Prehistoric Poop Quest
I took the munchkin (my9-year old niece Rachel) to our favorite place in the city, the St. Louis Science Center yesterday. The big draw was Dinosaurs Unearthed! The last time we went to the Science Center we saw an Omnimax movie about dinosaurs which opened with a brontosaurus thundering into view and then…leaving a giant, steaming pile of poop right in front of the camera. Munchkin loved it. So naturally her goal in the Dinosaurs Unearthed exhibit was to find fossilized dino poop. That’s right: I spent a chunk of my Saturday looking for dino poop.
When we entered the exhibit, the first thing we saw was a giant fossil in situ.
But no poop. Just fake bones in fake rock. At least, I think they were fake. Not being a paleontologist, I couldn’t really tell. It would be cool if it were real, though. The quest for dino poop moved deeper into the exhibit.
Dinosaur horns. Wrong end of the dino. Or maybe dinosaurs are just F***ING METAL!
*ahem* Moving on…
You may not be able to tell from this picture since I took it with my camera phone, but this dinosaur has fur. That dark thing on its head is a clump of leaves. Still no poop.
Rachel found a box full of mulch, exposed plaster “bones” and paint brushes. She covered the bones with the mulch so that other exhibit-goers could pretend to be paleontologists and unearth the fake bones. She’s nice like that. In previous visits to the Science Center, she’s spent time in the hands-on paleontology exhibit, cleaning bones and quizzing the student that was minding the exhibit.
I can’t decide if this picture I took of a dino skeleton is really bad or really artsy. I called it Nessie because it looks like a skeleton of the Loch Ness Monster.
OMG! DINO POOP! Mission accomplished! Rachel was pretty bummed out when I suggested that the poop might not be real fossilized poop. I mean, wouldn’t excrement…melt, rather than fossilize? I can see some of its contents (bones or plant bits) fossilizing, given the right conditions, but would the poop? We debated it for a while, and I finally conceded that it might be real poop, just so we could stop talking about poop.
Non-Poop Related Science Fun
There’s more to the St. Louis Science Center than dinosaurs and their excrement (thank goodness). The next thing Rachel wanted to see was her favorite exhibit of all, the Human Body exhibit, but alas! It was closed for renovation. Rachel was crushed. She loves the hands-on exhibits that let you play with optical and auditory illusions. She also likes the medical exhibits, especially medical equipment and methods from the past.
However, while we were on that floor, we went to the technology section, which had the exhibit that turned out to be her favorite of the day: Designing her own web page. That’s right, building a web page ranked higher than dino poop. My Guardian Geeks would be so pleased!
The other things we simply must see when we’re at the Science Center are the bridge that crosses Highway 40, and the Planetarium. The bridge has cutouts with plexiglass in them that let you look down at the cars racing under the bridge. There are also speed guns so you can check how fast the cars are going. The Planetarium is the home of the Science Center’s space exhibits, starting with a giant model of the planet Mars. To my horror, Rachel declared that Mars was “boring”.
“Boring?!” I said.
“There’s nothing there,” she replied. “It’s just red rocks.”
My little geek isn’t into space? Oh the horror! “It’s more than that! There’s water on the poles, and there may even be life there!”
“When they find people on mars,” she said, “then it’ll be interesting.”
My heart sank. “It’s more likely the life they’ll find will be microbes, or something like that.”
“BOR-RING!”
As we went deeper into the exhibits, she revealed that she thought space was scary, and stuff on Earth was more interesting. Well, OK, if she wants to become a scientist who studies stuff on Earth, that’s totally cool, too. But space isn’t scary! It’s exciting and beautiful and…*sigh* She also thinks science fiction is boring. Oh the humanity. Ah, but there is hope! When she saw in a video by a Gemini space capsule that it was made right here in St. Louis, she was pretty excited.
Made in St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Here’s a comparison of various rockets and the Arch. The Arch is big. You can ride in a sort of egg car thingie up to the top and look out the windows. We natives use it to find where we parked.
We had fun seeing how much it would cost to send us into space (a lot), and looking at all the space-themed toys from back when I was a kid.
Barbie and Lt. Uhura
She thinks space is scary but loves the Planetarium. There’s hope yet.
Another big draw for Rachel is the math puzzles. Unfortunately, I didn’t take pictures of her doing those, but they’re lots of fun. I impressed myself by completing a Sudoku puzzle. Let me tell you why that’s impressive: I truly suck at math. In fact, I should probably just get this T-Shirt from Mental_Floss:
Rachel, on the other hand, is a math whiz. And yet, I had to explain Pi to her when she saw all those Pi Day signs around the Science Center. I don’t remember when I learned about Pi in school. Not third grade, so I’ll give Rachel a pass.
Last time we were at the Science Center, Rachel didn’t get a turn in the human-sized hamster wheel they have in the lobby. This time, though, we got there when they were first opening the thing up for play, and Rachel got to be a hamster!
We spent four and half hours there, and Aunt Kathy (me) was getting pretty tired. Not so the 9-year old with the boundless energy. Hearing over the PA that there was a demonstration coming up in the Center Stage area, she convinced me to hurry downstairs to get a good seat. The demo was called Betcha Can’t, in which the scientist pulls people from the audience to take part in physical experiments that demonstrate why you can’t do certain things, like picking a dollar up off the floor while keeping your lower body flush against a wall. The first thing he did was light a candle, then try to extinguish it by blowing through the small end of a funnel. He asked if anyone could tell him why he couldn’t. Rachel’s hand shot up, and he picked her to come up to the stage and tell him why.
The answer? Because blowing through the small end diffused the air out the big end, so the gust of air wasn’t strong enough to blow out the candle. You need to blow through the big end to focus the air through the little end. Rachel was ecstatic that she got picked, and vowed to get me picked, too. I wasn’t quite as sanguine about that as she was. Nevertheless, when the last demonstration came up, she managed to get me picked to come up on stage and squish a penny between my two third fingers while my other fingers were tucked under toward my palms. He told me to see if I could drop the penny without moving any fingers but my third fingers. I knew I wouldn’t be able to, and I knew why, too: My tendons wouldn’t let me. It hurt a lot, but I gamely hammed it up for the audience then went back to my seat to massage my hands!
Yeah, the green blog on the right is me after a long, sweaty day chasing a 9-year old around three levels of the Science Center. Rachel took this picture. She says she doesn’t know how to work my phone, but in the less than two minutes that I was on stage, she took three pictures of me and put each in a funky frame like the one you see above. She doesn’t know how to work my phone. Yeah.
Why Go Anywhere Else?
Every time I ask Rachel where she wants to go, she tells me the Science Center. She never tires of it, and neither do I. There’s a lot to see and do. So if you have a munchkin, or you’re just a geek like me who lives in St. Louis or are planning a visit, make time for the Science Center. I think my munchkin–who’s father contemplated a move out of state–summed it up nicely, “Why would Daddy want to move to Florida where there’s so much cool stuff in St. Louis?”
The St. Louis Science Center can be found on the web at http://www.slsc.org and on Twitter @slsc .
Special Features
Profile on Paul McGillion
It was weird listening to the interviewees say how awesome Paul McGillion is, and what an important character he is…knowing that they’re going to kill his character Dr. Beckett off in the next season. Oh, but it’s Stargate, so nobody really stays dead, and they bring him back in season 4. Nevertheless, this is a really funny profile, especially the time devoted to the kiss between McGillion and David Hewlett in Duet.
Audio Commentary for Coup D’etat
Martin Wood, Martin Gero and David Hewlett. Apparently this episode was a pain to write because the desired actors weren’t available. Then Colm Meaney became available, and it was a go. This episode also had the longest tease in Stargate history at more than 7 minutes. Remember that scene with the photos of the team members that have the Ancient gene? Apparently the producers really had to fight to get those pictures in there. I loved the pictures. Martin Gero had a cameo in the infirmary scene. Who knew?
Audio Commentary for Michael
Martin Wood and Peter DeLuise. They love Connor Trinneer (who doesn’t?) Trivia: Connor Trinneer is not from Texas, he just did the accent really well here and on Enterprise. He’s actually from Washington state. There’s a lot of geeky director talk in this commentary. Fortunately, Peter DeLuise got his father Dom’s sense of humor. It’s cute how they try not to give away the secret of the episode while doing the commentary. They tell us the actors didn’t like lying to the Michael character, and each of them came to director Martin Wood with concerns about how the lying and pretending, except for Jason Momoa, who totally got that Ronon just doesn’t like Michael. Period. So he doesn’t care about lying to him.
Audio Commentary for Inferno
Peter DeLuise and Gary Jones (who’s on Stargate SG1). Oh good, Peter answers the question of why Gary does commentary on Atlantis episodes…sort of. I would rather have had one of the actors, maybe. OMG, the guy who played the leader of the volcano people played a bunch of different dads on 21 Jump Street! Who knew? And the volcano lady was in Baywatch Hawaii with Jason Momoa and was in SG1 and Andromeda.
Audio Commentary for Allies
Andy Mikita, Martin Gero, David Hewlett and Mars the dog. If you want to see more of David Hewlett and Mars the dog, rent the movie A Dog’s Breakfast. It’s awesome, you’ll love it. They agree that the effects in this episode are amazing. Is it just me, or does Stargate pull out all the stops for the mid-season and end of season cliff hangers? Wow, the guy who supposed to be Wraithified Michael is NOT being played by Connor Trinneer, because Connor’s wife was scheduled to have a baby, and he didn’t want to miss it (awwwww). So they got another actor to put on the makeup, and Connor came in to do the voice later.
Production Design & Photo Gallery
Pictures. Woo.
A Wraith Queen in Atlantis (Photo from GateWorld.net)
Allies
WRITTEN BY: Martin Gero
DIRECTED BY: Andy Mikita
GUEST STARRING: Brent Stait (Michael), Connor Trinneer (Voice of Michael), David Nykl (Zelenka), Mitch Pileggi (Caldwell), James Lafazanos (Wraith Scientist / Man), Andee Frizzell (Hive Queen), Chuck Campbell (Technician), Kirby Morrow (Daedalus Tech), Sheri Noel (Lab Assistant), Trevor Devall (Voice of Hermiod)
WARNING: SPOILERS ABOUND!
Summary
Michael brings his hive to Atlantis with a plan to alleviate the Wraith’s food shortage problems by using Dr. Beckett’s retrovirus to turn other Wraith into humans.
General Impressions
This season two finale has an interesting premise: Wraith using Dr. Beckett’s retrovirus to turn other Wraith into humans and feed on them instead of natural humans—until this particular hive has destroyed all of their enemies, that is. I guess it was inevitable that a Queen who met Michael would see the advantage the retrovirus might give them. Also, the premise of seeking it made a great foot-in-the door to get the location of Earth out of Atlantis’ database. Sneaky.
A Wraith queen in Atlantis…I just love it. She’s so sinister and graceful and she walks around like she owns the place. Andee Frizzell is so gorgeous. It was also good to see Michael again so soon. He’s a compelling character, and it seemed to me from his conversation with Tayla that he has a thing for her. This will be further developed as the series progresses.
The Good
Clever, ruthless Wraith, seeing the usefulness of turning other Wraith into humans to alleviate the food shortage–but that really being Plan B, with Plan A being getting the location of Earth.
Michael tips off the expedition to his hive’s real goal in coming to Atlantis the first time he contacts them and tells them that the hives awoke prematurely because they thought a rich new food source had been discovered (Earth), but that their efforts to find it had proven difficult. By the end of the episode, it becomes clear that what they really wanted was the location of Earth. Nice foreshadowing.
The horror everyone but the Wraith have when the queen feeds on the newly-made human who used to be one of her own Wraith surprised me a little. He used to be a Wraith. I don’t know if I could have accepted a newly-former Wraith as a human like myself so easily. It was different with Michael because they’d had him convinced for a few days that he was one of them, but this guy was just Wraith to human then fed on to death. I was not surprised, however, that Michael had trouble watching the feeding. There but the grace of God went him, so to speak.
Glorfindel, is that you? (Photo from GateWorld.net)
It was kind of creepy the way the queen sexily ran her hand up the new human’s body, then caressed his cheek before feeding on him. The poor, innocent (hot) thing didn’t see it coming. But, damn he was sexy. Kind of like a Tolkien Elf.
As an aside, I really love the sound the engines of the smaller Wraith ships make. They sound like race cars.
The Bad
Tayla and I seem to be the only ones who noticed the foreshadowing about Michael’s real motive in coming back to Atlantis not being what everybody else thinks it is. They should listen to Tayla; she’s pretty smart.
The Awesome
Getting to know Wraith as individuals, not just as enemy mooks. The expedition interacts with a queen and works with a Wraith scientist (who’s dreadfully cool). We realize we can actually work with the Wraith to accomplish a goal, even if it does go sour.
Those space battles sure are beautiful. The special effects are amazing, and those hives look great close up.
Kudos once again for a tremendous score. The music in the wake of the last space battle in the episode, when they think Sheppard is dead and can’t figure out why the hive ships jumped away from the battlefield when they had Deadalus dead to rights is heart pounding. The music under the scene where the Wraith scientist is revealing their destination to Rodney and Ronon, and the music under the To Be Continued card is appropriately filled with dread and danger. I really can’t overstate the awesomeness of the music in the Stargate franchise.
Cue dramatic music (Photo from GateWorld.net)
I like how the Wraith queen always seems to look to Dr. Weir for confirmation every time the male members of the expedition want an answer to a question or agreement to a plan. She knows who’s in charge. I wonder if Wraith have more respect for female human leaders than male leaders, since Wraith are lead by females? Just a thought.
Rodney and Hermiod working together is fantastic. Two great, big egos, each convinced he is the smarter of the two and the one who solved the problem.
Your assistance will be noted (Photo from GateWorld.net)
Rating
9 out of 10. Wraith character development, Rodney vs. Hermiod, and space battles.
The Teranis Stargate gets sucked into a super volcano (Photo from GateWorld.net)
Inferno
WRITTEN BY: Carl Binder
DIRECTED BY: Peter DeLuise
GUEST STARRING: Kevin McNulty (Chancellor Lycus), Brandy Ledford (Norina), David Nykl (Radek Zelenka), Mitch Pileggi (Colonel Caldwell)
WARNING: SPOILERS ABOUND!
Summary
Sheppard’s team comes to the aid of a people who live in an Ancient facility built into a volcano that chooses their visit to erupt. Oh, and they have an Ancient warship.
General Impressions
First of all, I’ll just get this off my chest: I love Norina’s lavender dress. There, I said it. Her frock is adorable.
Nice frock! (Photo from GateWorld.net
This episode had a lot of strong science and a lot of McKay, which always makes for a good episode in my book, especially when the poor guy is trying to score with a hot woman who (like most of the women on this show) has the hots for Sheppard.
The Good
It’s so much fun when Rodney talks like a documentary. I’m fascinated (and frankly terrified) by the super volcano under Yellowstone National Park. If that thing goes, I can kiss my country—and my life—goodbye. So here’s hoping it stays quite for a few thousand years more.
Way to go with the science. I geeked out throughout this episode.
The conversation between Weir and Sheppard about Rodney’s attempts to hook up with the hot Taranan scientist lady is hilarious:
SHEPPARD: Uh, I’m gonna get back there now–uh, make sure he’s not distracted.
WEIR: Distracted?
SHEPPARD: Ah, well, the lead scientist, uh, she’s very, um…
WEIR: … hot?
SHEPPARD: I was gonna say attractive. But McKay is acting very, uh…
WEIR: … smitten?
SHEPPARD: I was gonna say pathetic.
WEIR: Wait. I should head back with you and begin negotiations with the Taranan leader. What’s he like?
SHEPPARD: Oh, you know. He’s a guy. Didn’t pay much attention. Sorry!
The Bad
Oh, another bull-headed leader who thinks the folks from the expedition have a devious plan to take his stuff, and a pack of ignorant natives who refuse to believe big earthquakes and the air full of ash can possibly hurt them. Maybe I’m spoiled by my own world, but are people really that stupid? At least the bull-headed leader apologized and let us borrow his snazzy Ancient warship.
As usual, I’m bothered by aliens speaking English and by the notion that our Earth tech can interface with any alien tech it comes across. I cringe every time I see Rodney plug his laptop into any Ancient or Wraith computer he comes across.
The Awesome
The special effects are amazing. The Stargate being consumed by lava looked so cool. And I loved the look of the Orion, especially the bit where it gets ejected from the planet by the eruption. It’s practically Steampunk. Oh, and that view of the super volcano from space is spectacular and demonstrates just how huge it is.
The super volcano from space (Photo from GateWorld.net)
The jeopardy just keeps getting ramped up with the Stargate getting buried, the groups getting cut off from each other, the volcano sending aftershocks throughout the base, the people in the Orion and the base being shielded from Deadalus’ transporters, the base sealing the doors, leaving the people trapped. Oh, and there’s a Wraith ship on its way to Atlantis. It just keeps going from bad to worse in classic Stargate fashion. Awesome!
Jules Verne designed this ship! (Photo from GateWorld.net)
Rating
8 out of 10. Rodney, fantastic special effects, and a Steampunky ship.
Y'all?! What the hell?! (Photo from GateWorld.net)
Michael
WRITTEN BY: Carl Binder
DIRECTED BY: Martin Wood
GUEST STARRING: Connor Trinneer (Michael Kenmore), Claire Rankin (Dr. Kate Heightmeyer), Doug Chapman (Sgt. Cole), James Lafazanos (Male Wraith)
WARNING: SPOILERS ABOUND!
Summary
An amnesiac Lieutenant has dreams that he’s a Wraith, only to make a terrible discovery about his identity.
General Impressions
They even gave him a fake family. (Photo from GateWorld.net)
I’m of two minds about this episode. On the one hand, it’s really amazing. On the other hand, it’s moral dissonance from the word Go. Our so-called heroes are more like anti-heroes in this episode, and the worst part for me was that it was Beckett and Weir—usually the conscience of the expedition—who lead the charge on this one. When I realized what was really going on, it almost made me physically ill. If it had been the Wraith doing something similar to a human, our guys would have condemned them as the worst possible monsters.
It’s an amazing story with an awesome premise, but at the same time it’s so evil and so very cruel. I sympathized with Michael all along and continued to do so in almost all subsequent episodes he appears in until season four when the evil seed our team plants in this episode bears the most horrifying fruit.
The Good
It’s hard to call anything about this episode merely “good” when it’s really awesome from start to finish, so I’ll note the two bad things I noticed then move on.
The Bad
How did they get a former Wraith to have a Texas accent? And why does Sheppard think the Wraith want to kill all humans when that would mean starving themselves to death? And no one corrects him on this belief.
The Awesome
Connor Trinneer. He is simply amazing. His struggle to get his (invented) life back and his reaction when he learns the truth is pitch perfect. I feel everything Michael is feeling: His struggle to fit in, to make up with Ronon, and his outrage and betrayal when he learns the truth of what his so-called friends did to him. It’s simply horrifying, and when he confronts the people who turned him into another race and lied to him, I’m with him all the way.
Watching members of the team beginning to doubt their course of action and wavering in their resolve. The first scene Rodney has with Michael, he looks like he’s going to lose it…but then we see the research on Michael displayed on his notebook screen, and the main reason for his discomfort becomes clear. Tayla is the next to question the rightness of what they’ve done to Michael, and then there’s Ronon, who doesn’t even try to pretend Michael isn’t really a Wraith. Near the end, Michael thanks Ronon for being the only person who didn’t lie to him.
Looking back on the episode after I found out what Michael really was, and what the team did to him—right down to providing him with an imaginary family and friends, photos and all—I think the interesting thing for me was what each person Michael interacts with does to maintain the lie that he’s human and one of their own people, and how their facades broke down. Tayla tries to be his friend and make him feel more comfortable, but her conscience troubles her. Sheppard is standoffish and distrustful, but passes it off as something the Wraith did to Michael that makes him potentially dangerous. Sheppard feels no remorse at all, and even tries to justify what his people did to Michael. Rodney is always awkward socially, so it’s no surprise that his conversation with Michael is stiff and nervous. He’s on board with the idea of using the humanizing drug as a bio-weapon. Doctors Weir, Beckett and Heightmeyer are professional and reassuring, but where Beckett and Heightmeyer start to question whether what they did was right, Weir clings to her belief that they did nothing wrong.
Poor Michael thinks he has a home, friends, family, a place where he belongs and has just forgotten it because of something the Wraith did to him. In fact, as he tells Tayla, it wasn’t the Wraith who did the capturing, it was the humans. Michael voices my own feelings throughout the episodes and says all the things I wanted to say to the team (or rather shout at them then slap them around a bit). It’s really sickening the way they keep treating Michael like he’s just a thing, and being a Wraith like a disease that needs to be cured (as Michael puts it).
Make. My. Day. (Photo from GateWorld.net)
Beckett and Weir trying to justify themselves to Michael is sickening. They had no right to do what they did to him, and Michael tells them so to their faces. And then Sheppard talking about deploying it as a biological weapon, and everybody but Ronon thinking that sounds fantastic.
When even Tayla jumps on the “it’ll make your life better” bandwagon, Michael calls her on it. He’s right on all counts. His scene with Tayla, calling her and her comrades on just how morally wrong what they did is, is simply fantastic. It’s tense and heartbreaking and dead-on. In fact, I loved all of his scenes with Tayla, and it gets even better as the series progresses, right up until the bitter end between them. Oh, and Tayla gets to be awesome in this episode when she dares Michael to feed on her when he starts turning back into a Wraith.
In the end, even Beckett seems to be having doubts, which I was happy to see. But it really, really bothered me that most of the team refused to even question that what they did was wrong. Oddly enough, the way it makes me so angry and frustrated is part of what made it a good episode.
The shot directly after the scene in which Michael discovers he’s really a Wraith says it all: Atlantis is shrouded in the same kind of mist that haunts hive ships. It’s a subtle way of showing that our heroes have become like the Wraith, treating their enemy like an animal and feeling no remorse for it. I don’t even feel bad when Michael takes what he knows about Atlantis straight to the Wraith. Karma’s a bitch, ain’t it?
Atlantis as hive. (Photo from GateWorld.net)
Rating
10 out of 10. Connor Trinneer and buckets of moral dissonance for the win.
I’m back…did you miss me? I have no worthy explanation of why I stopped blogging for four months (was it more than that?) but I’m back and I’m continuing my rewatch of Stargate Atlantis.
No, no, no. That’s too boring. Let’s see… um… I haven’t been posting because I solved a complex puzzle in a video game, and then an Air Force General and a brilliant but troubled scientist showed up on my doorstep to offer me a job in space. I thought it was a joke, but when I shut the door on them they beamed me up to their spaceship full of pretty people where I wandered around in my jammies for a while and provided comic relief. And math. They wanted me to do a lot of math, but when they discovered that I’m more a language person than a numbers person (and they already have a perfectly good language person–some hot nerdboy named Daniel something-or-other), they beamed me back down.
As a consolation prize, they got me a great job at a big corporation, writing manuals and going to wine tastings. All-in-all, not a bad gig (especially the wine tasting part), but I miss the spaceship and the 
pretty people, particularly that cute linguistics expert who did the training videos. He seemed like a nice guy, very well-informed. They should have given him more time to make those tutorials, though; he seemed to be talking awfully fast. Or maybe he’d had too much coffee.
Yeah, that’s way better than me just being tired and desperately seeking work to the point of having zero brain energy left for blogging (and yet, plenty for Twitter…go figure).
I’m on Atlantis disc 5 of season 2, but I’m doing things differently than I was before (mostly because I’ve come to my senses). This time, instead of watching and reviewing all four episodes and all of the special features on a disc and posting the reviews at the same time, I’m going to watch one episode per night and post a review and then end the week with the special features review.
I’ll put up non-Stargate content, too, probably on the weekends. I’m a nighttime poster, so I’ll put up my little posts in the evening.
I promise not to drop off the face of the planet for this long again. Unless that hot nerd-boy linguistics guy in the leather jacket wants to beam me up to his spaceship for a private tutorial and wine tasting (I’m finding it hard to part with the wine tastings). If that happens, just write me off. I’m on the other side of the galaxy living happily ever after with the nerd of my dreams.
It's Chief O'Brien & Henry the werewolf! (Photo from Gateworld.net)
Coup D’etat
WRITTEN BY: Martin Gero
DIRECTED BY: Martin Wood
GUEST STARRING: Ryan Robbins (Ladon Radim), Kavan Smith (Lorne), Sonja Bennett (Dahlia Radim), Colm Meaney (Cowen), Penelope Corrin (Dr. Lindsay)
WARNING: SPOILERS ABOUND!
Summary
After an SG team goes missing, the Atlantis expedition finds itself in the middle of a Genii coup.
General Impressions
The Genii are back. We have about a season and a half to go before they become nameless, expendable enemy mooks, but for now they’re still a cunning, dangerous enemy who actually have names, motivations and backstories and such. Oh, but these aren’t just any Genii in this episode, either: It’s Chief O’Brien from Star Trek and Henry the woobie werewolf from Sanctuary!
I love how this episode opens up: The nighttime village is creepy, and the dialog builds up tension until Sheppard finds a burned corpse with dog tags around its neck. The first time I saw this episode, I got a knot in my stomach, thinking they might actually have killed off Major Lorne (and I’ve mentioned in previous reviews how much I love Major Lorne).
The tension and jeopardy in the rest of the episode kept me on the edge of my seat most of the time, except for the part where I knew there was no way they were going to kill off Sheppard after they went to so much trouble to make him our point of view character in the pilot episode. I also liked the episode’s resolution, with the expedition saving Laden’s sister’s life and winning over the new Genii leader. And of course, I was relieved that Lorne hadn’t been killed off.
The Good
The opening scene with Sheppard’s team searching for Lorne’s team through a creepy, deserted nighttime village, only to find a burned corpse wearing dog tags. It was visually very striking and tense. I liked the shot right into the beam of Ronon’s flashlight as he shines it onto the corpse. Very horror movie. Or CSI, perhaps? No, no one’s wearing sunglasses.
And when we find out who they really are, it's even sadder. (Photo from Gateworld.net)
I like the pre-mookified Genii. They’re a real threat who aren’t above using our guys in their internal political struggles. Also, they’re clever enough to realize how the jumpers work, who in the Atlantis expedition can fly them, and why. Ladon is even working on his own version of the ATA gene therapy that Dr. Beckett came up with. Sadly, we never hear another peep about it for the rest of the series, and the Genii suffer severe reduced monster difficulty by season four.
I also liked Tayla and Ronon getting some independent screen time, investigating that business with Lorne and his team and figuring out what might really have happened to them. Tayla even gets to sound like someone who is the leader of her people, trained in martial arts and strategy. Pity they don’t let her do that too often. I’ve never liked how Tayla got demoted from leader of her people to the afterthought on Sheppard’s team.
They signed them for me at Comic Con! (Photo from Gateworld.net)
The Bad
Again with the aliens having alien writing but speaking fluent English (see photo, above). You’d think I’d be over that by now, but I’m not. It bugs me. But then, I’m kind of a language geek and love it every time the aliens in Stargate don’t speak English. Like in The Gift when Tayla is inside a Wraith’s head, and we hear Wraith language for a bit. That was great. Or when Hermiod mutters to himself in Asgard (even if all it is, is English run backward), or the Jaffa and Goa’uld speaking that evolved ancient Egyptian from the first Stargate movie.
I really need to let the language thing go.
The Awesome
A compelling mystery, political intrigue, and a cunning, ruthless enemy. And Colm Meaney and Ryan Robbins are in this episode! I loved Colm Meaney in Star Trek, and love Ryan Robbins in Sanctuary. I have a serious crush on Henry the werewolf. As Ladon Radim, we never really know for sure if we can trust him, and we’re not really sure until nearly the end of the episode which Genii leader is the good guy and which isn’t. I really loved the twist with Ladon at the end, even if it meant nuking a guy.
Don't mess with Ladon Radim, or he'll nuke your ass. (Photo from Gateworld.net)
Colm Meaney is, as always, amazing as the diabolical, utterly cold-blooded Cowen. His absolute disregard of his people’s lives in favor of technology and power is chilling. No wonder Ladon had no qualms about nuking this guy. Of course, Ladon was going to leave Sheppard and his men to get nuked with Cowen, so maybe he’s no better than Cowen in the ruthlessness department.
Rating
10 out of 10. I really loved this episode.
“That’s Lieutenant Colonel Errand Boy to you.” (Photo from Gateworld.net)
The cast of Stargate: Universe
Syfy’s latest product from the Stargate brand looks promising even if the two-part premier Air seemed to be trying to do more than it had to–or should have tried to do. Great stories don’t do a data dump about the characters in the first two chapters. The people, their back stories and their motivation are doled out in pieces, bit by bit, over the course of several chapters. I think the only characters I really needed to know much about from the start were Eli, who is clearly supposed to be the viewer’s point of view character; Dr. Rush who seems to be the mastermind behind what goes on; and possibly Col. Young, the military leader of the refugees on the Ancient ship Destiny. I suppose we did need to develop an attachment to the Senator and his daughter, as well, but to tell you why would mean spoilers and for once I’m avoiding those in a review. As it was, I felt overwhelmed by having to learn too much about the characters too soon. For the premier, I don’t know if that much back story was necessary to make the story or characters more interesting at this point.
For example, I wish they’d done more of what they did to introduce Rush: We don’t learn much about him as a person, but we do learn from the action and what other characters say about him that he’s not well liked. From a single scene we learn that something painful happened between him and woman in a picture he keeps in the drawer of his bedside table, something that’s hinted at in later dialog between Rush and the Senator’s daughter, Cloe. That’s how it should be done early on. In Col. Young’s case, we get a little bit of his back story in the form of a dream he has when he’s knocked unconscious. I liked that way of getting information, too.
Eli is introduced through an important bit of action, and the issue with his mother is introduced through dialog. We’re not hit over the head with it. I could have lived without the way Lt. Scott was introduced. I’ll spoil just this one thing: He was having sex with a comrade, but it really did seem gratuitous. Perhaps his relationship to her will become important in future, since I think he may have been breaking a regulation. Still, the sex seemed like a gratuitous attempt to distance this Stargate from its more lighthearted predecessors and align it more closely with Battlestar Galactica with all of its frakking and talk of frakking and its through the roof ratings. This could also explain the shaky camera which was thankfully used less than I feared it would before I actually got to see the show.
I also had trouble following the story when I watched it the night of the premier. This was due to a number of factors, not the least of which was the ridiculous number of commercial breaks and Syfy promos throughout. Syfy oversold the show, then to add insult to injury they also ran at least one to two minutes of Syfy promos on top of the commercials and chose some very awkward points in the story to break. It wasn’t until I downloaded the show from iTunes and watched it again, commercial-free, that I was able to follow it better. Of course, it didn’t help that I was taking part in the Twitter-palooza that went along with the premier. So, watching it without commercials and giving it my full attention, I realized it boiled down to just a few important points: They’re on a ship bajillions of light years from Earth and it’s life support system is going kaput (which makes sense since it’s many thousands of years old and hasn’t been maintained since the ship was sent out unmanned). Also, it’s a mix of military and civilians, they brought very little provisions with them, many of them are injured–some severely–and so far none of them seems to like Dr. Rush who got them there in the first place instead of evacuating them to Earth. Right. Got it. On a ship, far from home, low on supplies and air, and the ship sometimes stops at planets with stargates on them, so maybe food can be found there.
Joel Goldsmith, who scored the other two shows, delivers a tremendous score for this one. The acting is superb, but what else can you expect from people like Lou Diamond Phillips, Robert Carlyle, David Blue and Ming-Na? We even get some old favorites–bones thrown to long-time gaters–Richard Dean Anderson (General O’Neill), Amanda Tapping (Col. Carter), Michael Shanks (Dr. Jackson), Gary Jones (Chief Master Sgt. Harriman) and Bill Dow (Dr. Lee).
Console aboard the Destiny (photo from Gateworld.net)
The special effects are feature film quality with the Destiny really standing out from everything else. The ship is obviously old, corroded and deteriorated and seems to have endured some kind of attack. There are holes in it that the ship’s force shield is trying to keep plugged, but it’s mostly air tight bulkhead doors that are keeping airless space out and breathable air in. The ship was meant to be manned, as Dr. Rush discovers in the database, but the Ancients never followed through. They never recalled the ship, either, in typical Ancient fashion (we’ve discovered all sorts of things in the other two shows that the Ancients left lying about when they ascended and left this plane of existence). The tech aboard Destiny looks amazing, though it seems to be from the same family as the stuff used on Syfy’s big Summer hit Warehouse 13. Then there are the Kinos, the flying camera orbs that Eli finds and deploys (and uses for his personal vlog). It makes me look forward to the refugees exploring the ship in future episodes and figuring out how all the cool tech works.
Eli shows Lt. Scott the Kino (photo from Gateworld.net)
I need to see more episodes before making up my mind about this show. It really is a far cry from SG1 and Atlantis in look, tone, and theme, but that’s actually more refreshing than off putting. It’s Stargate, so for the love of Stargate and the chance to explore that cool ship every week, I’ll keep watching.
Next week on SG:U Air part 3, we check out that planet the team from Destiny went through the gate to explore and see if they can solve the problem of the gunked up CO2 scrubbers on the ship. SG:U back-to-back with Amanda Tapping’s Sanctuary means Fridays are geeky once again!
October 3rd,2009
Reviews,
TV | tags:
SGU |
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Once upon a time when I was working someplace I can’t rightly recall, a coworker noticed that I seemed to be a bit under the weather. I couldn’t pin down what was wrong with me but gamely tried to answer her kindly questions with various, vague symptoms. She confidently declared that I had The Creeping Crud, which sounds really cool if you say it with a Southern accent like she had. Being the huge fan of speculative fiction that I am, I immediately imagined a cross between The Blob and The Creature From The Black Lagoon. It was brown and slimy and reeked like a moldering swamp or maybe a full dumpster at the height of a Midwestern summer. And it creeped all over its victims, making them feel weak, tired, congested and like they had a skull full of mud. It was a vampire of the traditional variety, not the sparkly vampires of Twilight fame, nor the rock star vampires of Anne Rice’s novels, nor even Dracula or Nosferatu. No, I’m talking about the kind that kept my European ancestors awake and shivering in their beds for at least a fortnight after a death in the family. The kind of vampire that sucked the life force out of their loved ones, causing them to mysteriously sicken and die.
That, my friends, is the image The Creeping Crud conjured in my fertile imagination, and I’ve lived in dread of it ever since. Rarely does it come with a fever, sore throat, swollen glands, or discolored boogers…nothing that a doctor would look at and say, “Aha! You have______!” and prescribe you something to make it all better (although this time I do have swollen glands). No, The Creeping Crud just makes you feel icky for no apparent reason, and the only thing for it is sleep, soup, and hot tea with plenty of lemon and honey. Oh, and sympathy if you can get it. In general, not in your tea. I also found watching Hellboy II: The Golden Army on HBO the other night helped, as did Ken Burns’ fabulous documentary series about America’s National Parks, which started last night on PBS. (I believe I have previously mentioned my eclectic tastes.)
But you know what really makes a Creeping Crud even cruddier? Getting your period at the same time. Yup, that’s the tag team that has laid me low these past few days, sucking the energy out of me, and depriving me of the ability to actually think about whatever it is I might be watching on the TV machine. That, of course, means I’m not doing reviews until The Crud has left me, and Aunt Martha has gone home because my brain refuses to analyze things (which hurts me at work because, you know, I’m a Business ANALYST and all). Fortunately, I’ve started feeling better this evening, though the cough and congestion (and my period) are still with me. And, hey, The Big Bang Theory’s on tonight, along with part two of that Ken Burns documentary. Pretty scenery…always good for the constitution, even if it’s only in pictures.
Atlantis reviews return in a few days.
Update: LOL! No sooner did I post this then I read Neil Gaiman’s latest post, and he has the crud, too. I’m in good company.
September 28th,2009
Uncategorized | tags:
Misc |
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Tayla says goodbye (photo from GateWorld.net)
Critical Mass
Story by – Brad Wright & Carl Binder
Teleplay by – Carl Binder
Directed by – Andy Mikita
Guest starring – Beau Bridges (General Hank Landry), Jaime Ray Newman (Lt. Laura Cadman), Ellie Harvie (Dr. Lindsey Novak), Ben Cotton (Kavanagh), David Nykl (Dr. Radek Zelenka), Bill Dow (Dr. Lee), Peter Flemming (Agent Malcolm Barrett), Gary Jones (Sergeant Harriman), Mitch Pileggi (Colonel Steven Caldwell)
WARNING: SPOILERS ABOUND!
Summary
The team must race against time to disarm a Goa’uld bomb and find out who planted it before it destroys Atlantis.
General Impressions
I love Beau Bridges as General Landry. It was good to see him in this episode. And OMG, its Jaime Ray Newman (Lt. Cadman) who now plays Dr. Tess Fontana on Eureka! Now I know where I saw the actress who played Tess before.
OK, now that I got that off my chest, I’ll say I really liked this episode. It’s got great suspense and that thing Stargate is so good at where they solve a problem only to have a bigger one appear in its place. The B story of the old Athosian woman dying was good, too, and very moving. And boy can that Rachel Luttrell sing.
The Good
It’s so sad that Tayla’s people have a ceremony to celebrate someone dying of natural causes because of how rare an occurrence it is due to the Wraith. I wonder how many other cultures in the Pegasus galaxy have similar customs. Good for Rachel Luttrell being able to cry on demand. So many actors do the sobbing thing, the twisting up the face thing, but there are no actual tears. When Tayla is trying to convince the old woman to prolong her life with a pace maker, she starts to cry and there are tears. She really turns on the waterworks when the old woman dies.
I loved the scene where Dr. Lee is explaining how to relay a message to Atlantis. When he uses a 101 Dalmatians analogy he gets blank looks, but then he uses a Lord of the Rings analogy, and everyone nods and smiles with enlightenment…and so did I. I’m such a nerd.
It was also funny when Cavanaugh fainted dead away when Ronon stepped into the room to interrogate him. Cavanaugh is such a jerk. I can’t stand that guy. Just once I’d like to see Weir punch him. Just once. We, like Weir, are sure he’s the bad guy. He has motive, opportunity and know-how. Nobody likes him, and he doesn’t like anybody. He’s antagonized everyone and made himself easy to suspect. So naturally it can’t be him, right? Right. It’s not.
I also liked the way Weir bookends the idea of infighting. At the beginning of the episode, they’re all gloating over how cool it is that the Wraith are fighting each other. At the end of the episode, after foiling a plot that came from Earth, Weir wonders if we’re any better than the Wraith when it comes to infighting.
The Bad
I guess it was kind of obvious that it wasn’t Cavanaugh or Cadman who set the bomb, despite the focus given to them by Rodney and Weir.
The Awesome
Although I knew it wasn’t Cavanaugh or Cadman, I did not expect it to be Caldwell when I saw this episode when it first aired. That totally blindsided me, as did him having a Goa’uld symbiote. Nice job.
All that ramping up makes for great tension and drama. They solve one problem only to have a deadlier one appear in its place. And of course they take it right up to the last second before the day is, at last, saved. Meanwhile, Tayla is singing about death and rebirth in the voice of an angel.
Rachel Luttrell has the most gorgeous voice. She’s gorgeous, has a perfect figure, and a beautiful voice. No fair. Tayla singing over her dead surrogate mother, her people determined to go forward with the ceremony, is an almost surreal counterpoint to the imminent destruction of the city. I loved her sad song playing under the “we are all going to die” montage. Oh, and that dress she wears for the ceremony is so pretty.
Wonderful SFX with the Athosian village (exterior establishing shot and the interior of the old woman’s yurt). I love how it looks. I love it when they take the time to create civilizations that aren’t cookie cutter versions of Earth cultures, especially since this is in another galaxy. The matte extensions inside the city are really great shots, too. For an episode that mostly just takes place inside the city, there are a lot of great SFX shots.
Rating
9 out of 10 for great tension and Rachel Luttrell’s singing voice.
