Closet Sci-Fi Geek

Doctor Who States Premiere and Sarah Jane Spin-Off Show

Doctor Who season two is premiering in the states tonight on the SciFi Channel; in case you missed it, I had already reviewed the episode back in April. (I don’t live in the U.K., but I have my ways of getting my grubby little hands on things…)

In other Who news, Elisabeth Sladen will reprise her role as investigative journalist, Sarah Jane Smith, in a new Doctor Who spin-off series. I thought she was great when she returned to Doctor Who, so the show should be good. It’s also nice to see an older woman getting a show like this - in the U.S. they would have set the show back in time and gotten a younger actress, probably. Looking forward to it.

Blade TV Series Canceled

Just announced: Blade has been canceled after 13 episodes. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I told you it sucked. Heh.

Star Trek: The Original Series - “The Menagerie Parts 1 & 2″

The Menagerie is an interesting two-part episode because it is the first episode in Star Trek that alludes to the Enterprise ever belonging to another Captain, as well as helps create a rich back-story for the series. It is also the only two-partner in the three seasons.

That Gene Roddenberry did this with the failed original pilot, “The Cage,” is even more impressive. The events in this episode are supposed to be 13 years prior, and it really does seem this way; when in fact it was only a couple of years in real time. Even the overly-emotional Spock from the original pilot seems appropriately youthfully exhuberant. Continue reading Star Trek: The Original Series - “The Menagerie Parts 1 & 2″…

Heroes Premiere: A Bit Shaky, But There’s Promise

I have to say I am a bit surprised at some of the rave reviews I’ve seen about NBC’s new superhero show Heroes.

I can tell from the previews of upcoming episodes that Heroes will probably be fun and maybe even quite good. The premiere, alas, was not that great. It was a hodge podge of awkward character development coupled with unbelievable coincidences, all geared at connecting our “heroes” together. Right. Like I’m going to believe that the guy who believes he is going to fly would just accidentally ride in the cab of the Indian professor who is studying these genetic “anomalies.”

We have enough of unexplained coincidences on Lost - but at least there, they are a part of a greater mystery. Here, on Heroes, the coincidences were just obvious ploys by the writers to bring the disparate characters together.

The characters themselves were a bit unbelievable as well. We have the male nurse who thinks he can fly (and thus decides to test this out for the first time on top of a small skyscraper - as if jumping out the first floor might not be a better test to start). We have the sexcam operator who stupidly borrowed $30,000 from the mob to put her kid into private school (I mean, duh). We have a Japanese guy who can bend space and time. (This guy was a bit stereotypical in his portrayal, but the actor made him endearing anyway.) Oh, and let’s not forget the cheerleader (the second blonde bimbo on the show) who can’t be hurt.

All told, way too much time was spend on the various ludicrous backstories of these characters and not enough on some serious superhero action.

I’m hoping the show will improve once the awkward set-up is done; certainly, Eureka did. So I will provide a review of episode number two, which I’m betting will be a little less painful. One can only hope.

Star Trek: The Original Series - “The Enemy Within”

What’s better than one Captain Kirk? Two! And how about if one of them is totally horndog? Woo-hoo! Thus the episode, “The Enemy Within” begins with a transporter malfunction that splits kirk into the Good Kirk and the Bad Kirk.

How can you tell which is which? Well, the Bad Kirk wants Saurian brandy and to molest Yeoman Rand. Oh and he has on dark eye-liner that makes him look…well…hot.

The Good Kirk is a little paler than usual and very reticent as the Bad Kirk is the one who got the cojones. Fortunately the Good Kirk keeps his intellect otherwise fusing and merging them back into one whole appropriately frisky Kirk would not be a possibility.

This episode is well-regarded as some of Bill Shatner’s best acting in the series. The Good Kirk is brilliantly understated - as if the air has been let out of his tires (or his balls are missing since the Bad Kirk has them). The Bad Kirk in contrast is over the top - hysterical, violent, filled with ego and rage and lust. In all not a half-bad guy (half, get it?).

This is also a great episode for Spock and McCoy, who are very sensitive to the Captain’s needs as well as being strong support for the ship and the crew during this crisis. They shoulder the responsibility well and work terrific as a team. Spock has a few great lines too, such as speaking of being half-human and half-Vulcan:

Spock: “Being split into two halves is no theory with me, doctor. I have a human half, you see, as well as an alien half…submerged, constantly at war with each other. I survive it because my intelligence wins out over both, makes them live together.”

Once again, Yeoman Rand (who fortunately will not be around on the Enterprise much longer) is the object of someone’s lust. I mean DEAR GOD, has anyone noticed that her hairdo actually contains an enormous beehive? Or a small alien civilization? Or the Who’s from Horton Hears a Who? I mean, seriously. Would Captain Kirk have to unweave the basket that is on top of her head before he even got down to the funky stuff? Could take a while.

Meanwhile on Alfa 177 poor Sulu and the landing party are freezing to death, so something has to happen to get Kirk back together with his shadow-self and the transporter needs to be repaired.

I love these internal ship/character episodes. Brilliant. Take something as inocuous as the geologist who cuts his hand sliding down an ore-filled cliff and look what happens - two Kirks and a frozen landing party. Oh, and don’t forget the peach dyed unicorn dog. Every episode needs one of those.

This episode is the first time Bones says, “He’s dead, Jim” referring to the unicorn dog. And it is the first time Spock uses the Vulcan Nerve Pinch (on the Bad Kirk).

The Kirk Factor: This is all Kirk and double the pleasure at that. I can’t decide which I like better. The Bad Kirk is hotter certainly and I love the snarling and throaty way he asks for the brandy and then walks around drinking from the bottle. But then the Good Kirk is so compassionate. So kind. So dreamy. Ah, well put ‘em together, make one good one.

Pimpin’ My New Site for Writers

And now for something completely off-topic…if you are a writer, then you might enjoy my new writer’s site, Writernia. There you can connect with other writers, share stories for critique, or use the free job board. I’ve even included a place where you can upload fan fiction.

It’s fresh off the HTML block, so still in baby stages. I’d love to see you there, and please do tell a friend. Gals like me don’t have big budgets for online advertising.

The Terminator is Coming to TV

I’m honestly not sure how exciting this show will be, but they are developing a show based on The Terminator for FOX called the Sarah Connor Chronicles. This will take place in between T2 and T3, when Sarah Connor is hiding from authorities with her son. Filming will take place in Mexico, so you can expect a lot of desert shots and dust.

Frankly, I’d be much more interested in a Terminator series that took place in the future (even though it has since been changed), so we could see how things went on the side of the resistence. That would be much more interesting, in my book.

Plus, who cares about Sarah Connor when Linda Hamilton won’t be playing her?

Second Season of Supernatural Starting

I just watched the first season finale of Supernatural for the second time last night. Can I just say that this has to have been one of the most shocking finales I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen finales with more epic build-up, but this one has to be the winner in terms of sheer suprise factor.

(SPOILER!) I still remember how freaked out I was the first time I saw it. We feel we’ve reached some sort of equilibrium at the end of the show. Then wham! The Winchesters are in a terrible car accident, caused by a demon driving a large truck. At the time, the fate of the show was uncertain, so no-one knew whether this would be the season finale or the series finale.

And even though though I would have been pissed as all get-out had they not renewed the show, I admit, it would have been a perfect, gruesome capper.

Luckily, a new season is coming out on Thursday, the 28th, and judging from the previews, it looks terrific. I can’t wait!

P.S. Linda Blair of The Exorcist will be guest-starring in the November 9th episode.

Star Trek: The Original Series - “The Man Trap”

One of the early episodes, this one lays the groundwork for a romantic interest out of McCoy’s past. It’s a highly creative episode, with a message (don’t destroy all the buffalo, that kind of thing - hinting at the fact that as humans spread like a virus into the galaxy and start colonizing planets one of those risks is what happens to the creatures native to those planets.).

The salt-sucker creature was fairly scary to me as a kid. I can remember having bad dreams about it.

Now it looks slightly absurd. Although if I look too closely I could have bad dreams again. Shiver. However, the morphing effect when Nancy would take on (Nancy was McCoy’s ex-girlfriend who is really the creature) a new guise was neat even for then.

The acting is somewhat stilted and a little over the top in this one (imagine that - over the top!). Captain Kirk goes off on one of his moralistic tirades too at poor lonely Professor Crater:

Kirk: You bleed too much, Crater. You’re too pure and noble. Are you saving the last of its kind…or has this become Crater’s private heaven here? This thing becomes wife, lover, best friend…wise man, fool, idol, slave. It isn’t bad to have everyone in the universe…at your beck and call. You win all the arguments.

Jeez, Jim, whatever happened to walking a mile in a man’s moccasins before you condemn him?

Also in the climatic scene McCoy hesitates badly while the salt-sucker is trying to suck the salt out of Captain Kirk and Spock nearly goes hysterical telling him to shoot it but doesn’t even try to pull it off him, which is kind of bizarre, considering that he’s already told everyone that it doesn’t have a taste for him. The whole thing is a little awkward. Eventually Spock intercedes and tries to beat the stuffing out of Nancy. This is very humorous, watching Spock beat up this rather petite woman who is actually the salt-sucker creature.

Of course it all comes down to McCoy pulling the trigger on his ex-girlfriend which is a bit horrendous to watch. But she fortunately turns into the salt-sucker creature in her death throes, so he doesn’t feel so bad, though I bet he needed a nice big glass of Saurian brandy. I know I sure did.

The Kirk Factor: Is there anything my Captain can’t do? Though here he is not really a sensitive ecologist. I did feel a little bad about them killing the creature. They could have just sent her back to the planet with a five year supply of salt tablets. She did kill crew members but only by instinct and only to feed. They could have had a better plan. But I forgive you Captain Kirk.

The Shelters of Stone (Earth’s Children, Book 5) by Jean M. Auel

I have read some duds in my day (basically everything Terry Goodkind has ever written), books that made me practically give up all hope that there is a single author/editor/publisher on earth dedicated to anything but mediocrity - but this…this…catalog of repetitive, slogging, meandering, sixth-grade writing level piece of mammoth dung is one of the absolutely WORST books I have ever not finished. I couldn’t finish it, honestly - I just couldn’t - not after five hundred some odd pages of wanting to go directly to FRANCE and spray paint graffiti all over the cave walls that were Ms. Auel’s inspiration for this mess. Continue reading The Shelters of Stone (Earth’s Children, Book 5) by Jean M. Auel…