Medium

I loved the original short novel version of this in the Mirror Universe collection Glass Empires, so I was willing to give this expanded version a try. I'm very glad I did. Besides still being a compelling read, I think it fleshes Emperor Spock out in a much needed way. I remember after the first version came out, people were saying on the Psi-Phi boards that it seemed too cruel of Spock to deliberately allow the Empire to fall. I disagreed because this wasn't our universe's Spock, this was the Mirror Spock we were talking about, who came from a brutal universe. And this version shows it very well, as Emperor Spock does some very brutal things for what he believes will be for the greater good of the galaxy as a whole.

Personally, I love the idea that everything we've seen in the DS9 Mirror Universe has all been part of Spock's "Seldon Plan." I really hope David Mack gets the opportunity to expand on this and write the second book he wants to write to show how it will all come together.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

I've never actually read the original book, so I figured I would for Christmas.

I think what really stood out to me the most is the feeling of time passing that the book conveys. With each Spirit you get the feeling of spending an entire Christmas day with them, which I don't think ever really sunk in with any of the film versions I've seen. (And along those lines, I was also amazed to see how faithful the Muppet Christmas Carol was to the original book!)

I could have really used an appendix to help out with all the cultural references, since so many of them are over a century old now. But that didn't really stop my enjoyment of the book overall.

Doctor Who "The End of Time"

SPOILER LEVEL: High

Wow. A great swan song for the 10th Doctor. A clever way to bring back the Master and have it still be John Simms, major stuff with the Time Lords, and a wonderful closing retrospective of the 10th Doctor's entire run. I don't think any Doctor has ever gotten such a big send-off.

The only part that didn't really work for me was the big climax of the Doctor trying to decide if he shoot the Master or Rassilon (!!!) using Wilf's normal old human gun. I didn't much see the point-- either one could just regenerate, and that's assuming they were normal Time Lords. As it is, they were Super-Master and freakin' Rassilon. (And speaking of the Super-Master, it bugs me when they bring in new powers out of the blue, but since it was obviously meant to be a side effect of the Master's resurrection going wrong, I could handle it.)

I LOVED getting a taste of the Time Lords' part in the Time War, and the image of Gallifrey itself filling Earth's sky. Speculating on who Mysterious Time Lady was with everyone was also a lot of fun.

Farewell, David Tennant. It was a great run. Thanks for staying around for four years worth of stories.

And last but definitely not least, major kudos to BBC America for airing them here in the US just 1 day after they aired in the UK!

V (2009)

SPOILER LEVEL: Low

Well, it's better than V: The Series, but not as good as V: The Final Battle, and not in the same league as the original V mini-series. The fanboy in me likes the mothership design and that they're still using the original Visitor alphabet. And it is an enjoyable drama.

However...

When everyone was raving about the pilot episode before it aired, someone said how this new version was perfect, because it took away all the cheese of the original and left everything that was cool. Well, let's ignore the fact that I love Sci-Fi Cheese for a moment, and just look at the most important part they took away: the moral that fascism can happen here.

By taking this element away and turning it into a conspiracy story, the story is actually more boring. "Aliens have been living among us!" Ho-hum... seen that story a million times before.

Amy makes a point that today, the threat is from terrorists, and you never know who they are among us. So by telling the story from this angle, it plays on the true fears of real people today for a more timely drama. Which makes sense. But the point Kenneth Johnson was making in the original V was to never forget that it could happen here. When V first came on, it was 1983, forty years World War II and Nazi Germany. V brought the lessons of that time home to me in a way that no history class ever could.

And how did the Visitors of 1983 establish their hold on the world? By painting the scientist community as terrorists. Let's ignore the parallel between the scientists and the Jews for a moment-- my point here is that the Visitors used that fear of terrorism to set themselves up as the fascist rulers of America and the world.

This is a message that we all NEED to hear in the post 9-11 world. And by taking the opposite approach, ABC's V is in fact becoming the kind of propaganda that allows fascism to take hold, as opposed to shining a light on it and rooting it out like Kenneth Johnson's V did. And by deciding to call the Visitors "The V's" (which isn't even grammatically accurate) the show actually co-opts the symbol of resistance and turns into the symbol of the oppressors.

Now, I'm not saying that ABC's V is doing all this deliberately. I think it's more that they felt the point of the old series didn't need to apply to the new series, and they simply feel this is a good way to tell a modern drama.

And it has been an enjoyable drama. But that's all it is. And if they weren't going to keep the moral to V, then I feel they would have been better off to call the show something else and avoid the direct comparison to the old show, and taking the meaning out of a symbol that has stood for resisting oppression for 60 years.