This Week (1/9-1/13/06) in Sci-Fi-Ish Type Shows

This seemed to go over well last week, so I’ll take another stab at this week, throwing in ABC’s Wednesday night genre fare for good measure.
Lost: Everyone should’ve seen this one coming – a new band of survivors = a new batch of backstories to explore. And I’m sure that of all the Tailies, Eko stands out as the one everyone would like to know the most about right off the bat. What was startling was how much an episode telling Eko’s story revealed about Charlie. And not necessarily good stuff about Charlie either. You want to root for the guy’s recovery, but it isn’t looking good. And just on a conceptual level, the scene at the beginning where Walt is being urged to kill a man was just terrifying. It reveals just how little an idea we’ve really had about what kind of concrete danger either Walt or the tail section children are in. Now we know, and that ratchets up the tension incredibly. I’m with Michael – let’s pack some heat and go find those kids next week.
Now, where “Lost: Revelation” was concerned…eh. I remember saying here that I hoped that it would be an interesting exercise in editing the whole series together as a seamless whole. Instead, it seemed to be tail-section-heavy, and didn’t really kick in until about halfway through. I felt a bit let down. But catch-up shows like that aren’t really meant for me, now are they?
Invasion: Fans of Lost who are getting vastly frustrated with that series’ occasional lack of forward motion might do well to check out this show, whose narrative took some major leaps forward this week. This week’s episode raises so many questions: how much can any of the “possessed” humans retain their personalities and free will? There are clear hints that there’s a collective, almost pack-mentality at work among the alien-inhabited people, but just as clearly, Mariel can retain her identity and can operate against that mentality. Makes you wonder whether Tom is going with or against the flow, doesn’t it?
Stargate SG-1: I could swear I’d seen this episode before…oh, wait – here. And then they took the Surprise Twist Ending from here! Slightly different setup, but the same basic premise. I’ll give them this – they went into the nature of the technology a bit more than that other show did. Other than that…eh…maybe I should just shaddup. What was that Shakespeare said about there only being seven plots in drama? I tried to keep an eye out for the Interesting Character Stuff, but I just wasn’t getting much that I didn’t get from that previous iteration of these storylines.
Stargate Atlantis: Interesting, isn’t it, how creative personnel seem to be blurring the lines? In last week’s Galactica, we had a shooting script by director Michael Rymer, and this week’s Atlantis features a story co-written by Joe “Sheppard” Flanigan. Again, not exactly original, though I think what proved to be interesting here were the breadcrumbs dropped about ascension and possibly the Ancients.
Battlestar Galactica: Man. Y’know, waiting for the respective assassination orders to come down, I was standing up, watching the TV, and my heart was pounding. And then nothing happened and I relaxed and I realized there were still 15 minutes of show to go. Holy crap. Okay…specific points. My immediate concern is that Fisk is going to have a hard time reining in a crew that’s used to the unrestrained brutality that seemed to be SOP under Cain. I wonder where the Number Six that isn’t in Baltar’s head has gone. I wonder if Apollo just has a death wish at this point – seems like the revelation that Roslin was capable of convincing his dad to order a “hit” just ripped his world out from under him. I wonder if Starbuck was as shaken up by the whole thing as she seemed to be, and what exactly the significance of her last comment re: Cain was. I wonder to whom Dualla’s going to be reporting the conversation on which she eavesdropped, if anyone – though it seems like there has to be someone, else why was she there? And I wondered when the penny was going to drop with Bill Adama. Took long enough…and now there seems to be so little time left. Damn, damn, damn. By the look of things, next week’s episode is going to start knock-down drag-out fights at the water cooler the day after it airs. Oh, and I love these guys for dialing down the sound and letting the music carry things every once in a while. (A season 2 soundtrack CD is in the planning stages, very likely for a summer ’06 release, though there’s been no official announcement yet from the label.)
The other big news this week, of course, was the announcement that the new Doctor Who will be taking over the Stargate Atlantis slot in March on Sci-Fi Fridays. I urge everyone – especially those who have gadgets like a Tivo whose records can be used to determine viewing figures even unofficially – to watch Doctor Who on Sci-Fi. Even if you’ve downloaded it. Even if you’ve got tapes from Canada. Even if you’ve already ordered the UK or Canadian DVD sets. Oh, and by the way: let’s be patient and get the U.S. release of the box set. God, I’d love to be going through the commentaries right now, ya know? But I’m going to wait until July. Let’s send the BBC a message: Doctor Who has a strong fan base in the United States. And we want to see more, so we want to see them keep making more.