Stargate Universe - "Pain"

Spoiler Level: High

You know, with a title like "Pain," I wasn't expecting a fun episode of happy sing-a-longs, so I can't honestly say I'm surprised with what we got in this episode.  But I tend to not like it when the show gets raunchy and/or gory, and this episode had some big servings of both.

It is however a good character episode, as bugs infect several of the characters and cause them to hallucinate.  And we're let in on the fact they're hallucinations right off the bat when Lt. James kills Scott before the opening title card.

Each hallucination gives us some insight into the characters, but I can't say that we really learn anything new here; we know that Chloe misses her dad, Scott misses his son, and Rush is traumatized by being captured by aliens.  I wasn't aware that Lt. James had a thing for Scott, but I have to chalk that up to my having a bad memory-- her hallucination implied they had something already, and I do remember there being a sex scene in the pilot, so I'm guessing that was between the two of them.  And we learn that Volker is claustrophobic.  Which is kind of a surprise, because they'd already set up that Greer was claustrophobic a few episodes ago, but apparently he's more afraid of the civilians taking over the ship again.

I did like the way that Rush's and Greer's hallucinations were overlapping, that was pretty cool.

Thanks again to krissiecaps for the screen capture!

Smallville - "Luthor"

Spoiler Level: High

I was wondering why Clark was being "Dick Clark" again at the beginning of this episode.  I mean sure, it's been a given that the Luthors were evil, but it felt like he was being overly harsh to Tess just to drive home the point that she couldn't share her new-found secret that she's really Lena Luthor with him.  But once Clark got zapped to Earth-2 I realized it was all set up so Clark could learn that just because Tess was born a Luthor doesn't mean she's got evil in her DNA.

In this take on the Superman doppelganger Ultraman, the entire universe isn't necessarily an evil opposite, and there's no good Alexander Luthor.  Its main diverging point is that Lionel Luthor found baby Kal-El instead of John & Martha Kent, and raised him as Clark Luthor.  There's no Crime Syndicate versions of the other heroes; Ollie is still something of a hero, although a questionable one, as he's been buying up land in Smallville and kicking out the owners so he can harvest as much Kryptonite as possible to fight Ultraman.  (And really, if ever there was a time to show Ollie with his goatee, this was it.  Talk about a missed opportunity.)

The universe Ultraman comes from in the comics has at various times been the Antimatter Universe, Earth-2, Earth-3, and probably a bunch of other ones I don't remember, so I'm quite happy with Lois referring to the Smallville version as Earth-2.  I'm generally a fan of stories of alternate timelines and parallel universes in general, and while the Smallville Earth-2 may not be a complete "evil opposite" universe, it is definitely a darker, dirtier place, so it works great for me.

One thing, though...

Based on the ending, Earth-2 Lionel must have gotten the Mirror Box off of Ultraman once he returned to his own universe and Earth-2 Ollie zapped him with the Kryptonite window again.  But we've seen that the Mirror Box always switches you with the location of your doppelganger.  Which means that a three-year-old corpse showed up in the Earth-2 Watchtower... and Earth-2 Lionel arrived buried in Earth-1 Lionel's coffin, and would have had to dig his way out.  Icchhhkk. 


As of this writing, this episode is available to watch for free (with commercials) at http://www.cwtv.com/cw-video/smallville/.  I'd also like to give a long-overdue thanks to homeofthenutty.com, which is an excellent screencaps site and where I've been getting all of my Smallville screencaps for my reviews.  These guys capture every single facial expression of every single scene, and I've never ever had a problem finding the image I wanted!

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - "Pursuit of Peace"

Spoiler Level: High

Another politics- heavy episode, which I always enjoy.  It's great to get to see Bail Organa doing his thing.  There is some action as well, in the form of a very cool speeder chase scene through the streets of Coruscant.

This episode also does a wonderful job of building up Rodian senator Onacanda Farr, who's killed in the second season episode "Senate Murders."  Padmé had talked about how good a friend he was, but that friendship was off camera before; now we see it first hand, so his death has more impact.  (Or at least it will, when I rewatch these episodes in chronological order when this is all over...)

I also loved the look of Selkath bounty hunter Chata Hyoki.  Now that's a cool alien design.

The final scene with Chancellor Palpatine came very close to revealing his true intentions.  Which is of course obvious to the audience, since we all know that Emperor Palpatine is Darth Vader's master, but everything I've seen set in the Prequel Era, be it books, comics, this show and even the movies themselves never came straight out and admitted it until the climax of Episode III.   So when Palpatine says "For now, we must adhere to the principles of our democracy," it's coming very close to crossing that line.  Not that I would necessarily be against it; I find Palpatine's machinations fascinating, and the lesson that comes with him-- that under the right conditions, people can be willing to sacrifice their democracy-- is a crucial one.  I'm just surprised to see it come so close to happening here.

"Pursuit of Peace" is the 56th episode aired and #55 in the known chronology to date. This will be the last new episode until January 7, 2011, which hopefully means I'll be able to keep up with NextGen for the next month!

As of this writing, this episode is available to watch for free at http://www.starwars.com/video/view/001161.html.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - "Skin of Evil"

Farewell, Tasha.  We hardly knew ye.

The story goes that Denise Crosby was unhappy that Tasha pretty much only got to say "Hailing Frequencies open, Captain" and fire phasers, so she opted to leave.  When she got the script for her final episode, she said of the opening scene between Tasha and Worf, "if there had been scenes like this all along, I wouldn't have left."  If that's the case, it's a real shame, because Season Two was very heavy on character development, and all she would have had to do was hold out for a few more episodes.

So Tasha gets the typical red shirt death... right down to the "He's dead, Jim" scene.  Except in this case they really go all out to try and bring her back.  Which is understandable, because for them as characters and for us as the audience it's giving a major character a "proper send-off," but I'll tell ya', if I had been Lt. Shlbotnik's friend I'd be pissed.  "Hey!  You didn't do any of that for Joe! You just looked into the camera all upset!!"

The final scene where Data says to Picard "I know this gathering was to think of Tasha, but I find I am only  thinking of myself, and how empty my life will be without her.  Did I miss the point?" always chokes me up.

I know people always liked to pair up Tasha and Data because of their fling in "The Naked Now," but I always thought that she and Worf would have made a much better couple.  I like to think that had she stayed, that would have been looked into someday.  Anyone know if there's ever been an alternate reality story where she survived, and we see how the rest of the show would have gone if she was still there? If there isn't one, it would make for a great "Myriad Universes" story.

Transformers: Prime - "Darkness Rising" (Parts 1-5)

Spoiler Level: High

This is the best Trans- formers TV show I've seen since the Beast era.

Now to be fair, I haven't seen all the shows since the Beast era.  I am by no means a hardcore Transfan.  I generally couldn't stand the G1 cartoon (sorry, Mike) although I tried to get into it many times because I loved The Transformers: The Movie and the G1 comics.  I loved Beast Wars, enjoyed Beast Machines and some fansubs of Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo.  I suffered through all of Robots in Disguise.  I gave up on Armada fairly early so I didn't even bother with Energon, and tried out a fansub of Galaxy Force but found it boring so I didn't bother with Cybertron.  And Animated looked like a watered-down version of the movies with character designs that really put me off, so I never gave it a chance.

But when I saw the previews of Prime my interest got piqued.  Since my favorite has been Beast Wars, the return to CGI definitely made me willing to give it a chance.  Hey, CGI is perfect for robots, because they're supposed to be blocky and move mechanically!

The "watered-down version of the movies" description might still apply here, as this is obviously a TV version of the movie universe;  It's even produced by the movies' writers, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.  The designs for Optimus Prime and Bumblebee are similar to the movie designs, and Bumblebee still doesn't talk.  However it's only watered down in the sense that the Transformers aren't smashing through cities, although there's still lots of combat.  In a lot of ways it feels stronger than the movies; the humans are a lot less annoying, the robots aren't all silver and/or black so I can actually tell them apart, and with it being a series they each get more screen time to be fleshed out as actual characters.

The voice acting is great; Peter Cullen is back as Optimus Prime. Frank Welker's Megatron never sounded better than here; his voice is lower, darker and more threatening.  Jeffrey Combs, who's played about a gazillion different aliens on Star Trek, plays Ratchet and does a great job infusing Ratchet with a sense of weary frustration with Earth yet fierce loyalty to Optimus.

The kids are more tolerable than in most TF stories.  I am not a big fan of humans being in Transformers. That's part of why I like the Beast era the most.  In my opinion, humans just get in the way and force the Autobots to stay on the defensive.  (The obvious exception being the army troops in the first Transformers film-- now those guys could hold their own.)  This series totally drives that point home in Parts 3 & 4, when the kids decide to follow Bulkhead (who is an awesome character, by the way) into battle.  Thankfully in the other parts they're mostly just helpers; the character Jack is even smart enough to try to stay out of the way.  They're much more tolerable than Sam Witwicky,who I generally found to be selfish and unlikeable.  Jack, Raf, and Miko may be intrusive at times, but they don't try to steal the show away from the robots.  And Special Agent Fowler is much less slapstick than Agent Simmons while still being humorous.  And he's got a big ol' gut hanging over his belt!  I loved that.

And of course one of the key, crucial questions to any Transformers cartoon is: Do they have live ammo?  These are robots, after all, so they should be able to blow the snot out of each other and repair minor damages, with major damage still being enough to kill them.  And yes, they do that in this show! It shocked the hell out of me when one of the lead Autobots was brutally killed in the first episode.  Then he's brought back to life in the next episode and I thought, "Oh, okay, they only killed him because it wouldn't be permanent."  But wow was I wrong; he's brought back as a mindless berzerker, only to be killed again even more brutally, and this time for good.  Yikes.

Now granted I'm not a big fan of zombies, and cyberzombies aren't much different, but even I have to be impressed with the hordes unleashed here.  Hopefully the show will find other angles in the future, though; it works well for this story arc, but I imagine it would get old quick.  Especially since I'm starting to get sick of seeing zombies in everything.

The musical score is bold and theatric, and sounded so familiar that I thought series composer Brian Tyler was using Steve Jablonsky's theme from the movies.  Which he might be, but I realized the reason it sounded familiar to me was it sounds like Michael Giacchino's theme from Star Trek ('09, the script for which was also written by Kurtzman and Orci).

So it's good story telling, good animation, good voice acting.  I'll be looking forward to the rest of the series in 2011.

Westworld

Spoiler Level: High

Is this movie a classic, or do I just think it's a classic because 2-XL included it in his "Science Fiction II" program and it was one of the few he asked about that I'd never seen?  It is by Michael Chricton, after all.

It's definitely a product of the 70's, with its rooms full of computer consoles with white blinking lights, its 70's clothes and hair, and the almost mythical trust put into computers that will of course eventually go wrong.  In fact, there's no technical explanation given for why the systems are breaking down beyond "it's getting sick."  No, this is a straight-forward morality story-- create a system designed to indulge your every decadence, and it will ultimately destroy you.

The interesting part is how long it takes for the system to go wrong.  The film takes its time showing you the marvel of the artificial worlds they've created;  in addition to Westworld (often referred to as Westernworld) there's Medievalworld and Romanworld, with Romanworld obviously intended to be the most decadent.  We're given long scenes showing how the system works and how fully the customers can indulge themselves, yet to 1973 PG standards so it's never as gratuitous as the premise would make it sound.  (Nowadays, the content here would probably be PG-13 for blood and sexual situations; this is back when PG actually meant something.)

For some crazy reason, I also spent the movie thinking that James Brolin was a young Michael Douglas, so I assumed he was going to be the hero and Richard Benjamin was going to be the one to die.  Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be the other way around.

Yul Brynner is the original Terminator, the unstoppable robot killing machine.  Every time you think he's finally been destroyed he gets up again and continues his murderous march.  Terminator does genuinely owe something to this movie.

The ending is particularly brutal, with Benjamin's character Peter Martin being the sole survivor, running through the different worlds strewn with dead bodies and Brynner's Gunslinger robot tracking him down, with no guarantee that Martin is going to make it.

My only complaint is that I'd like to know why the system actually broke down, but no one survives long enough to figure that part out.  But that's more a sign of the times.  My reaction that this was an essential part overlooked by the movie probably comes from us living in a more computer-oriented society.  Back in 1973, computers were still something other-worldly.  We didn't need to know why HAL went crazy in 2001; it's a flawed computer, and that's scary.  Nowadays a flawed computer just makes you grumble and complain and reboot, restore or reinstall.

 I'm interested to see how the fall-out from the events of this movie are handled in the sequel, Futureworld.  This was an amusement park after all, and it's safe to say that any amusement park where all the guests died would never reopen again.  But a successful film needs a sequel, so Futureworld, here we come!

Stargate Universe - "Sabotage"

Spoiler Level: High

I like Lt. James.  She's hot.

Other things I liked about this episode:

* Rush continues to be changed by his experience.  He's still abrasive, but it comes across more as stress over their situations and his inability to change it instead of "get out of my way, you're preventing me from running the ship properly, and by the way I should really be in charge here."

* Finally, someone brings up the ethical issue of having sex while they're in someone else's body.  It was practically a throw-away line, but at least it was mentioned.  Everyone's been so cavalier about it in the past, it really struck me as disrespectful to the hosts.

* Greer and Scott both having nothing but happiness and surprise at finding each other alive.  Some angst and trust issues may arrive in later episodes when things get tight, but at this moment they're just happy they all made it.

* They used one of those robots they found!  I like robots.  Plus, anything where they learn more about the ship makes me happy.

I feel as if SGU has turned a corner.  It still doesn't have the traditional Stargate sense of humor and is very nuBSG-esque, but the storytelling has become enjoyable to watch.

And as always, thanks to KrissieCaps for the screen capture!

Star Wars: Rogue Planet by Greg Bear

Spoiler Level: High

I originally started reading this novel when the paperback version was first released in 2001.  I was really looking forward to the further adventures of young Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker, but I had a hard time getting into the book and only finished the first third of it before I got distracted by something else.  Then I started reading New Jedi Order, and Zonama Sekot started sounding familiar, so I checked this book and low and behold, Zonama Sekot was the "Rogue Planet" in question.

In hindsight, that was the best possible way for me to read it.  Vergere is only mentioned as the missing Jedi in the portion I had read, so I had totally forgotten the name when she showed up early on in New Jedi Order.  As a result I had no idea what her story was which made her very mysterious, and I learned it in bits and pieces along with Jacen Solo.  Had I finished this book at the time, I would have already known exactly who she was and what she was all about, which would have demystified her quite a bit.  So I feel this book works best as a prequel to NJO, best when read after wards to fill in Vergere's (and Zonama Sekot's) back story.

Another reason this book worked better for me this time around is it's easier for me to picture the actors this time.  When it first came out, Episode II was still a year away, and all I had to go on was Episode I's portrayal of Ewan McGregor's as a Padawan and Jake Lloyd as a 9-year-old Anakin.  However, the characters are 3 years older in this book, and well on their way to being the characters we now know them as in Episode II; so now I can draw on Hayden Christensen's and Matt Lanter's performances, and McGregor's much more Alec Guiness-like Episode II portrayal, and picture the characters here as somewhere in the middle of those.

I have mixed feelings about the way Anakin's destiny is portrayed.  Anakin keeps feeling brushes with his destiny in this book, and his capability to do dark things.  Greg Bear says he wanted to show how the nice kid in Episode I could become Darth Vader later, and he does that well; I just take question with the concept that he was destined to become Darth Vader.  The impression I got from George Lucas's comments is that Anakin truly was a good person, but his flaws --fear of losing his loved ones-- caused him to make the wrong choices.  And to Greg Bear's credit, Anakin's fear of losing his loved ones is exactly the angle he works. However, here Greg Bear plays it more as if Anakin has this darkness inside that he's afraid to look at because he knows he won't be able to escape it, and hearing his future self give him advice that will lead him down that path.  I feel that until that moment when Anakin intervened in the battle between Mace Windu and Palpatine, his life could have gone a different way.  That Darth Vader wasn't his destiny; Darth Vader was the consequences of making the wrong decision.

(Of course, I also don't believe that Vergere was ever a Sith, so go figure.  Sure, I believe she studied the Sith, but I don't buy her ever becoming an apprentice of Darth Sidious and that's why she had to run away.  And who said that she did?  Other Sith.  Consider the source.  But I digress.)

The portrayal of Zonama Sekot itself is wonderful, and it's easy to picture such a jungle paradise.  The parts of the book where Anakin's new ship is being built is truly breathtaking.  I also rather liked the use of Tarkin and Raith Sienar.  Since Sienar was described as looking as if he could be Tarkin's brother, I imagined him as played by Wayne Pygram.

All in all, an enjoyable read, but I'm glad I didn't read it until now.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - "Symbiosis"

Spoiler Level: High

With the lack of any new shows, I'm finally getting back to some Trek.  For those who don't remember, this episode is the one where the Enterprise discovers that one planet has got its neighbor planet addicted to a drug that only they can supply.

This was one of Picard's defining early episodes.  Kirk would've ran in there and said "Your societies have failed to develop, and I'm going to set you back on track!"  In fact, that's what Beverly keeps insisting that Picard should do.  But instead, Picard sticks to a strict interpretation of the Prime Directive.  The scene in the turbolift where he very passionately tells Beverly that "History has proved again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a less developed civilization... no matter how well intentioned that interference may be... the results are invariably disastrous" is still one of my favorite Picard moments.  It also implies that Kirk made a hell of a mess.

This episode is also notable for two significant casting reasons as well:  First, it guest stars Judson Scott and the late Merritt Butrick in one of his final roles, both of which also had major supporting roles in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (although they never had a scene together).  And secondly, it's the final episode that Denise Crosby filmed as Tasha Yar.  She actually waves goodbye in her final scene, as Picard and Beverly walk out of the cargo hold!

And speaking of cargo holds, I'm positive that the octagon containers in the cargo hold here where originally used in V: The Series, which also had... Judson Scott!  (But I don't know which episode they were in, so I can't post a picture of them.)  It all comes full circle.

Space: 1999 - "Space Brain"

Spoiler Level: High (but come on now, it aired in 1976. We're 11 years past the future the story was even set in.  I think the statute of limitations has run out on this one.)

Every now and then, when I'm washing dishes in the sink, I look at the soap suds and in my head I hear Victor Bergman say "This 'foam,' as you call it... can crush anything."

Some things just leave life-long impressions.

So one day while I was washing the dishes I put this episode in my Netflix DVD queue, for old times' sake.  Since there were no new episodes of any of my shows this week due to Thanksgiving I had time to watch it.  And man, what an awesome nostalgia ride.  Okay, the foam and the zero-g effects may not have been very good, but the model work is still fantastic to watch.  Gerry Anderson was always great at making good SF eye candy.  This episode used three different Eagles, each one with its own unique details.  Not to mention the foam as its over-running the surface of the moon and covering Moonbase Alpha.  I know CGI is realistic, but man, models just have something special to them.

The science is, of course, shaky at best.  (1) The foam is antibodies from a Space Brain that Moonbase Alpha is on a collision with.  No problems there. (2)  This Space Brain is at the center of the galaxy and all the planets depend on it.  Okay, now we're getting really iffy. Are we trying to say that the Moon has traveled all the way from an outer spiral arm to the center of a galaxy in less than a year? (3)  The Space Brain is "not a sun, a star, or a planet."  Well, that's typical Space: 1999 science for you, not knowing that there's no difference between a sun and a star.  (4) The Space Brain is a million times bigger than the Moon, so the anti-bodies will crush the entire Moon, but if we increase the pressure inside Moonbase Alpha to counter the pressure of the antibodies, we should be able to ride it through.  Okay, at that point you just throw any attempt to take the science seriously out the window, eat your popcorn and enjoy the ride.

And there's the obvious drama points; you just know something's got to go wrong with Plan A to up the drama, and you see the obvious set up with what's going to go wrong with Plan B, etc. etc.

But there's also some very interesting, very human moments.  When they first encounter the Space Brain and they don't know what it is yet, its antibodies crush an Eagle and send it crashing back on Alpha.  Commander Koenig decides the next logical step is to nuke it, in the hopes that it'll weaken it enough for the Moon to pass through it unharmed.  This struck me as a bit extreme, but I rather liked the exchange between Koenig and Eagle chief Carter as they sent the nukes off.  Koenig expresses regret at taking a first strike against an enemy he doesn't understand, and Carter counters they killed the crew of Eagle 1.

Once they realize what the Space Brain is, they also realize it's trying to help them avoid it as well.  My first assumption was that, being intelligent, it valued life and didn't want to take it needlessly.  But then all attempts to steer Moonbase Alpha away from the Space Brain fail, and in the end Koenig and Bergman muse that the Moon shot through the Space Brain like a bullet, killing it and all the planets that depended on it.  The Space Brain was trying to help them out of self-preservation.  It's a sad note, but it's treated as little more than an afterthought.

I absolutely LOVED the music, especially what was playing during the main foam attack.  The music felt totally familiar, and I have no idea if it's because I actually remember it from being a child, if it was a theme that was simply reused in the series a lot, or if it's a piece of Library Music that I actually have but can't place-- according to wikipedia, it could be any of the three, or even reused music from a different Gerry Anderson series.  [UPDATE: It was "Mars, the Bringer of War," from Holst's "The Planets." So technically it was none of those! Special thanks to fanderson.org for solving that mystery for me.]

So this was a great trip down memory lane.  I think I'm inspired enough to even watch the other two episodes on the disc before I send it back!