Buys
A summer (and my vacation) approaches, I'm not surprised I would be investing in tv shows on DVD. Man cannot live on Julie Chen and Gordon Ramsey alone, you know! Of course, the point should be not to watch the damn things over the course of a couple days BEFORE the vacation hits. The Unit Season 1? See below. Veronica Mars Season 2? See below. Veronica Mars Season 3? Just a couple of episodes in I swear! (It's an illness.)"Accomplishments"
I became interested in The Unit when I discovered the David Mamet connection, by way of his excellent black ops movie, Spartan. Found the first season at fairly cheap prices, just 13 episodes, and I wasn't disappointed. The world of special operations is very authentically drawn, with more variety than I would have thought. The ones Mamet actually wrote have a little extra sparkle, but the others are quite good too. While Dennis Heysbert and Regina Taylor carry the show with their presence, my early favorite is Grey. I'll certainly be looking to purchase/watch later seasons. Extras are slim, but the one commentary and few interviews answered all my principal questions, so I'm happy.
Veronica Mars... You may remember I fell in love with the show after watching the 1st season in 2 days flat and immediately ordered the rest. They came in Friday, and I'm now 3 episodes into Season 3! The 2nd Season had a more interlocked structure to its mysteries, more cliffhangers than the 1st, and so was may have been more addictive. Still, there was so much in there that I felt some elements weren't properly followed up on (like Wallace leaving with his bio-dad). Not so much Veronica's personal story, but a net thrown wide over Neptune. Still great. More extras than the first boxed set, including a short video diary from Kristen Bell, a featurette and 8 minutes of outtakes, in addition to the usual deleted scenes.
For Monday's RPG night, I took a page from Chaosium's Blood Brothers 2 (for non-Mythos Call of Cthulhu) and emulated a silent black and white horror movie. Players weren't allowed to use dialogue unless they wrote it on cards (of which they had a limited number). It was a very interesting experience, though I should have play-tested my candle-lit shadow puppets beforehand. The wax mess was pretty bad. Now I have to rewrite a number of character sheets.Managed to complete my 10th Doctor set for the Unauthorized Doctor Who CCG, including 17 cards and javascript coding for virtual boosters and starters. Plus another card to go with the next set, a small premium series based on the first season of Torchwood. Here's the booster art for it:
Someone Else's Post of the Week
Slay, Monstrobot of the Deep has hands down the best rant against Countdown I've read, 51 Issues and Nothing On. I couldn't agree more. DC Universe #0 promises a lot more and has no connection to Countdown so far as we can see, so truly, people could have saved themselves some trouble and money and gotten all the prologue they need to Final Crisis for 50¢. Sometimes, it's not easy to like mainstream comics.
513. The Q and the GreyFORMULA: Hide and Q + Redemption + The ChildWHY WE LIKE IT: The opening shot. Suzie Plakson.WHY WE DON'T: Q's plan. The slapstick.REVIEW: This episode features a beautiful opening shot of a supernova, a natural phenomenon that will soon be contrasted with the ironic banality of the Q Continuum. So indeed you may say that it's downhill from there. After all, this is the episode in which Q tries to mate with Janeway. And why? Well, I'm not sure his plan is at all logical. Seems like Quinn's death in Death Wish sparked a civil war in the Q Continuum, and to bring peace, Q feels he must create a human-Q hybrid by mating with a human woman. Just how humanoid DNA can intermix with Q energy is never really explained. In the end, Q will mate with one of his own, which also works. Why? How? I really don't know. Is Janeway the only human woman in space-time, all of a sudden? And why must she agree to it when Q has massive powers of misdirection? Finally, have we forgotten past infusion of human values from Hide and Q (Riker) and True Q (Amanda Rogers)? Yes.The plot is nonsense, but we do have John de Lancie doing his best to be witty, playing it for laughs. Sadly, he seems to have been asked to do double-takes and moan as if he's been shot when he only believes he's been shot. He's a cartoon in this thing. Similarly, you won't hear me complaining about Suzie Plakson's return to Star Trek as Lady Q, despite this character being less interesting than either Dr. Selar or K'Ehleyr. Still, I appreciate her cattiness. Both actors provide amusing moments (comparing tattoos, insulting the crew, etc.), but the script doesn't give them a lot of support.This time, the Continuum looks like the American Civil War, which is a fine visual metaphor for what's going on, though it does beg the question as to what's really happening on the cosmic scale once Q passes out and Janeway takes things into her own hands. She can apparently move about and hide Q without Q-powers. Or is some of that power imparted to a person brought into the Continuum? Similarly, the crew of Voyager can wield Q weapons and truly threaten the Q. (More nonsense: The crew learns to augment their shields tenfold here, but promptly lose that knowledge in later episodes.)Random notes... Those crash zooms at Q's execution really call attention to themselves. Please don't try that again. The new Talaxian resort holodeck program seems to be the new recreation area for the crew. I can't say I like it much. Sandrine's had its clichéd characters and everything, but it also had more atmosphere. The resort looks like an excuse for T&A, like a sunlit Quark's. And who can resist a baby in a Starfleet uniform? Anyone?LESSON: Suzie Plakson can save most anything.REWATCHABILITY - Medium: Not unpleasant to watch, mostly thanks to the guest actors, but it's another brain dead Voyager plot.
Weekly series got you down? That's because Spider-Man and Jimmy Olsen have got nothing on Rom. Every Saturday, visit the SBG for another installment of Spaceknight Saturdays, your weekly source of Rom ass-kickery. You've already vicariously read Rom Spaceknight #1, now read the rest!Rom #2 starts where the previous issue left off, as our boy in silver tracks down a Dire Wraith to Laserium Corp. In a surprise twist, the Wraith isn't the criminal trying to rob the place, but the company president! Still, the criminals are in the way. Shall Rom slam them down? Hell no.
But SVAM them? Yes, that's the Spaceknight way. Rom also has to contend with random laser cannons spread out over the facility as well as some nasty, nasty exposition from the Wraith revealing their plan to manipulate humanity into building anti-Rom weapons for them. You know how this ends, right?
In a Mantlo-esque twist, the criminal, Stryker, has a streak of decency in him and vows to destroy the killer robot that has just taken the life of (to his eyes) a human being. Hey, bud, you've got it all wrong. Rom's no murderer. He is, however, something of a stalker.
But being stalked by Rom is like being romanced by Colin Firth, and Brandy's crush turns into obsession over the course of the next few pages. This makes her boyfriend Steve a bit paranoid so he calls the cops. And while he's doing that, we follow a raven over the skies of Washington D.C...
Apparently, all military buildings in the D.C. area have strange polygonal shapes. There, the raven turns into Clara Knowles, Clairton's switchboard operator, who meets a number of high-ranking Wraiths, including a senator and a member of SHIELD (SHIELD, infiltrated by shape-changing aliens? You don't see THAT every day!). She informs them of Rom's arrival, something the SHIELD Wraith already knew, but he probably hates repeating himself, so he was waiting for everyone to be there.But getting back to Rom, Brandy and Steve: If Steve doesn't like the Spaceknight much, Rom can't say he cares for Steev-o either. So in a game of "mine's bigger and redder than yours", our boy makes Steve show his true colors.
That's right, he screams like a little girl when submitted to an alien probe. No wonder Brandy wants to take a bullet for Rom after that.And then the cops arrive and start a shooting match that results in the death of Brandy's dog.
That is HARSH, son!Plus it turns out the police chief is a Wraith, so his small town cops have access to alien tech, like a super-duper police siren:
But as Rom says, that weapon was designed to fight him 200 years ago. He's hardened since then. He's soared the spaceways for two hundred years, heard the call of passing comets, flown through the music of the spheres! Sound in space? The cosmos operating under rules set up by Dante? He is ROM! Your questions have no meaning here!
How do you like Rom's tennis serve? Sure, it looks like he's killed the police chief, but the town folk are going to understand, right?Well, maybe not. Rom really needs to hire a P.R. person. (I'm sending my resume, right now.)
512. WarlordFORMULA: The Passenger + Cold FireWHY WE LIKE IT: Kes and Neelix break up.WHY WE DON'T: The gory bits.REVIEW: Ok, I'll try to make it my last rant about this kind of thing, but it's really bugged me over the last few episodes. Whether it's because of the writing, directing, editing or producing, Voyager is consistently failing to provide any incentive to stick with the episode after a commercial break. This is especially true of the teaser in Warlord. It's basically a nonsense scene in which Neelix recreates a resort in the holodeck, the boys make a few modifications to turn into the Carribean, and we go to credits by fading out from Neelix's dancing feet. Aside from the apparent interest in replacing Sandrine's with Risa Lite, how does this (1) act as publicity for the episode we're about to watch and (2) create any anticipation that will make sure we keep the bathroom break to a minimum? This incomprehension of the television format is frustrating. End rant.As for the story itself, it shares its premise with DS9's The Passenger, as an evil tyrant transfers his mind into Kes. This gives Jennifer Lien a chance to play something totally different. Where Kes is almost zen-like in her patience and demeanor, the tyrant Tieran is manic, violent and mercurial. She pulls it off, though there are a couple of over the top moments, but they're to be expected. I'm not sure what to make of Tieran's sexual metamorphosis though. Objectively, there's no reason for his culture to be highly flexible in the area of sexual politics, though at times it looks like a reason to show Kes in some girl-on-girl action (the reference to a threesome was particularly gratuitous, as was Kes kissing Tuvok). And then there's the matter of Kes' psionic powers, as accessed by Tieran. The give him extra incentive for keeping Kes' body, but the creators go a bit far in showing the nose bleeds they cause. When the aliens have a large number of nostrils, it gets to be pretty gory.While he's in her body, he also takes it upon himself to end her relationship with Neelix. Face it, any ongoing relationship on a show like this is simply keeping characters away from the possibility of romantic stories, and when that ongoing romance is as demure as Neelix and Kes... Sure, Neelix is quick to get his hopes up when the possession is revealed, but no, this will be permanent. Why the epilogue has to be with Tuvok instead of Neelix is a bit beyond me, but in that scene, she makes the claim that she has been touched by darkness and can never go back to the way things used to be. I applaud the sentiment, knowing full well Voyager has done a generally bad job adhering to this idea. Is the writer trying to cement the psychological changes she has wrought on the character? Or was this all mandated by the producers in order to "sex up" Kes, as evidenced by a sexier look in episodes to come.But I don't want to be too hard on Warlord. It has its nice bits, including some quickly paced action and a constant battle between Kes and Tieran that keeps the tension going. And the performances are generally good. While I always thought the combat vessel from Unification was cool, it's kinda weird seeing it in the Delta Quadrant. Note to the creators: If you have a very distinctive model, crossing it over to another quadrant may be risky.LESSON: It's not you, it's the evil alien entity inside me.REWATCHABILITY - Medium: A good piece for Jennifer Lien, well paced and directed, and with lasting consequences for once. It does go for cheap sensationalism however.
Bunny can try. Bunny can flip off the cops.
But Bunny can't escape a lady cop.
And he can't escape the mighty Bahlactus.Panels from Paul Grist's Kane. Kane - It kinda looks like Sin City until you realize it's much better.
UNCANNY X-MEN #277, Marvel Comics, June 1991
"MADE ME QUIT" Week ends on the last holdout of the Great Marvel Purge of 1990. The X-Men was the first (and possibly last) comic series that I collected for over 100 consecutive issues, so I had some loyalty to it even though it had jumped the shark many times already. But we're talking about that point in time when they were starting to fracture the team over a number of titles and making the soap opera that much more difficult to follow.As of #277, I'd finally had enough. And looking at it now, I'm not even sure I understand the story. To be fair, there's a lot of superhero action, and rising star Jim Lee doesn't even let Professor X look like a normal joe.
Pretty buff for a former cripple. Anyway, the comic is basically a big battle in space between the X-Men, some aliens posing as X-Men, and the Starjammers and/or aliens posing as the Starjammers. And Gladiator. The aliens seem to be Skrulls (how topical!), but could be aliens posing as Skrulls. Uncanny X-Men had become that kind of a series.To be fair, there are a number of cool things happening here, but it's a popcorn movie kind of cool (not that there's anything wrong with that), and indeed, I've counted only 3 panels that wouldn't involve special effects if it were put to film. It's got that George Lucas feel about it. The outer space action sequences are well choreographed, and the principals look dangerous and sexy. It helps that Gambit isn't allowed to wear his pink outfit. They're all in their yellow and blue school uniforms, give or take a personal accessory and a large red corset to keep their abs well tucked in.Of course, half the problems the X-Men have to overcome are created by their inability to work well together. You'd think they'd have the hang of it by now. Storm, dressed up as a starfighter (below), creates problems for the Starjammer spaceship thanks to its being "close enough" to a planet's atmosphere, but this destroys her boyfriend Forge's space-sled!
But it does mean Forge gets to look cool in a Die Hard stunt to get into the ship the hard way.
It works, he ends up shooting an alien in the face, but it's too strong to be bothered. Banshee to the rescue with his sonic scream! But it knocks Forge out too. It was the early 90s, and reports from the Gulf War were more about friendly fire than anything. In true X-Men fashion, the whole thing is padded with people making long winded speeches in between punches. And for some reason, everybody sounds like Shakespeare or Thor (same thing, really), give or take the odd accent.The X-Men beat the crap out of these Skrulls and then crash the ship into the villains' fortress, interrupting a fight between Skrull-Wolverine and Skrull-Jubilee, the latter pissed that she's had to take the form of the worst X-Man in history. I empathize completely. In the schoolyard, I've made like I was Dr. Fate, Iron First and other losers. But never Jubilee. You sissies are welcome to write in that you did.More pointless battle ensues, and to my surprise, even Gambit gets a cool moment:
Though he missed out on a 52-pickup joke which would have been a better line. It's not the last time this would happen to the X-Men. We all remember the X-Men movie's suckiest line: "What happens to a Toad when it gets hit by lightning? The same thing as everything else." The right answer, folks, is "It croaks". More "cool moment, wrong line" fun with Gambit:
Spears don't go "Bang", dude.But that wasn't the real Professor X, pictured above. It was a Skrull. The real Xavier was being turned into Locutus in another room. And when the two Patrick Stewarts meet up, it's former cripple against fake former cripple. Former cripple wins.
Bla bla bla. This ain't the classroom, Professor. Save it for the New Mutants.Then the soap opera resumes as Xavier's girlfriend's evil sister turned ally kisses him in front of his lover, her sister. Oh, and Banshee goes "what about my subplot that we've been ignoring for 12-24 issues?". Bottom line, while this issue's not that bad, the X-Men have lost their way. The mutant agenda has been pushed aside in favor of space opera, and the characters are talking machines guiding us through all the continuity and plot points. With the impending threat of multiplying the X-titles and the stories becoming even more convoluted (Marvel made good on that threat), I had to finally stop collecting Uncanny. End of a personal era.
511. Future's End, Part IIFORMULA: Assignment Earth + A Piece of the ActionWHY WE LIKE IT: The Doctor gets mobile.WHY WE DON'T: More 90s clichés.REVIEW: Part II is a lot like Part I - a big, dumb popcorn movie. More running around in tv's version of the 90s, nice action/effects sequences to spice things up, and plot hole you can drive an exploding truck through. Just like in Part I, the cliffhangers before each commercial are terrible, but I suppose fun has been given priority over tension.Starling continues to be a dangerous villain mostly because the script says he is, so don't look too closely at his magic tricks. Here he steals the Doctor from Voyager's databanks (there is mention that he is still reintegrating his memories after the events of The Swarm) and slaps a mobile holo-emitter. This will take the Doctor out of sickbay so he can spice up any story with his dazzling personality. It's a good thing even if it does a lot of acrobatics to remove a limit they imposed on themselves in the story bible. Of course one wonders if he's going to be doing a lot of punching and shooting with this new lease on life. Here, it seems really out of place.The episode does look good thanks to location shooting, a few stunts and effects (though a bit heavy on the particle graphics at times), and Sarah Silverman coming off as a fun character. Dunbar's truck being blown up by a shuttle is pretty eye-popping. I could however have done without the 90s survivalists who capture Chakotay and B'Elanna. I was reminded of Pulp Fiction for some reason. In any case, it's not like that bit helped the story along. At all. Other plot nonsense includes: Surprise that the Doctor doesn't seem the worse for wear after taking punches to the face, while the same can be said of Dunbar. Tom and Tuvok's plan being extremely lame as there's no way Starling would have followed Rain back to the van. And Starling interfering with his own transport... is that safe?It's the ending I have the most misgivings about, however. The way it plays out, it looks like Voyager's torpedo is what creates the temporal explosion that destroys the 29th century. The "future's end" seems more and more inevitable and then, nope, it doesn't happen, everybody's safe. It's really not clear how the disaster doesn't happen after all. We just have to take their word for it. Maybe it's confusing so that you don't notice the timeship insists on returning Voyager to its proper time, yet completely ignores the future tech they now possess (the holo-emitter). Never mind the contamination here on Earth.Missed opportunities: You know, there was one moment where I thought the episode would get clever and it's when Janeway proclaims that Starling stock was going to crash. If all he cares about is money, it would have been very cool if they used their own advanced computers to manipulate the stock market or something and destroy him financially. That would have been a threat that might have worked on him. Sadly, it was just an expression. Next time, Janeway, make an effort to be cool rather than just sound cool.LESSON: 29th-century technology has put a premium on being "user-friendly".REWATCHABILITY - Medium: Memorable for the introduction of the Doctor's emitter, but pretty dumb and irrelevant otherwise. The Gilligan's Island ending was expected and none of the writers are really making an effort to work out their plots.
A summer (and my vacation) approaches, I'm not surprised I would be investing in tv shows on DVD. Man cannot live on Julie Chen and Gordon Ramsey alone, you know! Of course, the point should be not to watch the damn things over the course of a couple days BEFORE the vacation hits. The Unit Season 1? See below. Veronica Mars Season 2? See below. Veronica Mars Season 3? Just a couple of episodes in I swear! (It's an illness.)
I became interested in The Unit when I discovered the David Mamet connection, by way of his excellent black ops movie, Spartan. Found the first season at fairly cheap prices, just 13 episodes, and I wasn't disappointed. The world of special operations is very authentically drawn, with more variety than I would have thought. The ones Mamet actually wrote have a little extra sparkle, but the others are quite good too. While Dennis Heysbert and Regina Taylor carry the show with their presence, my early favorite is Grey. I'll certainly be looking to purchase/watch later seasons. Extras are slim, but the one commentary and few interviews answered all my principal questions, so I'm happy.
Veronica Mars... You may remember I fell in love with the show after watching the 1st season in 2 days flat and immediately ordered the rest. They came in Friday, and I'm now 3 episodes into Season 3! The 2nd Season had a more interlocked structure to its mysteries, more cliffhangers than the 1st, and so was may have been more addictive. Still, there was so much in there that I felt some elements weren't properly followed up on (like Wallace leaving with his bio-dad). Not so much Veronica's personal story, but a net thrown wide over Neptune. Still great. More extras than the first boxed set, including a short video diary from Kristen Bell, a featurette and 8 minutes of outtakes, in addition to the usual deleted scenes.
For Monday's RPG night, I took a page from Chaosium's Blood Brothers 2 (for non-Mythos Call of Cthulhu) and emulated a silent black and white horror movie. Players weren't allowed to use dialogue unless they wrote it on cards (of which they had a limited number). It was a very interesting experience, though I should have play-tested my candle-lit shadow puppets beforehand. The wax mess was pretty bad. Now I have to rewrite a number of character sheets.
Someone Else's Post of the Week
Slay, Monstrobot of the Deep has hands down the best rant against Countdown I've read, 51 Issues and Nothing On. I couldn't agree more. DC Universe #0 promises a lot more and has no connection to Countdown so far as we can see, so truly, people could have saved themselves some trouble and money and gotten all the prologue they need to Final Crisis for 50¢. Sometimes, it's not easy to like mainstream comics.
