(no subject)
- The names in the credits freaking sped by, it was boggling. And also, it was a small, but great moment when credits for the actors for Harriet Jones, Francine Jones and the TW team came up at the bottom of the screen when the ep started. That’s never happened before. That was awesome to give those actors equal importance almost to the ones in the opening credits.
- I liked that what RTD (or someone) said about every character having equal screen time actually being true. Even the Doctor / Donna probably got less screen time than each companion, which made sense to the structure of the episode. The episode was really about the companions mounting this Earth defence and desperately trying to find the Doctor and him in turn trying to find Earth. I loved that to bits. All of them joining together to do their bit to boost the signal to call him and lead him to Earth was really one of the most brilliant moments in new DW history.
- The introduction of each companion and where they were was cool. Seeing Sarah Jane was squeeful since I’ve just started watching the SJ Adventures and I’ve fallen in love with the gorgeous, amazing woman that she is. Luke is freaking adorable and his trademark pointing out the facts with a very long scientific explanation was firmly in place here.
- Martha’s been promoted again. Probably for awesomeness. I liked how out of everyone at the New York UNIT base, they chose her to be the one to escape. The teleporter was so cool, and I’m really intrigued about this Osterhagen Key. I knew so many spoilers for this episode that I was pleased to see there hadn’t even been a mention of the Osterhagen Key anywhere.
- Wilf is my favourite companion family member ever in DW. And this is coming from a bona fide Jackie / Pete shipper who bawled when they reunited in Doomsday. Wilf has surpassed them through sheer greatness. When he came out with the bat, and then the paint gun to fight the Daleks I was just in love with the old bugger.
I was okay with Rose in Turn Left. I liked her hardness, her defiance, her quiet resolve. But… yeah, she basically ruined my squee for this episode. And I had a lot of fucking squee. I squeed every time the red Dalek, Dalek Caan or Davros was on screen. I squeed for the awesome moments each companion had. I squeed for Harriet Jones’ brave sacrifice, and “Yes, I know who you are.”
Rose brought me crashing down to Earth with her utterly unneeded and utterly irritating and bitchy comments during the 4-way conversation. RTD of course has to make Martha the one who Rose sees taking her place in the 4-way convo, and every time Martha speaks, Rose makes a bitchy fucking remark, “I was here first” and crap like that. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Sarah was the first of all the companions present. I honestly thought Rose was different. I thought her bitchy, jealous streak was gone, given her way with Donna, but obviously, seeing all the companions on the 4-way, you’ve got Donna and Sarah, both nearing or past middle age, and Jack, a man, so Rose sees Martha and sees nothing but a young, hot, obviously very important person, and immediately sees a threat.
- Rose’s apparently not being very different at all to the immature whiney teenager of series 2 really pissed me off during the big Ten / Rose reunion. I wanted to like that moment. I wanted to know that Ten was right in being so happy to see Rose. I can’t get behind his happiness in seeing such a petty, bitchy little girl though. I just can’t. I like all his companions so much, and I liked this episode so much. I wanted it be about these brilliant people showing just why they’ve been the Doctor’s companions - because they are each brave and awesome people. But Rose, as ever, has to bring her pathetic jealousy into what was a defining moment for all of Ten’s companions.
- Also, give me a fucking break on Ten and Rose running toward each other in slow motion. All that was missing was a rising orchestral movement and a field of daisies for them to run through.
- OOooooOOOOooooh regeneration, eh? I think not. Something’s gonna go awry here. Although, what a stupid way for Ten to get killed - running toward Rose like a lovesick puppy. Now Rose, Donna and Jack are together, and from a trailer I see Sarah joins them… I don’t want Martha to be left out, I wonder what part she will play in the finale.
- I was on the edge of the sofa for this episode. My heart was pounding. I loved it. I squeed. The companions kicked ass. The Daleks thrilled me. The CG was breathtaking. The music was brilliant. I wanted to punch Rose Tyler in the face… but let’s not let that overtake the fact that The Stolen Earth was a bone fide classic and an tour de force episode. It really really impressed me. I love the Dalek / Time War / Davros mythology, and I can’t wait to see what they’ve been doing with all these planets.
Farscape / SG-1 / SGA
Just as I was getting way beyond pissed off and tired of the John/Aeryn saga, the end of 4x14 has them getting together FINALLY with little or no fanfare at all. After everything, it takes them 2 minutes to kiss and make up? I feel extremely deflated. They dance around once another for 2 seasons until John kills Aeryn in a Scorpius induced mental break, then she lives again, enabling them to finally solidify their love… but then John gets cloned, and she falls for John 2.0, who promptly up and dies, after which, she shuns and generally ignores John 1.0, until she breaks his heart by leaving, possibly forever, after which he discovers that she’s pregnant. *takes a breath* Then she returns with his arch nemesis Scorpius, still pregnant, and unsure of who the father is, and so John, completely heartbroken, tells her he’s done with her because he can’t trust her. Neranti gives John a drug to help him forget the pain Aeryn put him through and while Aeryn’s obliviously wating for John to come round, he’s actually so drugged up he has no idea that she’s still waiting for him. And then, the aforementioned get together happens during a blazing row, and they suddenly begin kissing and smiling and being, yes awesome and in love, but also quite anti-climactic.
Oh yeah. And then Aeryn gets kidnapped by the Scarrans and John’s heartbroken and alone.
Again.
And that’s how far I’m up to now. *sigh*
Oh and yeah, the entire series is based on the premise that John, an astronaut, was accidentally shot through a wormhole to the other side of the galaxy. He is imbued with the entire knowledge of wormholes by a higher alien race because he is the only one to have successfully traversed one. After 4 seasons of wormhole plottiness, including John being kidnapped constantly and his brain being molested for the information by Scorpius and being driven mostly insane because of it… he finally figures out how to predict when a wormhole will appear. His goal for the whole series has been to get home - and mid-season 4, he does. Again, it felt totally anti-climactic. I guess it weird, because the drive for the show has been when John and Aeryn will get together, when he will figure out wormholes and if he would get back to Earth and, all 3 things happened in rapid succession after 4 seasons of convoluted back and forth plotting and ups and downs and general insanity. Plus it felt so unrealistic when he got back to Earth, especially how his dad and everyone at IASA dealt with the fact that John was alive, had become an inter-galaxy criminal, and everyone with him was a bona fide alien. The gang on Earth was funny to see though, especially Aeryn and Chiana.
Also, marginally related to this, Claudia Black (Aeryn) and Ben Browder (John) are of course Vala Mal Doran and Cam Mitchell in Stargate, and the Stargate: Continuum movie is coming out soon. I read a glowing review of it earlier that said it was one of the best Stargate stories hands down over the entire 10 year run of the show, and it’s so awesomely awesome that they think it’s possible it’ll be so successful that a real theatrical movie will be made. I doubt that, but I do hope it means more SG-1 DVD movies. I do not want Stargate Universe instead of more SG-1 stuff. Stargate Atlantis is crappy enough as it is.
Speaking of, I saw the leaked premiere of SGA’s season 5. It was verging on pretty great, as great as SGA is for me though. Rodney delivering Teyla’s baby was funny, but clichéd. And Carter leaving Atlantis was so random. She goes back to Earth for an SG-1 thing and suddenly gets fired by Wolsey? It felt forced. I know the actress had to leave to do other things, but it felt like a disservice to Carter the way they did it. Carter is shown to be more than capable at everything she does. She’s a genius, she’s a hero, she’s a leader… and yet suddenly she’s replaced by Wolsey? It didn’t feel right, story wise. I wish there’d been a proper story arc early in season 5 where something happened to her to make her want to return to Earth or she was urgently needed or something that wasn’t her getting fired for NO APPARENT REASON.
Carnivale
Occupying me a lot lately is the cracky brilliance of Carnivale. I think this is one of the true travesties of TV land. I lament Firefly’s cancellation, but at least it got a movie 3 years later to end it all. Carnivale’s creator had a 6 year plan, and only got to tell 2 seasons of the story, and 3 years on there’s still no word on finishing it out. I’m only mid-season 2 now, so don’t spoil me anyone.
I think it’s amazing though. It’s a truly unique concept, Visually and historically it’s a treat. Being set in a 1930’s carnival is a genius decision. At that time, carnivals, especially freak show oriented ones like in the show, where a dying breed. Film and theatre was more popular, and the exploitation of disfigured / disabled people was becoming frowned upon. This isn’t a big glossy carnival with sequins and gloss either. It’s rundown, and the performers are ragged and old and poor.
I think that the show would never had been cancelled though if the story hadn’t moved so slow. Ben Hawkins joins the carnival in the first episode as a labourer. His big secret is that he can heal people, his father was some ambiguous with the same powers, and he has an apparent arch nemesis in the form of a fire and brimstone preacher called Brother Justin… and yet for all of season 1 all Ben does is wander around the carnival, lifting stuff and being stoic. He heals a few people on the quiet, has a lot of cryptic dreams that aren’t explained and is apparently of great interest to the carnival’s never seen but oft mentioned ‘Management’… but that’s about it. In season 2 however everything kicks off.
Ben investigates leads about his father, he listens to Management, and his and Brother Justin’s destinies become more entwined despite having never met one another. They have a lot of shared dreams, and see each other in these dreams as each other’s nemesis to be defeated. The point of everything is also revealed - Ben has a vision of a mushroom cloud rising from the desert. It’s an apocalypse scenario basically. If that had been bloody revealed in season 1, people might have been more patient with the show, and the 4 million bill per episode wouldn’t have made the execs can it.
Indiana Jones
Well.
Suffice to say, my face pretty much had this expression by the end: O.O
My initial opinion was “What the frilly fuck was that?” I am a rabid Indy fan. I own the trilogy boxset and it is much pawed from rewatching. Indy 4 had so much going for it - the very fact of its’ existence firstly, then Shia, whose comedic timing and charm I love, and a host of big time actors. It even had the usual rough and tumble action sequences, the banter, the outrageous stunts. I should have been ecstatic by the end, but I honestly cannot get over the ‘It was aliens!’ climax.
I cannot believe that George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford have been reading rejecting scripts for Indy 4 for like 15 years and this is the one they accepted. I love the series so much because they take popular myth and legend and turn it on its’ head, and I really don’t know why they switched from the fantasy of the first 3 films, to sci-fi for this one. It didn’t work for me. It really was one of those things where the last 15 minutes ruined the first 2 hours of the film for me. I was gobsmacked at how ridiculous the conclusion was.
And it upsets me that that was my reaction, because I really really really loved the series, and I had been eagerly anticipating the film, and I knew I’d like it. It was weird when I actually saw the film though and didn’t like it, when I was so convinced I would. I suppose I’d need to see it again to really get used to the aliens thing, but there were other things that annoyed me too that they never needed to do in Indy films before.
The first 3 were period films set in the 1930’s, but everything from the costumes, to the dialogue, to the settings was all natural. There was nothing that screamed at the audience ‘This is the 1930’s and this is how’, whereas in Indy 4, they were smacking the audience in the face with it being the 1950’s every five seconds. First, the kids / army racing at the beginning. George Lucas might as well have cut a scene out of American Graffiti and put it in as the opener there. Then it was just a barrage of things - Area 51, Russian/Communism/Cold War, nuclear testing, Shia’s entire costume and character, the fight between the students and the bikers, even the fact that it was aliens is a big 1950’s homage to aliens, UFOs and sci-fi B movies becoming prevalent then.