Fandom, Miscellany

Galactica meets the U.N.

I’ve been watching the final season of Battlestar Galactica on Hulu. I’m a week or two behind right now*, but when I saw a Washington Post article about a Battlestar Galactica event at the United Nations, I decided to risk the potential for spoilers and dive right in.

Along with obligatory praise between the BSG people and the UN representatives, the article (and the UN event) also delved into some of the real-world ethical concerns the show raised. (e.g. Waterboarding a cylon as a proxy for a suspected terrorist.) I was also quite amused by the mention that Edward James Olmos apparently had a tendency to refer to the character of Admiral Adama in the first person.

All in all, it’s probably one of the best bits of news coverage I’ve seen for a Science Fiction related event.

*The last episode I saw was the one where it turns out Ellen Tigh is an utter bitch regardless of whether she’s a human or a cylon.

Commentary, Fandom

Netflix Streaming Doctor Who

I seem to be on another of my Doctor Who kicks. 🙂

Working my way through Season 4 of Doctor Who, I paused after watching “The Stolen Earth.” Time to take a break and savor the show rather than rush through the final episodes and then wait indefinitely for Season Five to come out.

So in the meantime, I went digging through the Netflix list of episodes and discovered that seasons two and three are now available for streaming. (Season one has been available for at least six months.)

Since I’m in midst of watching Rose return, it seemed only natural to go back to the end of season two when she left. While I’m going back and watching the previous seasons, I’ve also made a point of watching the great chase scene from “The Runaway Bride” and Sarah Jane’s life-altering discovery of the T.A.R.D.I.S. in the closet in “School Reunion.”

I haven’t seen “Blink” since before it won the Hugo. So tonight, along with possibly updating the convention list, this may be a good time to remedy that. (Am I alone in thinking “Silence in the Library”/”Forest of the Dead” would be a good candidate for another Hugo? I just love the portrayal of The Doctor’s future relationship with Professor Song and how that’s impacted by his time travel. I wouldn’t mind seeing future seasons touch on that thread.)

Broadband is wonderful.

Fandom

Doctor’s Visit – Season Four

2 Comments

It took a while, but Netflix has at long last delivered the third through fifth disks from the fourth season of Doctor Who. They’ve been in my queue for a while, but even when the status changed from “Long Wait” to “Now” it still took a while. Even Wall-E arrived faster! (As much as I’d like to believe this is because of Doctor Who’s popularity, I suspect it has more to do Netflix buying many more copies of the Wall-E DVD.)

What I’ve seen so far from the first two disks of Season 4 has been enticing. The Doctor seems to be getting edgier, and perhaps a bit more bitter about being the last of his race. I’m not sure how I feel about Donna as the companion (she reminds me of a particularly bossy ex-girlfriend), but I suppose there’s room for the character to grow.

And speaking of companions… I’m more than a little intrigued by Rose’s brief appearance at the end of “Partners in Crime”. I’ve been trying to avoid finding out about the show before I watch it, but clips I’ve stumbled across on YouTube make it clear that she’s coming back. And I can’t overlook that The Doctor is still carrying Martha’s mobile.

It may have taken a while for the Season 4 disks to arrive, but I’m quite willing to believe it was worth the wait.

Fanfilms, Video

More YouTube Silliness

It’s been a while since I spent an evening watching YouTube, but a few nights ago the Cowgirl Coder sent me a link to a video of an alternate A-Team opening featuring the TOS crew. And there I was, off watching videos again.

The TOS A-Team

Captain Jack Harkness as Flash Gordon

I haven’t seen season three of Torchwood yet (ditto for season four of Doctor Who or any of the Sarah Jane Adventures – I’m waiting for Netflix on the former and just not the target audience for that last) but this has enough scenes that I’m looking forward to seeing them (well, maybe not the Sarah Jane Adventures)

 

And just to be completely silly….

Star Trek: The Love Boat

Fanfilms

Watching A Rock and a Hard Place

What with some long hours at the office lately, it wasn’t until shortly before Farpoint that I found an opportunity to watch Starship Farragut’s “A Rock and a Hard Place”. In the episode, Captain Carter takes a shuttle on a prospecting mission, accompanied by an old girl friend. The episode is 17 1/2 minutes long, but most enjoyable nonetheless.

A few thoughts came to mind after watching the episode:

  1. The best line of the film: “That’s a moodbreaker.”
  2. What’s a picnic without a few Klingons? (Klingons, ants, is there a difference?)
  3. It’s not just the Enterprise. You can’t trust any starship captain with anything that has a back seat.

Actually, what struck me most about the episode is something that’s been missing from a lot of fan films. I’m not quite sure how to describe it, but it sometimes feels fan films tend to take themselves far too seriously. I don’t think fan films need laugh tracks (unless maybe they’re doing an SF sitcom I guess) but making every episode deeply serious with a somber ending, just doesn’t work for me.

With “A Rock and a Hard Place” I think Team Farragut managed to hit the mark just about right. The episode (or is it a “minisode”?) had its relatively serious moments, but overall, it felt like a classic TOS episode with just the right amount of humor.

I hope they can manage to continue.

Conventions

Alien Invasion

One of the more interesting costumes from last weekend’s Farpoint was a rather authentic looking Alien, that looked like it came straight out of the Sigourney Weaver movies.

An alien.

Very cool looking outfit, but I can’t help thinking it must have been rather warm. Nonetheless, he was in that costume for a while on Friday evening and most of Saturday afternoon and evening. He was having great fun with it though, “stalking” his prey (other attendees) and just generally acting the part.

I happened to be in the men’s room when the Alien walked in (thus settling the question of the gender of the person in the costume). He hissed as he walked past, and vanished into a stall.

The first thing to cross my mind was, “Now there’s a scene that didn’t make it into any of the movies.” The next thought was, “What if it had been an Alien in the next stall that Senator Craig had tapped toes with?”

I mentioned this series of thoughts to Todd Brugmans and in no time at all, his pencil was a flyin’.

Senator Craig's final mistake.