One last jaunt through the old orifice

Stargate SG-1 is revving up to finish its run, with the final episodes starting in April. It's ending with its 10th season, making it the longest running scifi series in history. Cool. Though fans are lamenting its cancellation, I can't say I think it's a bad thing. In fact, it could have ended after season 8 and that would have been all right with me. These last two seasons have been underwhelming, as Earth faced yet another uber-powerful foe [the Ori], and with the departure of Richard Dean Anderson. I like Ben Browder well enough, but his character, Cameron Mitchell, is neither necessary nor especially interesting. Why isn't Carter heading the team? That's just wrong. And though General Hammond was never one of my favourite characters, I was sorry to see him go. Even replacing him with Beau Bridges [one of my childhood crushes], didn't make me glad for his departure.

Over the course of its run, SG-1 developed what I like best about a show - an actual story. The first season was mostly made up of "monster of the week" episodes, one-offs that didn't really connect to each other or to anything outside of a single ep. As subsequent seasons progressed, stories were laid out and the characters were allowed to develop some depth and personality beyond the generic two-dimensional characters we met in season 1.

I wouldn't go so far as to say it was a great show. It has all the features of what I think of as truly cheesy scifi - mediocre writing, hammy acting, silly stories, questionable science, not-so-great CG. However, it entertained me, for which I must give it credit. It also had a romance that I was really rooting for, in part because it eschewed the tired old "boy meets girl, they find a reason to hate each other but are secetly in love" bs. No, this schtick was "boy meets girl, but they can't get involved because one is the other's superior officer." To the show's credit, they pretty much avoided irritating pining and skipped numerous opportunities for stupid flirting. Among my favourite eps are the ones in which Carter & O'Neill kiss, because that's just the kind of sucker I am.

One of the most appealing aspects of this show was the feature of gate travel. Their excursions to different worlds had a Myst feeling for me, where the team would explore strange places and discover interesting new toys. And conveniently, most everyone they met spoke English :)

So, the series is ending, but that doesn't mean this is The End. Two direct-to-DVD films have been approved by MGM and will begin production in March, with most of the stars of the current series. There are also rumours of another spinoff, aside from Stargate Atlantis [which has yet to impress me at all]. But, if no such spinoff materializes, that would be okay.

When tv reaches beyond the television

Watching the "bonus" scene from the last ep of BSG, and reading the online graphic novel from Heroes, has me thinking about the value and intent of extending a tv show beyond television. I wasn't exactly dragged kicking & screaming into the 21st century, but there's an old-tech part of me that rather prefers confining tv stories to tv. In part, I know I'm fortunate to have the interweb available to me; it's pretty damn cool that I have access to this extra stuff that I couldn't see without my computer. But there's something about going to a show's website that gives me a greater feeling of being sold to than just spending an hour in front of the tv. Maybe it's a more potent reminder that the stories I so enjoy, the characters I like so much and the dramas I get so involved in, are merely products. As soon as those products aren't selling so well, they're pulled from the shelves and my investment in them is for naught.

Maybe I'm just bitter about the cancellation of shows like Farscape & Firefly, and ticked that crapfests like Lost* can generate so much hype.

That's getting a bit off track, though. So, do I appreciate what extra material on the 'net & other sources adds to a tv show? I know I've enjoyed such things, like reading some of the B5 books or watching deleted scenes from BSG on scifi.com, but I'm not sure I actually consider that stuff part of the greater story. And, as a component of marketing, I know I'm pretty turned off by it.

Perhaps I would benefit from just thinking about it less and taking my entertainment as it comes.


*Please don't take offense if you're a fan of Lost - my comments are entirely a matter of taste, and thankfully tastes vary widely. Besides, I watch that very crapfest myself, mostly because I like the idea of being stuck on an island with Terry O'Quinn.

Heroes in the calm

This week's episode was pretty entertaining. I don't feel as though the story moved along much, but we got a little more information and a little more depth to some of the characters. This episode had the feeling of a calm before the storm; energy is building, drawing us ever closer to cataclysm, revelation and great change.

While Peter seems to be central to the impending apocalyptic blast, Claire's story seems to be where we'll learn the most about what these freaks of nature are about. So, her birth mother is a firestarter and her birth father is...what? Linderman? Though I can't say I think that's what we'll find out, I wouldn't be surprised.

I like seeing Christopher Eccleston [new Doctor Who, series 1] and it looks as though his character will stick around. I'm not sure why Peter thinks the invisible man can help him, but he's convinced, so I guess we'll find out. Peter's brother, Nathan, unfortunately, is kind of a douchebag. In fact, it seems that Peter is an anomoly in a family of douchebags.

The appearance of George Takei was a total treat. Hiro has faced some serious shit so far, but I think he's come up against his greatest challenge yet :) I bet we find out Mr. Nakamura, Sr. is a colleague of Linderman's.

Just to note, I remembered why Sylar's so important - Mohinder's father believed him to be the first of these changed people, "patient zero."

I've started reading the graphic novel on NBC.com. It's not very substantial, but rather tasty little tidbits of backstory. I tried reading "Hiro's" blog, but it was intolerably inane and I had to stop. I appreciate the intent of the gimmick [creating a blog for a character, to further engage fans], but the execution fails for me.

What to look forward to in the next ep? Sylar, of course. He's alive, he's presumably as powerful as ever, and he's pissed.

Maybe my cat is a cylon...

I don't really think she is, but it's as good a guess as any at this point.

Overall, I liked this week's episode. The Starbuck/Anders/Apollo/Dee storyline has gotten tedious, so I hope their mutual decisions signal an end to that particular drama. Generally, I actually enjoy the romantic side stories in my scifi, root for them, even - Crichton & Aeryn, O'Neill & Carter, Ivanova & Talia. But none of the BSG quartet inspires me. For a little while I was excited by the prospect of Starbuck & Apollo finally getting together; I really liked learning the backstory about their current relationship in "Unfinished Business" [the boxing ep]. However, I don't much think they're a good fit. Apollo is too poncy for Starbuck, and with little exception, they don't have the requisite chemistry. So, perhaps this week's ep is the end of that particular excursion into soap opera. Now let's hope we don't get treated to a continuation of the theme with Tyrol & Callie.

Anyway, so Baltar's not a cylon, but he is the Chosen One [whatever that means]. Did D'Anna die in the temple because she's not the chosen one? Would it have been Baltar with blood dripping out his nose if he'd seen what she saw, or would he have gotten the astonishing revelation he was looking for and walked away? He would have learned whether or not he was one of the final five, but I wonder what else he might have gleaned.

Maybe Gaeta's a cylon, which could explain D'Anna's reaction in the temple. We know she recognized one of the five, and was even apologetic for not realizing who s/he was, which makes me think it was someone she hadn't shown much respect for before. Heh, I guess that could be anybody, though.

Of course, the best scenes were of Baltar's various interrogations, though I wasn't too crazy about the continuous cutting back & forth between that and Apollo/Starbuck, etc. I love seeing Roslin act the badass, and I definitely don't mind seeing Baltar made extremely uncomfortable. Now that I think about it, it was pretty clumsy of Gaeta to look up at the camera in the cell while he was talking to Baltar. But, I'm not very convinced that if he'd actually wanted Baltar dead, he couldn't have accomplished it.

So, for all their efforts, they didn't really get anything out of Baltar. Keeping him alive and even deciding to give him a trial is a crazy mistake and makes me think Adama & Roslin aren't quite on the ball. Adama was right on when he suggested that Baltar could just disappear. But like Baltar, they continue to struggle with their humanity in the face of survival.

Some more thoughts on Heroes

I rewatched the latest ep and liked it better the second time around. To reiterate, Hiro rocks. Among the less interesting characters, Mohinder couldn't be more boring if he was asleep. Even when he's angry & threatened, he's dull as dirt. Hopefully he'll take on some more depth as his involvement with Claire's father and The List expands.

Parkman shares that same dullness, made worse by a boring marriage-problems storyline. I'm hoping he's quickly working with the FBI again, in part because the agent he works with makes him more interesting, but also because that agent is played by Clea DuVall [Sofie on Carnivale]. She's just interesting, probably even when she's asleep.

Is Claire's father working for Linderman? Is it Linderman who has Ted the Radioactive Guy in a shed in Nevada? Who the hell is Linderman?!

This show does a good job with the comic book feel. While borrowing ideas from comics, it stays true to its medium, resulting in a highly watchable show with comic book style. I wouldn't say the writing is outstanding, but for television fare, it is pretty good.

Share the Love, part 2

The friend I recently turned on to BSG sent me this message last week:

"I couldn't stand it. I went out and bought the first season and first
half of the second season of Battlestar Galactica!

"You may never hear from me again! ;-)"

Heh, it's like an infection.

BSG is back & kicking ass

Overall, the kickoff for the second half of season 3 was another excellent episode. I'm sorry to see Lucy Lawless go; I liked D'Anna and her cleavage. That last shot of the room of tubs makes me wonder how many times they've boxed other cylons, and why. Mary McDonnell continues to wow me, even though I'm not always fond of her character's choices. In fact, I'm not sure I'd be so crazy about Roslin at all if it weren't for a bit of a crush on the actress.

Most of this ep held up well, as far as acting, writing & story. The dramatic scene with Boomer threatening Hera actually irritated me in its melodrama, though. The dialogue felt clumsy, and the idea of Boomer killing the only human-cylon hybrid rings totally false, even in her emotional turmoil.

But to back up a bit...what did Athena mean when she said she & Hera were safer on the Base Star? Will we see her try to return to the Cylons after Hera is checked out by Dr. Cottle?

I love that Baltar is back on the Galactica. I expect to see him weasel & whine a good bit as Adama & Roslin decide what to do with him. And little does he know, his ex-girlfriend is there too. So, why did she leave the Base Star with Sharon & Hera? It seems that they must have known she'd be taken into custody as soon as they arrived on the Galactica, and it's not as though she could really do much to help fly the Raptor. So why didn't she just help Sharon & Hera get away, then deal with the "murder" of Boomer?

The really big question on my mind now is, is Starbuck a cylon? I spent all of season 1 & a good part of season 2 convinced that Baltar was, and I just have no idea about him now. I never actually suspected Starbuck until this last ep, though. But, we know she has a destiny [if we can trust what Leoban says], and it seems as though that destiny is beginning to clarify.

The return of Heroes

I watched the latest ep with pretty mixed feelings. The first half almost had me squirming in my chair, it was sucking so bad. The irritating voiceover before the episode even started put me in a wrong state of mind, thinking I might be subjected to a torturous "what if you had a super power?" recap a la Lost. So, I was a little critical from the start. Then the acting was painful to watch, so much hammy emotion and lack of range or subtlety. Nor was I especially impressed by the writing. Maybe it felt a little dumbed down, or just kind of lazy. Too much catch-up and not enough progression of the story.

That said, there are definitely things I liked about it, and it's not like I won't catch next week's ep. My issues with the first half seemed to be mitigated in the second half.

What can I say about Hiro? He's just fantastic. I love that he really seems to grasp his role as a hero, and forges ahead with enthusiasm & a sort of certainty. He doesn't know what he's getting himself into, but he knows that whatever it is, it's what he should be doing.

I want to know what the not-so-mute Haitian is up to. They're an interesting pair, he & the boss's mutant daughter. What new angles is he going to share with us? Claire had some weak points in this ep, but generally I like her character. I especially liked the scenes toward the end when she & Zack's recorded "attempt #1."

Claire's father, it turns out, is a lot more intriguing than I thought early on. He's still creepy, but I like how unclear it is whose side he's on. We don't know who he's working for, what his or his employer's aims are, why Sylar is so much more interesting [and valuable?] to him than the rest of the mutants, as well as a slew of other things. Finally, I predict that Mohinder will be giving Mr. Creepy a call pretty soon...

The Dresden Files

I watched the first ep of this and I pretty much like what I've seen. The characters seem interesting enough, the acting, & directing decent enough. While nothing jumped out at me as especially terrific, nothing struck me as particularly bad either. It has potential.

I didn't know much about the premise going into it, and I found it intriguing and wonderfully open-ended. I'm not much of a wizard-story fan, but this looks like a take on wizardry that I could get into. Because it's set present-day, it would be nice to see the writers take advantage of current knowledge and throw in some science.

Didn't have many other thoughts about it either way. I'll watch & see where it goes from here.

Props to the Daily Show!

It always makes me laugh, but Tuesday's episode tickled my geek funnybone in the extreme, with phone appearances by Daily Show Senior Star Trek Analogy Analyst [heh] Leonard Nimoy, and George Takei. Check it out at comedycentral.com.

Sort of an intro

I don't exactly have a plan for this blog, but I started it because sometimes I want to write about the things I'm into. I'm very into scifi, so that's mostly what I'll write about; the minutia of my day isn't especially interesting to anyone but me, so generally I'll skip that shit.

Now, to the scifi! I'll get more indepth with everything later, but for now a quick summary. I'm a big enough fan of Star Wars that I have the rebel alliance symbol tattooed on my ankle. The majority of my DVD collection is scifi tv - Babylon 5, the new Battlestar Galactica, Farscape, Firefly, even Crusade, among others. The next series I'm aiming to get is Odyssey 5, an exceptional [and woefully short-lived] series starring Peter Weller. I don't have a bunch of spiffy geek paraphernalia, but I do have a few pretty cool things, including a puzzle of the original Star Wars poster. Luckily, my husband is something of a geek as well and doesn't mock [much] my appreciation for the scifi. In fact, the "bride & groom" on the dessert at our wedding were Han & Leia action figures.

While I might say I like one show better than another, or this show does something better than that show, I'm disinclined to do much comparison. My preference is to let a show stand on its own and appreciate it for what I like about it. That being said, I'll note that my favourite show is Babylon 5, and that Battlestar Galactica is the Best. Show. Ever. I believe that BSG could not exist as it is were if not for the ground that B5 broke a decade earlier. B5 changed what scifi tv could be, as previously defined primarily by Star Trek. And I don't mean to knock Trek; I'm a fan and really love certain things about the franchise. However, with only a handful of exceptional episodes throughout all the series, it never really dove into the grit that makes for seriously engaging storytelling.

Anyway, this was supposed to be a summary, so I'll speak more on that another time.

Share the love

Recently I had the opportunity to introduce a friend to Battlestar Galactica. To my joy, he was hooked. In the few days he was here on vacation, we watched the miniseries & the first few episodes of season one. It feels good to get someone into one of my geeky interests, partly to share the joy, partly to validate how I waste my time.

On a much less pleasant note, my GameCube is spazzing :( After a bit of gameplay, it stops working and tells me it can't read the disc, consult the manual. I suppose I should cut it some slack, though - it's been on continuously for over a month. This has happened before, so I'm sure it's just tired of my game & needs a break. It better start working soon, though, because someone needs to save Hyrule and rescue Zelda!

Welcome to my geek blog

This is my geek blog, wherein I'll write about my geeky interests, currently tv scifi and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.