Lost: If you’re skipping any episodes that don’t feature glimpses of the Others or the Smoke Monster or some huge revelation about the Dharma dome, you can just move along. I quite liked this one because it jumped right on the big question mark hanging over Charlie at the end of the episode two weeks ago, and unlike some long-standing unresolved plot points in the series, this one really needed to be addressed immediately. It’s funny how, when confiding his dreams and hallucinations to Eko, Charlie pointed out something that I was already thinking – if Kate sees a horse in the jungle, or if, well, anyone sees Walt running around, no sweat, nobody questions it. But Charlie having premonitions about the baby in mortal danger? It’s gotta be the heroin. (Admittedly, the presence of the heroin doesn’t help his case.) Locke also voiced something I was beginning to feel was at the root of the story – Charlie trying to save the baby because he can’t save himself – although I really came to resent Locke’s handling of the situation. Charlie needs help and, like it or not, they’re stuck with him. A side note: I like the Hurley/Libby angle. I like it a lot. Sometimes the oddest attractions do pop up when and where and with whom you least expect them. Feel free to file this under “of course, you would say this, because you’re fat too,” but it’s nice to see Hurley treated as a fully-rounded human being and not just occasional comic relief or exposition about the mystery numbers. That said, I laughed out loud at Sawyer’s quip, “I bet you’ve got a load you’d like to drop in.” 😛
Invasion: Shades of Lost – quite a bit of this week’s episode was a flashback to nine years before the rest of the series so far, showing how Tom Underlay became the first person in Homestead to be infested and finally shedding some light on what role he plays within the community of the infested hurricane survivors. It turns out there’s an opposite number who may be working against him (and indeed, may be the one who shot him at the beginning of the episode), and it could be that as sinister as Tom seems sometimes, he could be all that’s keeping the infested humans from running riot and more aggressively trying to expand into the general populace. Which is kinda scary, to think that there’s someone out there even creepier than Tom. I rolled my eyes a little bit at the conspiracy theory which seemed to imply that the military is in bed with the possessed humans. Surely that’ll turn out to be something other than what it is, rather than an excuse to have mysterious black helicopters show up and snatch the bad guys out of danger continually. I’ll say it again: if you’re a Lost fan who’s upset over the lack of forward motion of the plot vs. character development, stick around for the show that comes on right after it.
Stargate SG-1: This is one case where yes, I can see the resolution coming from a light-year away, but the character touches are what make it. I’m glad to see some further nailing down of what makes Cameron Mitchell nuts-but-functional in a different way than John Crichton. A lot of this episode’s plot specific were pretty much paint-by-number, though I did enjoy seeing a previous episode’s plot development (the memory storage device) come back without being completely mission-critical or a throwaway gag.
Stargate Atlantis: Remember the “winter season premiere” where Rodney OD’d on the Wraith enzyme and became quite an entertaining one-man show? I think someone realized that sequence was some of the best pure entertainment that Atlantis has produced this season and decided an encore would be dandy. I was actually a little disappointed when Fantasy Carter showed up, because David Hewlett was doing a great job of carrying the whole show, on his own, locked into a room without even a speaking computer to play off of. And yes, I realize that Fantasy Carter isn’t bound in any way to act like the Carter we know from SG-1, but I somehow wasn’t expecting her to get as lowbrow as “…but I bet I can get you hot!” – that sounded less like something from Rodney’s subconscious and more like something a certain sector of fandom would want to hear. (I guess I can’t complain too loudly, because I can’t say I would’ve minded being trapped with this slightly yummier version of Carter.)
Battlestar Galactica: Y’know, I hope I’m not really picking up on a case of Janeway-itis hitting President Roslin while her immune system is still recovering from her miraculous cancer cure. There are times when she seems remarkably like a hard-ass, much more than one would expect her to be, and then there are times she comes across as being almost laughably naive, as in this episode with her expectation that the fabulous Adama boys were somehow going to wipe out the black market in one swell foop. If anything, Apollo probably has a much better solution, even if it is…muddy. (And speaking of Apollo, kudos again to Richard Hatch for making the best of a very brief appearance – and it seems like we’ll be butting heads with him again in the future.) Apollo wasn’t just standing in the mud – he was in it hip-deep. And Adama turns out to be the least naive of them all. I was sorry, however, to see Fisk go. (And who the heck is running the Pegasus now?) While still a relic of Admiral Cain’s regime, Fisk at least seemed redeemable. It’s almost scary to think about who’ll be running Pegasus next. Maybe she does get taken out after all, and sooner than I thought. As for Baltar, again, I think Roslin was extraordinarily naive not to see that coming. Forthright she may be after her recovery, but surely she hasn’t lost so many of her wiles as to realize that there was probably a more diplomatic litmus test she could’ve employed than an offer to resign.
Little boo-boo I spotted at the end of the promo for next week’s Galactica: “All New New Next Friday.” I can’t laugh too loud, I’ve accidentally done stuff at least that stupid and put it on the air before. 😀 Also, why does it seem like advertisers suddenly feel that Galactica is a prime demographic for folks who need cold medicine? Feelin’ stuffed up, buddy? That’s because you have a big big cold! I’d swear those two spots ran in every break.
You May Also Like
Still Trekkin’, still talkin’
January 16, 2024
Trekkin’ and Talkin’ Times Two
January 15, 2023
The Cliff Notes of the Book of Boba Fett
February 13, 2022
Well, I missed the SG-1 and the BSG stuff because I spent the evening at a freinds house. When I got home I discovered that I didn’t put a fresh tape in the VCR and it dodn’t record the show for me. Fortunately the Sci-Fi channel will repeat the show on Monday and, once I watch it , I’ll be able to comment.
Your comments about the SG-1 Atlantis makes me want to watch it even more. Fantasy Carter? ***drool*** Dang! I missed it! Now I’ll have to what a month or more before I see that episode!
Missing this weeks shows reminds me of a time when I missed some shows of Star Trek:”Voyager. The local UPN station lost it’s franchising license or was changing owership and they didn’t air about 4 or 5 shows. One night, when the legal stuff was straightened out, they aired it all at once and I missed watching some of them. A friend of mine saw them and described the episodes to me. He did such a good job of describing the shows that I enjoyed it more than I would have if I simply watched them. Was I disappointed when I finally saw the shows? Not in the least. In fact, as the shows unfolded before me, I gained a greater appreciation of the show than I thought was possible.
Now I have to wait another week before I get my SG-1 fix (well, I could watch some reruns).
Let me make one more lame attempt at Sg-1 humor:
How many Gou’lds does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Nowadays, just one. But during the grand days of the Gou’ld empire thousands of Jaffa would change millions of light bulbs at the Gou’lds slightest whim!
I’m almost disappointed that you weren’t pointed toward our fine Voyager episode guide. Takes a heck of a lot less time than it does to watch it, and leaves out the occasionally inane dialogue and plot twists. 😛 By the way, the “Janeway-itis” I referred to earlier is a syndrome where a supposedly strong female character is writen with wild inconsistency, often due to the fact that her lines are being written by a bunch of twenty and thirty something guys. Where Voyager was concerned, it was more pronounced after Jeri Taylor retired from her executive producer position after the fourth season, as she was the only person in the writing room who happened to be a woman in a leadership position with strong convictions. (It should also be pointed out that Voyager also invited Ron “BSG” Moore onto the writing staff and then chased him away again in about the space of a month. Yowch.)
As for Fantasy Carter, I’m sure that some of Amanda Tapping’s less savory fans are going to short-circuit their TIVOs replaying and re-replaying some of the scenes from the Atlantis episode. With the benefit of a few hours’ sleep, I’ve realized in a way, it was similar to the Voyager episode where Seven of Nine is alone on the ship for a month and begins hallucinating this other character just to externalize some of her internalized drama (or similar to the carbon-copy Enterprise episode where T’Pol does the exact same thing; the names were changed to protect the innocent, but the plot was left alone – Subcommander T’Pol was arraigned in Los Angeles County Circuit Court for…oh, wait, that’s Dragnet). Again, I guess not a case where one needs to go worrying about the originality of the plot, but just try to chew on what the characters bring to it.
Sorry Earl but I didn’t know about your fine episode guide until nearly four years later. In fact, in those days, I avoided the Internet when it came to reviews on Star Trek shows. When I first discovered the “Lurkers Guide to B5” I thought it was a really cool site (still do) and I wondered if there was a comparable site for Star Trek. After a brief search, I gave up. The sites I found were either hopeless fanboy sites or official sites requiring payment, loyalty oaths or a blood sample. They were also choked with images that took forever to load. I even tried the Usenet for help but that was a dead end. Much of the Star Trek posts on Usenet are filled with cynics and trolls blasting the shows instead of giving me the insight and perspective I seeked. After a while I settled on both tvtome.com and Imdb.com for most of my Star Trek needs. Usually, all I really need is an episode synopsis or information on the actors and those two websites fill that need nicely.
The episode of ST:VOY I mentioned in my previous comment? “Blink of an Eye”, which, if not my number #1 favorite episode, certainly belongs in the top five.
Anyway, back to BSG. I watched the show Monday night and I have to say, not their best effort. The show succeeded with it’s characterization of Captain Apollo but it failed in other aspects. I liked the idea of Apollo coming to terms with recent events by shacking up with a hooker but what’s the deal with this woman from Apollo’s past? Which ass did Ron Moore pull this out of? It was contrived and it threatened the continuity of Apollo’s character development if not the show itself. The old girlfriend was there to service the needs of the episode and it reminds me too much of Star Trek episodes where they would twist the fabric of reality just to meet the momentary needs of an episode. I fear that the bad parts of Star Trek are creeping into Ron Moore’s psyche. I hope not.
Has Billy gained weight? That’s what I wondered about when I saw him and Dee exercising together. Maybe he’s into the black market and Roslin doesn’t know it. 🙂
As to Roslin and her naivety, I think that goes with the terriotory. After all, she believes she’s the leader from the prophecies and so, many times, she seems to be walking in the clouds. Keep in mind that she’s not a child lost in the woods. We’ve seen that she’s capable of deceit, cunning and a sharp mind. I just think she has an idealistic views about how a society should function.
I’ve seen a lot of “Oh! This latest one wasn’t up to snuff! Moore’s sliding downhill fast!” speculation on various forums, and I’ve gotta say…I think it’s a slight overreaction. An average episode of BSG is…well…an average episode of BSG. (Notice I’m not one of these people who’s jumping in and saying “A bad episode of BSG is better than most other shows’ best episodes” – that’s just a bit too fanboyish for me.) I think it says a lot about how much we’ve come to expect from the show. That said, the Flashback Girlfriend thing was a bit out-of-left-field. They could have just left that as a mention in dialogue and not shown all that stuff, and they would’ve had more time for some real story, rather than the flashback footage.
And yet this latest one still has me wondering: was Phalen (the guy Apollo shot) a pawn sacrifice who was on Tom Zarek’s payroll all along, or did Zarek play the whole situation to get Phalen out of his way so he can move in and get some black market lovin’? I can’t decide which is more strongly implied by Zarek walking around with the guys who we’d previously seen as Phalen’s bodyguards at the end.