Today marked the start of production on AMC’s television series The Walking Dead, based on the Robert Kirkman comic series, and to celebrate, they’ve given us our first look at a couple of the zombies – or “walkers” that will appear in the show.
Take a look at the photo below, and head over to AMC’s official site for a few more snapshots and a behind-the-scenes video clip.
It’s kind of hard to relate that pic to the book, with all we know of the property to be from the stark black and white of Tony Moore’s artwork, but I totally dig the makeup effects (provided by the great KNB). I’ve had faith in this project ever since Frank Darabont’s name was attached, and I’m definitely more excited after seeing these gruesome images.
As of right now AMC has ordered six episodes of The Walking Dead. The pilot episode is expected to air in October.
Once again, if you haven’t checked out the comic book series, get your un-undead ass to ye olde comic shoppe right now and buy all the trades, it’s a phenomenal series.
Morals and morality. That’s the theme of HBO docu-drama You Don’t Know Jack, starring Al Pacino as Jack “Dr. Death” Kevorkian. I knew of Kevorkian going into the film but I knew very little about the man himself, or of the story behind his suicide assisted deaths.
Directed by Barry Levinson, the film takes, at what I first thought, a very sympathetic view of the man. After watching the film, and debating in my head my own views on his actions, I now feel that the film didn’t sugar coat Kevorkian, the man simply believed in what he was doing.
Sentenced to a 10 to 25 year prison stretch in 1999 for the second degree murder charge of Thomas Youk, the film deals with how Kevorkian got to that point, his methods and the way in which he chose whom to help and why. I had no idea that he had assisted in the deaths of 130 people before his prison sentence, while turning down hundreds more than that. He didn’t just help everyone who came to him, and the many he turned down was for the reason that ‘he can’t help them, it’s not their time’.
The film is sparse, as it should be. This is the story of a man rallying against the system, fighting for what he believes in and genuinely wanting to stop peoples suffering. There is a lot of fact in the film, and many of the interview videos Kevorkian shot with suffering individuals are the real people, with Pacino subbed into the video. It adds an air of authenticity to see some of these people as they really were, and truly made me feel their plight. It didn’t feel Hollywoody to me, which I believe can be attributed to the fact it was an HBO made movie, made for TV, shot on a smaller budget, but still played by all cast members with passion for the roles.
I find it difficult to review this film without getting into the complexities of the moral centre. Kevorkian was, and still is to this day, an advocate for legalizing assisted suicide. He talks of it openly through-out the film, without ever seeming to be doing it for fame. By not actually ‘pulling the trigger’ on his suicide machine, Kevorkian is never charged with a crime, he keeps detailed logs of all his actions, and he is the one that calls the police when the act is done. He never seems like a monster in the film, and is shown as quite an average man in many scenes, when he is painting, or playing his flute.
To debate his methods and choices is obvious. During his first suicides, he had devised a machine that administers different drugs into the patients system, when they themselves decide to flip the switch. It is quick and painless. He then switches to an alternate method of gas administered via mask that the patient triggers by pulling a clip off the tube. It has to be stated that by this point, Kevorkian’s medical license had been revoked, and he needed the help of friend Neal Nicol (John Goodman) to get the gas., if you have no medical license you aren’t allowed to purchase or own any kind of drugs to be used on a patient. When supplies are running short, Kevorkian decides he needs to ration the gas, and in one harrowing scene, we are shown how he devised a plastic bag to be put over the patients face to trap the gas in….this is when we feel ‘has this man crossed a line’, how far is too far?
Kevorkian was interviewed on 60 minutes where he shows the video of him administering a drug to Thomas Youk, via lethal injection, thereby leading the his arrest and second degree murder charge. The film switches to the court room where we watch Kevorkian represent himself, and ultimately lose the case.
Pacino is absolute brilliance in the film and it’s his best work since Carlitos Way. Gone are his over the top antics that have made him a caricature of himself, replaced by a quiet respectability. He brings legitimacy to the role, and balances emotion, science and suffering all perfectly. Being surrounded by a stellar cast including john Goodman and Susan Sarandon, only helps lift Pacino higher, where he truly shines. I only discuss Pacino because he is that good, the rest of the cast are all spot on, but you get sucked in by Al’s performance, and that’s where you stay glued.
Levinson never gets preachy with the films material, and I don’t feel he took any sides on the debate. But this may be my own particular view on the film because of my own political and moral view on the subject, something that I won’t get into here, this is a review and not a debate.
Whether you think the man is a hero or a monster, You Don’t Know Jack is a film worth viewing, no matter how much you think you know about the story, you will learn something you didn’t, and it will open the floor for many heated discourses with friends and colleagues about the subject of assisted suicide. I learned more than I expected and found myself far more empathetic for the people represented than I thought. It made me think, and to me, that’s what a great documentary does.
After two of the shakiest, uncertain seasons of television, NBC has pulled the plug on their once-a-hit series Heroes.
Does this really come as a surprise? Frankly, I’m more surprised that the show made it this far. With a huge amount of viewers dropping out during the second season – which was shortened due to the writer’s strike of 2007 – the series continued to suffer from disappointed fans and abysmal ratings. Each week, audiences were subjected to illogical narratives and frustrating character turns, with episodes that never maintained the same tone or appeal as any shown in the intriguing first season.
Personally, I couldn’t make it past the first half of the third season, so I’m not mourning Heroes.
According to THR, the series could potentially be wrapped up in the form of a special or movie, but I wouldn’t hold your breath if I were you.
That being said, was anyone still watching anyways? An even better question, how will Greg Grunberg possibly make a living?
New Doctor Who aired tonight in North America, and I have to say it was pretty awesome. Matt Smith is our 11th Doctor, and Karen Gillan plays Amy Pond, possibly the sexiest companion to date.
I’m not going to give you guys much of a recap, as you should all just go watch it. The Doctor crashes down in a young girl’s backyard and realizes that there is a monster in her house. He is called away by his poor broken down TARDIS, and says he’ll be back in 5 minutes. She waits for him, but ends up waiting 12 years. When he finally makes it back, not knowing how long he’s been away, he discovers that she is the all grown up, sexy, red-headed, kiss-o-gram Amy Pond. They fight the monster, the Doctor is a total bad-ass, and then he disappears for another two years. When he comes back, his TARDIS is fixed, he’s got a bow-tie, and he convinces Amy to be his new companion.
The Doctor stops Earth from being exploded. This happens about four times a season and is not entirely ground breaking. What must be discussed, however, is this new companion, and what she means for the Doctor.
Russell T Davies, the mad man behind the earlier Doctor Who series’ and Torchwood, left us all sobbing after the Holiday special ‘The End of Time’ and David Tennant’s swan song. Tenny was an amazing Doctor, but we all knew he had grown too big for the series and had to move on. It was sad. A lot of people, however, weren’t all that upset to see Davies go after the controversial Torchwood Children of Earth and just the shear agony the Doctor had been through in 2009. I am a masochist, I like RTDs work, but it is quite hard to watch. The Doctor was suicidal at points, megalomaniacal at other points, and just generally despondent. It was hard, but gripping television, so I didn’t know how I’d feel about Steven Moffat taking the helm for a reportedly lighter series five of Who.
This episode, while kind of airy, was not light at all. After the initial greeting of Amy Pond, the Doctor says he’ll be back in 5 minutes, but doesn’t make it back for 12 years. I mean, gasp. I’ve waited four months for the Doctor to be back, and it’s been agony, can you imagine being a little girl and waiting 12 years for him? Amy made little Doctor dolls and called him the ‘raggedy Doctor.’ She was to see four psychiatrists but wouldn’t admit that he wasn’t real.
This is a whole new dynamic for the Doctor-Companion relationship and puts their relationship in an interesting position. Amy is not pining over him like Martha. She’s not in denial like Rose. She’s tough as nails from dealing with 12, eventually 14 years of trying not to love him. He owes her. She spent her childhood playing with her imaginary raggedy Doctor, and he came back to save her, and now he is taking her on adventures and has a lot of time to make up for. The Doctor has always needed his companions, if only for someone to talk to and play hero to, but the Doctor has been Amy’s whole world for as long as she can remember, and he owes her big.
How many times will this Doctor break Amy Pond’s heart? “Trust me, I’m the Doctor.” YEAH RIGHT.
As for the Doctor himself? He’s become a cocky little bastard, and I like it, spouting lines like “Don’t ask stupid questions, and don’t wander off” and “I am definitely a mad man with a box.” The bow-tie is hot, Matt Smith is hot, Karen Gillan is hot, and even the new sonic screwdriver is kind of hot. Moffat may have hit a lucky balance between an intense Doctor/Companion relationship and just general light fun science fiction.
There are two unresolved issues by the end of the episode. Are the cracks in space-time the Doctor’s fault? What is up with Amy’s wedding dress? We’ll find out more about the dress next week, and the week after that there are Daleks, and the week after that we are treated to the scary stone angels. This will be a wild ride. Series five of Doctor Who airs Saturday on BBC America and SPACE in Canada.
Ah Masters of the Universe. Who can forget ‘em? He-Man. Skeletor. Ram Man. Stinkor. All of your favorites. It was one of my favorite one-two punch of television-toy properties growing up. And don’t forget the live-action film of ‘87 with Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella as He-Man and Skeletor, respectively. Well, ok. You can forget that one.
You may or may not know that Warner Bros. had been trying to revive the property with a new film for quite a while. A few years ago there was a script that apparently kicked all kinds of ass, titled Grayskull. That didn’t happen. Then they began to develop it again a while later. That didn’t happen. History does repeat itself though, and now is the time to cash in on toys as films, so Columbia has acquired the rights and is back in the He-Man saddle.
THR’s Heatvision reports that Predators screenwriters Mike Finch and Alex Litvak have signed on to write the screenplay for the new film. Heatvision reports that the writing duo “attempted to balance a treatment that would convince the studio it was cinematic and keep the toy company satisfied that its characters were being portrayed appropriately.”
Like I said before, with Transformers and G.I. Joe being successful, now is the time to capitalize on toy-lines (we have films based on Battleship, Stretch Armstrong and Monopoly coming our way). The property is also seeing a resurgence of interest thanks to Mattel’s new Masters of the Universe Classics figure line (awesome, awesome figures, by the way).
Personally, I think you could do some really cool things with a Masters of the Universe film, especially with the big budgets and effects thrown at these films. Imagine all they could do with the medieval swords and savagery meets technology and gadgets.
Granted there’s always room for failure. Snout Spout, I’m looking in your direction.
More on the new Masters of the Universe film as it breaks.
Also, I would kill for a Hungry Hungry Hippos creature feature.
Posted on: April 10th, 2010 GLEEks United
Remember December, when someone, somewhere, broke the news to you that Glee wasn’t airing new episodes until the spring and you were just crushed? Well, it is April, and Glee is back on Tuesday night on Fox. This is season 1 episode 14 called ‘Hell-o’, and it is long awaited by gleeks everywhere. That’s right, I said gleeks. Glee is the story of a high school glee club made up of misfits trying to make it to sectionals.
The biggest thing I can say about Glee is that it’s not a medical or crime procedural, thus making it interesting television by default. The characters are hackneyed, but you learn to love them. The mash-ups are made of songs that I would never listen to in a million years, but somehow the cast makes them interesting with the pep and the dancing and the jazz hands. It’s shiny-happy-people high school mirage is nicely balanced with some truly biting humor and unexpected story-lines.
Rachel is the smart, driven, and utterly annoying bookish type with the 60s housewife wardrobe. She, of course, is in love with Finn, the quarterback who can play the drums and sing perfectly, who, in turn, thinks he has impregnated the head cheerleader, Quinn. Quinn was actually knocked up by Puck, another football player with a mohawk (so you know he’s trouble). Sue Sylvester is the evil cheer-leading coach, and Mr. Schue is an idealistic young teacher with dreams of bringing the glee club to sectionals and inspiring the teens along the way. It’s like High School Musical, only seedy and deranged.
Special attention should be payed to the wonderful Chris Colfer, who plays the flaming Kurt, because I think his storyline is the best of the series so far.
People are still calling Glee a ‘cult’ hit, saying that other network shows are beating it ratings-wise, namely NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles, but I think that is destined to change. The four month break allowed them to generate buzz and even receive Oprah’s endorsement on oprah.com. Glee is going to end their freshman series with a bang. A bang with jazz hands.
In other Glee news, John Barrowman of Torchwood fame let it slip on his Twitter that he met with Glee’s casting director on Friday, for reasons yet to be stated. This is only natural as John Barrowman is the UK’s answer to Micheal Buble, and his cover of ‘Copacabana’ is just ace. I, however, refuse to get excited about anything Barrowman says, as we still haven’t heard any official news on the production of Torchwood series four. Barrowman is currently doing a guest spot on Desperate Housewives, and then his musical tour starts in October. Can you film a 13 episode series of Torchwood in the time between that? I don’t know. I digress because Torchwood is more important.
Anyways, watch Glee on Fox on Tuesday night. You will thank me for the ear worm in the morning.
We’ve all been excited about The Walking Dead television series, based on the remarkable comic book series, since its announcement last August. The fact that Frank Darabont is behind the series at as writer, director and producer quickly quelled our immediate hesitations, and the news that the series has been green-lit for at least six episodes has us looking forward with hunger (for brains).
Things are moving ahead in terms of casting, as we now know who will play Rick Grimes, the main character in the series, a small town Sheriff who finds himself in a leadership role among a group of fellow survivors in the midst of a massive zombie outbreak. While actor Johnny Lee Miller (Hackers, Trainspotting) was being eyed for the Rick role (never gonna give you up), ultimately the gig goes to the relatively unknown Andrew Lincoln. Lincoln’s previous credits include the UK series This Life (never hoid of it).
As the veritable backbone and fulcrum of the show, Lincoln has a huge job to fill. He certainly can fit in the look of Rick, and I’ve read some pretty promising things about his acting chops. Most importantly though, The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman is sold:
Andrew Lincoln, wow – what an amazing find this guy is. Writing Rick Grimes month after month in the comic series, I had no idea he was an actual living breathing human being and yet here he is. I couldn’t be more thrilled with how this show is coming together.
If Kirkman is happy, I’m happy. Also, he’s far more fitting than Johnny Lee Miller, in my opinion.
While the rest of the casting is still unknown, we can confirm that the role of Rick’s partner, Shane, will be played by Jon Bernthal. So we’re on the right track, but there’s still so many questions that fans are dying to have answered. A big one for me is whether or not the show will be in black and white, like the book. Darabont is a big fan of black and white, as evidenced by his work on The Mist, but perhaps that is wishful thinking.
If you haven’t read any Walking Dead, you are missing out on something special. More details on the series as we find out.
Can I get a hell yeah for CW’s Thursday night lineup? That’s right, tonight Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries are returning for their last string of five or so episodes before Summer break.
I am a Supernatural latecomer, and I’m only on the end of season four but seriously, that show is something epic. In case you are also living under a rock, Supernatural is the story of two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester, who hunt demons and ghosts and other creatures. They live a Kerouc-style life on the road, surviving on diner food, rock and roll, and beer. It is gory and funny, and you will get attached to those Winchester boys fast. Really fast. The monster stories themselves are anything but new, but the characters are unlike anything we’ve seen on television, and they give the lore a good spin that will keep you guessing.
I kind of thought Supernatural was going to be a girly show, just because of the squee on the interwebs about stars Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, but as I got into it, the show started messing with my head, and I am hooked. True that three seasons of mostly stand alone monster of the week episodes was a little tiring, as they built up to the main plot lines, but the story just exploded in season four and people tell me it’s just getting more and more intense. And the first few seasons are survivable because of Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays Sam and Dean’s father.
I just have to mention that there is an angel soldier named Castiel, and he is played by Misha Collins, and he is a character that is just out of this world awesome. Thursday’s episode is called ‘Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid.’
As for something entirely different, The Vampire Diaries is also returning with an episode called ‘A Few Good Men’, finishing up the last few episodes of their freshman season. Now, I get less geek cred for liking this show, but I totally do. I didn’t want to. I mean, the vampires have special rings so they can walk around during the day. What the hell is up with that? Lame, I know, but there were seriously moments when I was hiding under the covers because I was entirely gripped by the characters’ petty lives and vapid love affairs.
The show is based off the same titled books by L.J. Smith. The log-lines all describe it as a show wherein a high school girl, Elena, is torn between two vampire brothers, Stefan and Damon Salvatore. We are nearing the end of the first season, and Elena does not seem to be in love with Damon at all, yet, but everyone knows it’s coming, thanks to poorly written spoiler log-lines. There are also witches and teen angst. What? It’s formulaic, but it’s a damn good formula.
I am a proponent of the friendly vampire story, I really am, but I tend to not think of them as vampire stories. They are more soap operas that happen to involve vampires. Vampires have long been fodder for a good love story, and The Vampire Diaries is the best love story on television today. Whedon broke my heart with the whole Buffy and Angel tragedy, so it’s nice to just sit and enjoy the Stefena love affair before their lives are ruined.
Okay, so the writing can be atrocious. Some of the lines Stefan comes out with are just hilarious because he is so Captain Obvious. But this series stands on the charisma and like-ability of its actors. Canadian actress Nina Dobrev is just good at everything she does. Paul Wesley has the patented ‘I’m so angsty’ vampire stare down to a fine art, and Ian Somerhalder is an excellent foil and trickster, and the ladies just love him.
If you’re new to either of these shows, well you have to get caught up on Supernatural before watching season five, but you can easily jump right into the plot of The Vampire Diaries without seeing the earlier episodes.
Welcome to Spring folks, the last breaths of your favorite shows are here, enjoy them while they last. It will be a long summer without the Winchester and Salvatore brothers. I am weeping. There are tears. For real. Both shows have been picked up for another season by the CW, so make sure you tune in on Thursday and get all caught up. Canadians will see The Vampire Diaries first, Thursday on CTV, but will have to wait for Supernatural’s new episode until next Wednesday on SPACE.
V is back, after a three month break, with a recap/clip show titled ‘The Arrival’ airing Tuesday March 23 on ABC.
The series began in November of last year, airing four episodes, and then took a break for the Olympics or possibly as an ABC marketing stunt. Either way, the clip show will help us all catch up with the story, so we are prepared for the first new episode, ‘Welcome to War,’ which will air Tuesday March 30th.
V (short for Visitors) is a re-imagining of the 1983 mini-series by Kenneth Johnson. I was born that year. It was a good year. Being an infant at the time, I haven’t seen the original series. That’s not much of an excuse, more of a confession, but it means that I can’t tell you if V ‘the re-imagining’ is true to V ‘the original’.
I’m sorry. I tuned in for Alan Tudyk. That is all. Then he dies, because sci-fi writers think it’s some sort of sick joke to murder Alan Tudyk whenever the opportunity arises. That isn’t a spoiler. He always dies. It’s just a fact.
I kept watching the show, under protest, because Morena Baccarin is spectacular as the Visitor’s public face, Anna. If Anna is the slave master, where do I sign up for slave duties?
Right right right… the plot. The Visitors come to Earth, en masse, in giant spaceships. They offer to share their technology and knowledge with humans. This, of course, divides humanity into two camps: those pro-Visitors and those anti-Visitors. Formal diplomatic relations with the United States are soon established (suckers), and the Visitors even start recruiting junior ambassadors among humans.
However, after some humans discover that under their pretty human-like skins, the Visitors are actually scaly reptile alien dudes (sniffle…poor Alan), a resistance movement starts. This resistance is led, so far, by Erica, an FBI agent; Ryan, a reformed Visitor who wants to save humanity; and Father Jack, a priest who is just sorta caught up in the mess.
It’s hard to become a fan of any series after only four episodes. I will say though that I currently lack much of an emotional connection with any of the characters. I find Anna interesting, and Scott Wolf’s character, Chad, slightly entertaining in a slimy reporter type of way. I am looking forward to learning more about the Visitors themselves: their motives, their technology, and their neato spaceships, so I will keep watching for a few more episodes.
If you haven’t been following V, tune into the recap show on Tuesday, and you’ll be all caught up to speed and ready for the Spring run.
All episodes are also available on ABC’s website, if you can survive the l’Oreal commercials.
And please, keep protesting the unnecessary slaughter of Alan Tudyk. It is an atrocity that must be stopped at all costs.
Warehouse 13 is currently shooting its second season in Toronto, and new episodes are slated to be released on Syfy on July 13.
The show’s premise surrounds the theory that historical artifacts and other oddities have some sort of energy that affects their owners and their surroundings. For instance, you can play ping pong with yourself using Lewis Carroll’s mirror. Writing with Poe’s pen can cause whatever you’ve written to come true. And Tesla, well you don’t want to mess with Tesla’s toys. The idea is that these artifacts have some weird electrical mojo that can only be counteracted by acquiring them and getting them contained at a secret government facility called Warehouse 13.
Myka and Pete are recruited from the Secret Service against their wills, to come work for Artie, a mad scientist-type who runs the warehouse. They grumble about their new assignment, but are soon sucked into the novelty and excitement of it all, as well as the mysteries surrounding just who is pulling the strings behind Warehouse 13.
It took me a little while to get into this show. I am sick to death of this formula of pairing a ballsy female cop-type with a charming goofy guy macho-type and then suffering through their sexual tension and innuendo for years on end. Myka and Pete are positively boring and hackneyed. Artie is mildly interesting as sort of an homage to Professor Arturo/Walter Bishop (not to mention a slew of other crazy old guys in sci-fi).
The ‘artifact of the week’ format is, well, as basic as a normal ‘monster of the week’ sci-fi series, and it does gets a little tiresome. Honestly, what hooked me was the introduction of Claudia into the show, a young hacker with funny colored hair and a wise cracking attitude. The father-daughter vibe between she and Artie is intriguing, and she lends a humor and a hipness to the cast that was really lacking. She tipped the scales for me, and I got hooked by about mid-season.
Season one ends with a cliffhanger, and we are left with a Torchwood-ian type question: what happened to Warehouses 1 through 12 and all the agents before Myka and Pete? How long exactly is the lifespan of a Warehouse 13 agent?
I don’t know how many actual answers we will get in season two, but it will bring us some super awesome guest stars!
Just for all you Browncoats out there, scifiwire.com has announced that two of Firefly’s stars, Jewel Staite (Kaylee) and Sean Maher (Simon), will be starring in a season two episode of Warehouse 13. Staite announced her role, and later Maher’s role, on her twitter account this past week. They will be in an episode called ‘Mild Mannered’, there will be a romantic element, and the date has yet to be announced.
So if you like pseudo-historical supernatural buddy procedural dramedies, maybe you should catch up on season one of Warehouse 13 before new episodes go to air! Warehouse 13 stars Eddie McClintock, Joanne Kelly, and Saul Rubinek, and features Allison Scagliotti as Claudia.
Watch the Caprica episode 6 teaser here.
Friday night marks the 6th episode of Caprica, so we are all deeply engrossed in our journey into the pre-Battlestar Galactica universe, right? This week, sci-fi TV veteran James Marsters joins the cast, as rebel leader Barnabus Greeley, hopefully to add a splash of anarchy to the restrained drama of the series so far. Marsters is best known for his role as Spike, the bottle blonde vampire we all know and love from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and as Captain John Hart from Torchwood.
I’ve heard some murmurs on the internet of people feeling lost with the plot of Caprica if they hadn’t previously watched Battlestar Galactica. The series is a little complicated on its own because, in my mind, it’s like no science fiction we have seen on television so far. It is very space opera, for which Battlestar Galactica (BSG) is well known, but just when you think you’re about to get into a juicy relationship, it smacks you over the head with a new level of science fiction question asking.
Maybe I can help sort things out? I will try. Here is my recap of the events so far.
Caprica is set 58 years ahead of the main BSG timeline. The planet Caprica is the governmental and commercial hub for the Twelve Colonies, 12 associated planets named after constellations of the Zodiac. In BSG, the Twelve Colonies are attacked by Cylons (robot soldiers of the colonists’ own creation), and there is a near total genocide of the human race. The remnants of humanity have taken refuge aboard spaceships, and this ragtag fleet is led on a quest through space by William Adama, commander of the Galactica. Their goal is to find the a new home, in a mythical planet called Earth.
In Caprica, we meet up with 11 year old William (Willie) Adama, whose sister and mother have been murdered by a suicide bomber acting in the name of a religious group called the Soldiers of the One (the STO). Also killed in this bombing, is STO supporter Zoe Graystone. Her father, Daniel Graystone, is like the Bill Gates of Caprica, a scientist responsible for numerous advancements in technology, the foremost being the ‘holo-band.’
Before her death, Zoe had created a technologically advanced avatar of herself for use in the V Club, a virtual world accessible only by holo-band technology. Her father discovers this avatar after her death, and implants ‘Zoe’ into a robot soldier which he calls a Cylon. He thinks his experiment has failed, and that he’s lost Zoe’s avatar forever, but she is still alive in the Cylon, controlling it and hiding in it.
Stop here. Daniel Graystone, with the help of Zoe, has created the first Cylon. Eventually the Cylons will be used as soldiers and slaves by the Twelve Colonies. They will rise up, because, oops, they are sentient, and kill almost everyone, and cause the events we see in the main BSG time-line. Let’s call the creation of the first Cylon, and its implications, storyline number one.
Young William Adama’s father, Joseph, is befriended by Daniel Graystone, who shows him Zoe’s avatar. Daniel creates another high tech avatar, this time of Joseph’s late daughter, Tamara. Tamara has a bad reaction to being stuck in the holo-world, and freaks out, so her dad panics, curses Graystone, vows to take him down, and eventually plots to have Graystone’s wife assassinated, ultimately deciding against it. The continuing Adama/Greystone tension is storyline number two.
Meanwhile, back on Caprica, everyone is puzzled as to why Zoe was involved with the Soldiers of the One (STO), a religious group advocating that there is only one god. Their mission is to “drive out the many Gods and combat the decadence and corruption of Colonial society.” See in the BSG universe, the predominant religion is an Ancient Greco-Roman inspired polytheism. They worship Athena and Mars and other deities. After the suicide bombing, the STO are considered a terrorist organization, and Caprican authorities are hunting them down. So the tension between the established religion and the counter-culture STO ‘one true God’ religion is storyline number three.
The education of William Adama is storyline number four. Remember, William will lead the fleet, post-war, and his son Lee will also have a serious impact on the life of the fleet after the attacks. If Daniel and Zoe Graystone doomed humanity by creating the Cylons, it is William Adama and his family that eventually act as humanity’s salvation. See how that works?
After the murder of his mother and sister, William is in a funk, and his father takes him to a Pyramid game, as a guest of Daniel Graystone, to try and cheer him up. He meets Graystone only briefly, but is impressed by his connections and sprawling house and technology. After Joseph has his falling out with Graystone, he decides to imbue Willie with more of his Tauron heritage, primarily by allowing him to spend time with his uncle Sam, an enforcer for the Tauron mob. Tauron is another planet in the Twelve Colonies and their race is not entirely popular with the Capricans. Sam is also the most badass gay guy in all of television history, by the way, and his boyfriend is cute, but I digress. Sam teaches us about the differences in the Caprican and Tauron cultures, and he is trying to teach Willie how to become a proper Tauron man.
Willie’s sister, Tamara, is still stuck in the holo-world and makes her way to New Cap City, a virtual game world that no one quite knows how to play or what the objective is. New Cap City scenes are stunningly delicious, because they are filmed in pulp/gangsta styling and costuming. Tamara is the only avatar in New Cap City who can’t get killed, because she is something different from an avatar, something more. This is storyline number five.
Zoe is still stuck in the Cylon ‘toaster’ body. She dances, which is fabulous because we get to see a Cylon dance, but unfortunately, she is also in the room to witness her parents having sex. You can see how this becomes problematic. The scientists working with her don’t know she’s in there, and hers is the only Cylon that seems to work properly, so they are tinkering with her to see why, and to try and replicate the results in order to mass produce the model. Zoe is still set on going to Gemenon to pursue her STO crusade. Yes, in her toaster body. She has charged her best friend Lacy Rand with this task, and it is in the name of this quest that we get to meet STO rebel leader Barnabus Greeley in this week’s episode, storyline number six.
Sister Clarice gets a storyline all of her own, number seven, because we haven’t quite figured her out. She is the headmistress of the Athena Academy, where Lacy and Zoe attended school, but she secretly adheres to monotheism. She is a part of the STO, as well as part of a very exciting group marriage with multiple wives and husbands. She seems to have some sort of sexy yen for Lacy, and she is seen taking orders from an unknown entity at the end of one of the episodes.
So seven interwoven storylines and I haven’t even talked about potential romances yet? Religion, racism, culture, technology, pulp fiction and RPGs, terrorism, polygamy, teen angst, corporate ethics, all of which will eventually lead to the genocide and salvation of the human race! Did I mention we are only five episodes into this series? Some of the episodes did drag on a bit, but amidst the story building there were some amazing moments that took my breath away. Caprica has been picked up for a second season by Syfy, and it will be a roller coaster ride through and through.
The episode ‘Know Thy Enemy,’ featuring James Marster’s first appearance, airs Friday night on Syfy and the Space Channel, followed by three more episodes and then a summer hiatus.
Cocky 11th Doctor pushes new companion out of the way while wearing boring shoes? Matt Smith is officially taking over the TARDIS from David Tennant this spring, and here is the latest BBC teaser trailer.
Being the foremost Matt Smith apologetic, this clip easer trailer is kind of disappointing. Karen Gillan looks like she’s going to be wicked as companion Amy Pond, though. UK trailers have Easter release dates on them, while BBC America simply says spring 2010. Word is that movie theatres and special events in the UK are also being treated to a 3D trailer as promo for the much anticipated series 5.
Click the image below to watch the teaser.
What do you think of our new doctor? The new logo? Is his bow-tie perhaps tied too tight?
Watch the new Doctor Who teaser trailer!
Posted on: January 19th, 2010 Torchwood USA?
Reports were released today that Fox is developing an American version of the BBC sci-fi hit, Torchwood.
Word is Russell T. Davies and other Doctor Who notables are set to write the series, with potential guest appearances by John Barrowman in his role as the dashing Captain Jack Harkness.
Torchwood is a Doctor Who spin-off that tells the story of a rift in space and time in Cardiff, Wales. Jack and his team try and manage the various aliens and baddies that come through the rift, from their base of operations under Roald Dahl Plass just next to Cardiff Bay. The series’ Welsh-iness is undoubtedly part of its charm, while reports say that Torchwood America will be far more global in nature.
Is America ready for Torchwood? Are Torchwood fans ready for America? Is Fox ready to air Captain Jack chasing after tail; male, female and otherwise?
The first thing that pops into my head is what will Torchwood America’s base of operations look like? Torchwood London was a huge, orderly corporate entity housed in a skyscraper at Canary Wharf, a la Fringe’s Massive Dynamic. Torchwood Two is in some one’s basement in Scotland. The Torchwood we all know and love is based out of an underground sewer chique bunker with vaults and strange cog doors and dripping pipes. How will Torchwood America look?
All I can say is that if the series is based out of Roswell, New Mexico, I’m quitting television forever.
John Barrowman has announced at various events that there will be a 13 episode series four of the Wales-based Torchwood, but this has not yet been confirmed by the BBC.
Bones is making me angry, so I feel the need to discuss a very important issue in the purview of geek television: should lead characters enter into romantic relationships?
In case you don’t know, Bones is a forensic procedural show on Fox, based on the life of Kathy Reichs, an anthropologist and fiction writer. Bones, whose actual name is Temperance Brennan, is played quite aptly by the lovely Emily Deschanel, and she is nicknamed Bones because she studies well… bones. Studying bones helps her solve crime. She is partnered up with Seeley Booth, an ex-sniper FBI agent, played by David Boreanaz (of Whedonverse fame), in a role in which he mercifully smiles a lot and never broods. He cracks wise, she never gets the joke because she is socially awkward, and it makes for a wonderfully funny buddy type crime show.
If you saw Bones last week, you’d know that it was a cute homage to The X-Files entitled ‘The X in the File’, and it featured an impressive cameo by Dean Haglund of Lone Gunmen fame. Bones has visited the nerd world in many other episodes; there was a cringe worthy product placement of Avatar recently, as well as investigations at fantasy conventions and video game competitions. The lab geeks, or squints as they’re called, often pepper their incomprehensible jargon with pop culture references that fly over the heads of normal people. It’s amusing.
However, the ode to The X-Files last week really takes the cake. Bones and Booth have been doing the Mulder and Scully, will they, won’t they, sexual tension thing for five years now, and it is driving me mad. MAD!
Remember Scully’s little alternative reality foray in which she was married to Mulder? I don’t. I’ve repressed the whole series for my personal sanity. Regardless, last season Booth was in a coma where he dreamed he and Bones were married. He was also wearing a bowling shirt, so we all knew it had to be a dream, right? Still, I yelled at the screen. When Booth came out of the coma, he was going to tell Bones he loved her, but then there was this weird storyline about how he was wearing normal socks, and this made him doubt his love for her, so he dropped the subject, and they went on solving crime.
So, to bone or not to bone? That is the question. Some of the twitterati have been telling me that romantic relationships ruin shows. Others sit with baited breath, waiting for sexual innuendo and sidelong glances.
I know in the case of The X-Files, there was heated debate on the subject. As a 14 year old, I wanted Mulder to myself, so I was anti-Scully, but still the whole sexual tension thing made me insane. The thing is, looking back, I can see how this worked for The X-Files. The X-Files had a lot of substance to draw in audiences. It could stand on its monster of the week/conspiracy theory quagmire formula, and it didn’t need to rely on mushy stuff to keep its fans.
Another great example is Doctor Who. You really wouldn’t want the Doctor and his companion making googly eyes at each other during Cybermen invasions. The Doctor/Companion relationship is unique and interesting and never has to descend into the realm of simply knocking boots. And was it just me, or was it icky whenever any character in Star Trek: The Next Generation hooked up with fellow crew members?
That being said, I don’t buy into the whole idea that romances between leads will necessarily ruin shows. There is evidence from Bones itself: Angela and Hodgins’ relationship sustained me during the dreary season three. Their break up was unfortunate and this whole Wendel love triangle thing is strange, but entertaining. Cam and Booth were once an item, and they broke up, and are still happily working together.
So many lessons can be learned from Torchwood. Jack and Ianto kissed at the end of season one. This did not ruin the show. They did not make it into a Jack and Ianto soap opera. The few times their relationship did get mentioned, it was usually in the name of much needed comedy relief. Owen and Gwen banged on a regular basis throughout series one. Rhys’s relationship with Gwen provided much needed character development for her and her relationship with Torchwood and with Jack.
Outside of the realm of sci-fi, what about House? Those characters are frakking all the time; House and Cuddy, 13 and Foreman, Chase and Cameron. Really, there’s only so many times audiences can be interested in hearing a lupus diagnosis just in the nick of time. Relationships add valuable dynamics to the show.
Speaking of frakking: Battlestar Galactica. Enough said.
What about Booth and Bones? Well, it’s been 5 years of odd forensic stories, and I’m starting to lose interest. Oh look, we’ve found some bones. Let’s look at the bones under a microscope. Oh snap we’ve found the killer. I personally need a little more depth than that to keep watching.
I think there is an expiration date on sexual tension. After four to five years, it starts to go stale and become boring. Do it, or move on.
Bones and Booth have charisma, and their characters compliment each other. He’s street smart and dashing, and she’s brainy and awkward. They don’t have to stay together forever, I just need some making out to keep me going. Please.
What do you think? What about other famous non-couples in the world of geek television?
Bones airs on Thursday nights on Fox. This week lab is going into a forced lock-down. Will Booth and Bones have sexy ‘we’re stuck in the lab for days’ scenes? We shall see.
Looking forward to some more Star Trek in 2011? Well, sorry ’cause you have to wait over two more years.
ComingSoon.net reports that Paramount has set a tentative release date of June 29, 2012 for the sequel to J.J. Abrams smash-hit re-imagining.
Right now we know nothing about the untitled sequel, other than J.J. returning to at least produce (I’d be surprised if he didn’t direct as well) and the writing team of Kurtzman and Orci will most likely handle the screenplay. It’s probably safe to assume that the whole cast will return.
What would you like to see in the Star Trek sequel? Khan? The Gorn? Klingons? Harry Mudd?
