Doctor Who‘s Series 2 continues to improve by leaps and bounds. “School Reunion,” the most recent episode, is a classic, in a couple of ways.
First off, there’s the villainy. A great combo of semi-cheesy alien plots, suitable spookiness, and some nice SFX, Anthony Head was spectacular as head baddie (and there were multiple areas of irony there). And if the menace got resolved a bit easily … well, that’s not what’s really going on in the episode.
It’s all about the nature of the Doctor, and his Companions. I won’t spoil anything — but there’s a great deal of humor, and pathos, and some very nice stuff to give one plenty to think about. And, yes, some good cheesy fun from the past, but some interesting insight into the Doctor’s present, and future.
Great stuff. Destined to be a classic episode.
There’s a deleted scene from the episode online at SciFi until 21 October. Haven’t watched it yet …
Battlestar Galactica ran the first half of a two-parter, named (hopefully) “Exodus.” Things held together a scosh better than the season premiere, if only because the amount of New Stuff was, perforce, limited. Plots advance, betrayals occur (and come to light), and … um … a silly, stupid, “plot twist” thing happens that dodges a major bullet (so to speak) from last time. Indeed, the show turns the clock back about 30 seconds — well, more like a couple of hours — before the end of the previous
ep, such that …
… well, it was the weakest aspect of an episode that was actually pretty decent, and sets up what should be a hell of a lot fireworks next time around.
I’m still not happy with the direction of the Season, even if in the end we end up being “back to basics” BG again. The main weakness: the Cylons have turned into something not at all alien, not at all Other, just a petty and vindictive and, well, human. Maybe that will be the theme — humanity’s creations becoming, in essence human, in emotion and reproductive ability and all that jazz. The children supplant, or are consumed, or learn to co-exist with their parents.
Which would be fine, if they “skin jobs” weren’t so soap operatic in their lusts and peeves and bickering and bloody-mindedness. Especially in contrast to Baltar (who’s usually sitting in drunken stupor at the far end of the room), they come across as two-dimensional melodramatists.
Or maybe that’s the message …
Seeing Sarah Jane and K-9 just made me feel all warm and fuzzy. And this is my first season of watching Galactica, so I can’t comment on the difference between this year and the past, but I like it a lot. I am a huge Dean Stockwell fan, so his creepy character is tickling my fancy.
Add “Heroes” and “Smallville” to those two, and I’m in melodrama heaven!
I really like Heroes. A lot. It’s still a little scattered, because they haven’t had a chance to draw all of the heroes together, but the individual storylines are pretty cool. The Japanese guy who can bend space/time is a hoot! 🙂
The “deleted scene” is fairly trivial, but amusing (and explains another trivial item from elsewhere in the episode).
I never much cared for K-9, to be honest. And I didn’t see anything in this ep to change my mind, save that K-9 can be charming in small doses, rather than being a deus ex machina. Though I did love Mickey’s related line about his role in the group.
It was great seeing Sarah Jane, yes. I believe there was renewed talk about a new SJ series, but that’s been dropped; hopefully she’ll get involved in the Torchwood stuff.
Never gotten into “Smallville.” I’ll watch it when traveling on business, if it comes up, but not a must-see. Heroes, though … yeah. Very interested to see where that’s going.
Yeah, after watching the first ep of the season (especailly when Stockwell’s character shot #6), I very much picked up the I, Robot or Frankenstein vibe from it (or countless other books/shows that have tread the new replacing the elder but not being all that different in the first place meme).
For me that is something that the can either do very well or screw up very badly. Which path will they follow, Sin or Virtue. It is a mixed bag really at this point as those that are “Individuals” tend to get eliminated by the Cylons and they maintain Group Think, while the Humans eliminate the ones that are group think, but allow the Individuals to live. It will be interesting to see how all of that will play out.
Hmmm. Here’s a thought I just had re Galactica.
First two seasons, it was all about Desperate Survival. From the very first attack, humanity was hanging in there by the skin of its teeth. Everything was about survival, everything was fraught with risk. How much civilization, how much polity could the last of humanity have, at what risk? When would the military take over? When would a single, random factor possibly spell doom for everyone? How human could the humans be, how civilized, in the face of desperate decisions that could mean life and death?
Season 3? Suddenly — it’s not quite as bad. Humanity is effectively enslaved … but there’s a difference between being resistance fighters under a tyranny (one that varies between iron fist and velvet glove — and which, in some ways, seems no worse than the previous regime) and being in a struggle for life and death. It changed the tone, the stakes completely (and for the worse, I think).
In fact … why is there a resistance at all? Some incidents are alluded to, but, really, life under the Commies doesn’t appear much worse than life under the Czar. We haven’t really seen much of “life,” just Col. Tighe looking really mean and angry and lots of people in dirty fatigues hanging around tents.
A scosh late (since they’re on again tonight, though we won’t be watching), but some good commentary on both the above from Peter David. His critique of BG was spot on with my feelings (but better written, natch).
Could you provide us with a link to these Peter David reviews?
I can see where that would be helpful.