2 posts tagged “farscape”

I finished up Life on Mars and I had lots and lots of thoughts. Good thoughts! I also have, for the first time in decades, thoughts on Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who.

Life on Mars
I. Just. Had. A. Thought. Period. The end of Life on Mars reminded me of the end of the fourth season of Farscape when John decides to leave Earth forever, despite spending so much time trying to get back. Very reminiscent.

And a little like the fourth season of Lost, how the Six get off the island, but Jack needs to get back. In fact, I dare say this is a fairly common theme on second thought, but I bloody loved the way Life on Mars pulled it off. It's just blowing my mind right now.

When I described the Life on Mars finale, my sister immediately thought about the Sopranos and the letdown many people felt. I was one of those viewers, but the ending of Life on Mars seemed to have some sort of conclusion, Sam was happy.

Now, did he or didn't he? Die, I mean. He jumped off the roof, he's back in  1973, and kisses Annie, jumps into Hunt's car, then the radio catches onto the real world where we hear the doctor say he's losing Sam. The car drives away and the creepy girl walks by, looks at the camera, and turns off the "tv". I kinda see that as Sam dying, she represented the balance between reality and the coma world, and by shutting off the link, it means that world ends. That or Sam's in a permanent coma and we, the viewer and the outside world, are cut off forever. Doesn't mean that Sam's dead, which is interesting.

The whole concept of what's real and what isn't really blows my mind. We saw the "real" world and how it wasn't as exciting or fun or meaningful for Sam as the coma one, and he chose to live a "lie" rather than walk through 2006. Any show that promotes delusions over reality is OK with me!

And I know there's a spin off in the 80's, I'm not sure how that fits into my plot. Maybe somehow Sam did travel back in time, parallel universe? and someone else ends up there in similar circumstances. Doesn't matter, I'm not going to watch it. The whole premise seems kind of shoddy, I don't buy it.

Battlestar Galctica 4.11
I actually have thoughts. Last week I thought that episode was a complete crap fest full of dumb decisions and obnoxious characters (Lamkin's insane? Lee's President? Tigh's in charge? There's a Cylon-Cylon baby?) A number of people assumed these things would play out during the next few episodes, but it looks like nothing from 4.10 will actually matter at all based on this episode. I'm guessing next week will pick up with Roslin and Adama coming back, so everything will return to pre-4.10 status... What a waste of an episode.

I mean, why couldn't this episode have been last week. This is the second time something's happened and the show's taken us away from the action for a week. Last time it was the big Cylon-Cylon showdown, this time it was the Cylon jump. But that aside, the episode still had some weak elements, but much better than last week. Still not up to BSG standards.

Anyways, my favorite moment from the episode, easily: Three to Roslin on the final five:

Three: You mean you don't know you're one of them? *music crescendos, then stops abruptly*

*Three laughs*
*my heart races, I laugh*

Well, there goes my Roslin is a Cylon theory. Bugger, it would have been a terrific surprise and plot twist. But now that they've gone with the fake out, it's not going to happen.

I kept wanting Billy to show up in Roslin's visions. I kind of want him to be the final Cylon. But I'm thinking it may be Cally, since we've seen that maybe Cylon-Cylon babies can happen, no one is ruled out. Hell, Helo could be a toaster. Maybe Dualla, they really haven't given her anything to do.

Doctor Who 4.09
Well, this is one of the rare instances where I liked the second part more than the first part of the multi-parter. It's like a theme with me that I fall head over heels with the first episode, but by the second I'm somewhat let down. In this case, I was a little disappointed by the first episode, but this was back to great.

For a Steven Moffat episode, it was not his strongest. But hey, the man's written some of the best episodes of the entire run of the show, so I'll cut him some slack.

This was a really sucky episode for the Doctor and Donna. The Doctor had to deal with River Song, who was someone ridiculously special to future him, and Donna had to deal with getting married, falling in love, and ending up missing the real him by *this much*. Ugh, why do you do this Mr. Moffat? I know it would be redic to have a random tagalong for Donna, but can't someone be happy? Especially since I'm pretty sure she's going to die... Boo, why did Donna have to bring up the River Song's awkwardness upon meeting Donna... At least she's not dumb.

I can say the only moment when I jumped was when Miss Evangelista removed her veil to her mangled face. I wish I had more moments, maybe if the Vashta Nerada were not this invisible swarm, maybe if they were somewhat corporeal, that would have flipped me out. I dunno, I could have used some visual fear.

Thoughts on River, so there was no altering of timelines occurred, so does that mean we'll see River again? Maybe in one of the specials next year, or maybe in the first series Steven Moffat runs, maybe he had the idea for her as a companion... Nevertheless, he's definitely set River up in the timeline before Ten regenerates, and after some period of time in which he ages. Now someone argued with me that River referred to the Doctor looking young purely in his eyes, but I also think she referred to his physical aging as well. It was a little ambiguous, maybe in case Steven needed to pull out this little trick earlier than he planned. Or he could just dump the River plots, and whenever Ten regenerates, it'll be assumed the River thing occurred off camera.

Spoilers! How noble of the Doctor and Donna not to look. I half expected someone to come at the end and just take it, all creepy like. But nope, the end just led into a trailer for "Midnight", which makes sense. The Doctor and Donna deserve a vacation planet after the badness of this episode. And after next week, "Turn Left" and ROSE!! ZOMG YES! Hopefully Rose will show up at the end of "Midnight", which will be nice.

Tomorrow's the WWDC, World Wide Developers Conference, and the rumor mill is saying there will be a new iPhone. I've been looking into new phones with Verizon, but I can't do it. Every phone I just compare to the iPhone, and I think it's time I just accept that there is no iPhone killer, any touch screen device won't hold a candle to the standard set by Apple. Since I've got my job, I'll be paying for the service and everything, no more phones from Mommy and Daddy... It'll be expensive, and I might chicken out...

Spoilers from Heroes, Lost, and Battlestar Galactica

Lost 3.06
I've decided there are four types of Lost episodes.

Episodes that I just adore ("Pilot", "Live Together, Die Alone")

Episodes that I really like, then think about some more, then decide they weren't actually that great at all ("Exodus", pretty much 1/2 of all Lost episodes)

Episodes that I don't really like, then think about some more, then decide they were actually very interesting and deep. ("Tale of Two Cities", maybe 1/4 of all Lost episodes)

Then there are those episodes that just suck ("Do No Harm")

That being said, this week's fell under the "Episodes I really like, then later decide I didn't like." See, sometimes Lost just confuses me so much I am unable to determine my opinions on the spot. This week just confused the fuck out of me, because I had no idea what people were doing what for.

Take Jack. Is he still doing the Juliet plan? Is he going rogue? Does he really want to save Ben? I mean, WTF? I get him wanting to leave the island, I get him wanting Kate to leave. But that's about it. I really liked Jack this week, he really made sense and his actions made sense. For once he didn't appear to have this Messiah complex going on. At the end he wanted Kate to go, but not Sawyer. Well I guess that still makes sense, he still cares about Kate.

Juliet. I have absolutely no fucking idea what that video was about. It certainly seemed like no one else wanted Ben to die. So obviously she and Ben had a personal incident, but would that make her so angry she wanted him dead? So I'm pretty much clueless in respect to this.

The other Others. Why do they want Sawyer dead? Why would they kill him. It really doesn't appear to serve any purpose other than to have leverage against Kate, but they really do just want to kill him. Also? What are they making Kate and Sawyer do? We've seen them breaking rocks... I don't get it.

Kate. Well, I get the sex, I get her not saying she loves Sawyer (that's a topic for another post), I'm not sure how to take Kate telling Jack she's not leaving without him. It could just be courtesy, I mean they are friends and Kate does care about him. But Kate could have left, or been like "will you be OK Jack?" But she wanted him with her when they left. So where does this leave Sawyer, held at gunpoint? Professing his love to a girl who may or may not have reciprocated it?

Alex. First of all, who the hell comes after guys holding guns with a fucking sling shot? So obviously she was held on the main island, hence the "how'd she get here?" She did ask to see Ben. Yet when Ben asked if Alex wanted to speak to him, someone told him "No." Was it Juliet? Does it matter? Also? What was that when Juliet said "we took her home, I don't know where she is now." Or something like that. Why would they keep Alex from Ben? What does Ben have invested in Alex?

Back on the Island. OK random? Farscape broke the cast up into Moya and Talyn crews and focused on both evenly. So one Moya episode, one Talyn episode. I think that's how this mini season should have been. I mean there was no connection between one group and the other. When they went from one island to the other, it just screwed up the flow. I wish they either scrapped the "Desmond knows the future" or at least gave us a hint as to what that was about. I wish they spent more time on the hatch. I just felt like the writers didn't feel like elaborating on what happened. Oh, speaking of things the writers didn't feel like brining up 6 episodes into the season: Penelope. Fuck! That cliffhanger gave me hope in the show! That was the big ending and what? You can't just ignore your big ending! That's what Alias is for. Lost isn't Alias, I hope not, at least.

So things not mentioned: Eye-patch. GRRR. Not even an inkling that Locke would find them.

I should mention Nathan Fillion. I miss Firefly.

Paulo and Nikki. There had to have been a better way of introducing them. I mean, so far they've done nothing. Couldn't we have just seen them in the background, then maybe slowly integrated like Scott and Steve. Well they weren't integrated, but they were secondary characters who worked without being...Nikki or Paulo.

Battlestar Galactica 3.07
I've loved Baltar. This isn't new, but I'm finding that this season is taking his character to new levels and they're spending a lot of time with him. Now, I know some people feel Baltar's had this coming, but I believe he was a man caught in the wrong situation.

Exhibit A. It wasn't Baltar who first sold out the defense plans in the miniseries. That was Six, but Baltar was in fear of being outed for treason.

Exhibit B. Six is always with him and is able to manipulate every thing he does. On multiple occasions we've seen Baltar try to fight Six, but as in "Six Degrees of Separation," we've seen that she can really fuck up his life. We've also seen reason to trust her. See: "The Hand of God." It is Six telling Baltar to have faith that leads him to craft the plan to get the tylium.

Exhibit C. It wasn't Baltar's idea to get into politics, it was Roslin who asked him for the vice presidency, and it was Six who convinced him to follow it. When it came time to run for President, it was Zarek who was behind it. When we see Baltar right before the Cylon occupation, he's addicted to drugs and completely overwhelmed. He's not a politician, he never was. I'm not surprised he frakked up that.

Exhibit D. When the Cylons came, what was Baltar supposed to do? He had no choice but to surrender. Baltar is not hero, let's clear that up. He is not noble, he is not the man who will sacrifice himself. So he did what he had to do for "self preservation." The Cylons controlled everything Baltar did from that point on. We only saw one instance where Baltar was forced to sign something. I wouldn't be surprised if that kind of thing happened before. It's really a shame that none of the humans will ever see the things Baltar's been through.

Exhibit E. The Cylons basically are holding him hostage on their base ship, and once again, Baltar's fearing for his life. The one woman he thought he could rely on to be on his side, Caprica, really isn't, so he's got to act for himself. It doesn't make it right that he's leading them to Earth, but it explains it. No one is even on Baltar's side except Head Six. She's the only one there to help him. The Cylons think he's betraying them, the Humans know he's betraying them.

I am really in love with Baltar and Head Six. I think they just are the most interesting thing ever, you know, because she's not real. For a figment/angel/chip/etc, she loves him. She eases his pain, gives herself over to him, takes care of him. If no one is on Baltar's side, it can be argued, that right now Head Six is. I believe she's there to save Baltar. Sure she might have fun screwing with his psyche, but I think it's all to lead him to do things. Like when she made him question his humanity, it lead him to go out to that Basestar, which lead to the discovery of this virus. Overall, I'm not sure what will happen to Baltar; he certainly won't be welcome back to Galactica, and he's all alone.

Ok Helo and stopping the Cylon genocide. I understand why he did it. Couldn't he have made it a little covert, like make it seem like the Cylons killed themselves to prevent the disease from getting transferred? Eh, Helo's not the sharpest tool in the shed. But Adama...I don't know why he didn't go after Helo. Well, I guess Admiral's gotten to know Sharon and maybe understands more about how this qualifies as a genocide. I wonder if Helo will get a lot of crap for doing this, because I think everyone knows it was him.

Next week on Alias: Dixon manages to work his way up APO and gets a promotion, only to end up captured by the enemy. Luckily he is rescued, but not by the US, but by a race of humans traveling to find Dixon's home world. Now Dixon is on a personal quest to get back to his normal life with his children. No word on if Jennifer Garner will make a guest appearance.

I suggest everybody watch the Executive Producer's cut of this week's episode of The Office, because I thought it was a lot funnier than the version that aired. It makes you wonder what plotlines end up on the cutting room floor.