Alexander Courage 1919-2008

Very sad news.

One of my favorite "Sandy" Courage stories (also a good Jerry Goldsmith story) was when Goldsmith wrote Star Trek: The Motion Picture he was told that he didn't have to use the original theme at all (and he didn't want to). As the release date got close the Powers (whether this was Robert Wise or not, I don't know) decided that it ought to be in there SOMEWHERE. As it happened the orchestrator for TMP was... Alexander Courage! So Goldsmith threw it over to him and he used as the music for the Captain's logs. (One of the most charming decisions in that film. Long on gorgeous, a little short on charm.) As Goldsmith tells it, he learned his lesson. He opened every Trek film he composed afterwards with Courage's theme.

Jeff Bond (author of the Music of Star Trek) has more to say: http://trekmovie.com/2008/05/28/star-trek-composer-alexander-courage-dead-at-88/

Check out the documentary on Courage hosted by John Williams!

Excuse me, I need to go listen to The Cage and Superman IV.

Godspeed, Mr. Courage.

The Man with the Hat is Back...

...and this time he's bored. Well, ok, maybe not THAT bad. But still.

You know, I remember coming out of Temple of Doom with a nagging feeling of disappointment. (I'm not nearly the Temple of Doom hater that most of the world is. I understand the problems. If I haven't already posted the ups and downs of the Indy films - and I think I have - then I'll get to it directly.) But I don't remember feeling the weight of it while I was still in the theater. No, wait. I take that back. When they jumped out of the airplane on an inflatable raft and fell and fell and fell and FELL and then LIVED I knew there was something wrong.

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull is a lot like that. A LOT.

My biggest gripe with the movie? Sets! It's all sets! And apologies to Mr. Spielberg because I think there was more location footage than it felt like. Which meant that he shot real places to look like SETS! (I don't care how cool it was in War of the Worlds or even Drive. Don't film car chases in an Indy movie on SETS!)

There were sets in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Well of the Souls. Marion's bar. But 1) none of these were extended with pretty obvious green screen and 2) there were GLORIOUS locations. Peru. Cairo. Heck, even the Nazi island had location shooting. (Look! It's Obi-Wan Kenobi!) Remember when all of the workers are digging for the Well and Indy puts on his hat back lit by the setting sun? Nothing of that kind of scope here. Skull feels very stage-bound and very very VERY small. It reminds me of Hook in that respect. When you're in an Indy movie and the BIGGEST location is Yale, you're in trouble.

Someone once tried to encourage me that at least we'd get a new Williams score. But even Williams does something he never did for the previous Indy scores: He does a direct reprise. One of the first times we hear the Raiders march it's a repeat of Flight from Peru. *sigh* There are a couple more. I haven't bought the score and I'm not sure I will. If you know me and that doesn't make you a little dizzy then you must be made of stronger stuff.

I liked it better than the Mummy movies. I liked it better than Star Wars 2 and 3. There are some very charming moments. There's a couple of good action sequences. (They've never held a candle to the truck chase in Raiders even in the other Indy movies.) They depend on your good will from the last three movies (Last Crusade more than anything else) and they largely get it. I thrilled when I heard the Ark theme. (But it's one of Williams' four or five best themes ever, so that was easy.) There are several very nice nods to Marcus Brody. (He's treated with more respect here than in the entirety of Last Crusade.) It's good to see Marion again. The bad guys are largely forgettable. Take From Russia With Love and add henchmen from North by Northwest. (Oh, and if you're going to take a stance that the anti-communist
paranoia of the 50's was crazy, don't put commies around every corner!
Seems the paranoia was justified, eh comrade?)

"I like Ike." Heh.

But it never made me tingle the way that Raiders did when the old man tells them about the Staff of Ra. That movie still holds the award for Best Exposition Ever. I did like the quieter bits of this film more than many reviewers. Maybe because when it was quiet there was no lame CG or bad bad BAD sword fights. Let's face it, this movie goes a long way on Harrison Ford.

If I never see another damn CG prairie dog again it will be too soon.

The actors were still top notch. Harrison Ford is still Harrison Ford. (Has anyone pointed out that Indy is 8 years younger than Ford in this movie?) If he ever manages to be in a great movie again he'll be terrific. John Hurt is still awesome. Jim Broadbent is still a treasure. I even liked Shia LaBeouf. A lot. (Remember when actors used to change their names if they had names like Archie Leach? Or Shia LaBeouf?) He was almost as cool as he thought he was. And I'll admit that's not nothing.

So there we have it. It's over and done. Better than The Mummy. Not as good as The Rocketeer.

Dr. Jones, adieu.

**** SPOILERS *****

I'm really expected to believe that Indy doesn't think of Marion right away when he hears her name? Seriously?

The A-Bomb looked COOL.

The snake scene had three actors (and an audience) doing a terrific job with a STUPID idea.

I LIKE that it was flying saucers.

THE ANTS ROCKED.

The library scene is a perfect example of a neat idea push just that much too far.

Did Indy move into Dad's house?

Looks like Indy has his mother's ears and his father's theme.

The Ark was a waste. Totally a waste. In Raiders that warehouse was one of the spookiest things in a movie not wanting for spooky stuff. Here: A waste.

Glad they kept the old-school Paramount opening like in the other three. Too bad it led to a blasted CG prairie dog.

And finally, CG melting heads do NOT compete with practical effect melting heads.

BSG 408 - Faith

SO SAY WE ALL!

Still catching up. Everything is written (and watched) just not posted. But hey, American Idol was something, wasn't it? (And the writers of Bones and House will be receiving a bill from my therapist.)

THIS is the BSG that I love. It's not hard to follow at all, but it's sometimes harder to compartmentalize episode to episode. It's a much more "arc-y" show, rather than episodic. All to the good. End of the show. Full speed ahead.

Apparently they count Razor as the first two episodes of this season. So we only get twenty, not twenty-two. And they're talking a couple more movies. And Caprica.

BTW, um, SPOILERS. If you haven't seen the eps, this is not the place
to be looking. Go get the DVDs and then watch the season four eps on Sci-Fi.com. We'll wait.

Ok, the Four are from EARTH?!?? That's what it sounds like. And again that Starbuck is the Harbinger of Death. (Lovely title.)

THEY SHOT GAETA! As if his life didn't suck enough already. If they kill Felix I will be very put out. I swear, he's just going to start blowing things up.

Kara's paintings continue to be true. Wild thing, that. I think I'm becoming a Kara/Two shipper. Heh.

Anders wants to play with the basestar. Awesome. I do like how they've split up the Four. They're all dealing with different things in different ways. Tory's still crazy though.

Nice to see Athena is still on our side. She's doing better than iTigh. Or her husband.

The Cylons are still "How could you DO this to us? What did WE do?" Um. Baby. Neck. Then nuclear annihilation of twelve planets. And the occasional suicide bomber. Other than that? Not a thing. However, when Natalie Six shot the other Six in the head? Now I have hope for this alliance. RDM might be able to pull this off.

They killed a hybrid. That's so sad. But she seemed pretty happy about it. And Kara is appropriately freaked.

No Baltar. Only on the radio. Cool. (That they did the radio thing, not that he isn't in the ep.)

A CLOCK. Just because you have a countdown doesn't mean it's 33. Or You Can't Go Home Again. But this was great anyway. I especially liked that Helo was really going to leave. I may not hate him so much. Nah, I'm sure that's not true. Hey Karl, maybe when your wife is lost in the inky blackness with all of your friends you might think "Gee, maybe wiping out the toasters wasn't such a bad idea."

Interesting that Laura is all "metaphorical" these days. Arrow of Apollo doesn't mean so much anymore? That seemed pretty literal.

Oh! That was Nana Visitor! I thought there was something about her. Maybe if I'd actually watched Deep Space Nine.

BUT - looks like Laura's back on track to finding Earth. And, hey, THERE'S Wild Bill! Missed you, sir. Maybe Lee will be in the next ep.

Boom boom boom.

BSG 407 - The Road Less Traveled

SO SAY WE ALL!

Arrgh! A week behind! It's Firefly all over again. (But catching up fast. I'm as up to date as RDM's podcasts and he gets PAID for this!)

BTW, um, SPOILERS. If you haven't seen the eps, this is not the place
to be looking. Go get the DVDs and then watch the season four eps on Sci-Fi.com. We'll wait.

This season is doing a pretty good job of keeping all the balls in the air. We don't touch on everything every week. (Look, an Adama-free episode!) But it keeps you wondering what's going on elsewhere while not boring you with what's going on in front of you.

So, Leoben has shown up with Starbuck three times before. The first time (Flesh and Bone) was awesome. The second time (NewCap) was boring. The third time (bye, bye Starbuck) was pretty cool. I was afraid we were getting into an even / odd thing. Nope. This was AWESOME.

Leoben done right is one of my favorite characters. The coolest thing is that you're never really sure what HE believes. And this ep added an edge of desperation to my favorite toaster. So you REALLY can't tell who's playing who. And forget about Kara and Lee and Anders. Bring on the Cylon v. Cylon rivalry! Whoot!

The Tyrol story is very low key, but it's becoming the most compelling of the Four Cylons story. He's one of the two Four that we've known the longest. And he's not Tigh. (Still mostly not buying iTigh. More in a moment.) And he's the most likely to be all at sea about being a Cylon. Tory is crazy, I honestly don't care about Anders that much. And iTigh has his own set of issues.

So Tyrol and Baltar is a very interesting combination. Especially given Tyrol's faith background.

Baltar and the Baltarians. Not even hating this arc. Which surprises me. But that's ok. A sincere Baltar is a terrifying force. Wonder if they'll ever bring up that GB shot Crashdown? Or that he GAVE A CYLON A NUKE?

iTigh: They should have given him more of this kind of a hook from the beginning. He's got Ellen back. Kind of. At this point I can buy that he'd sell out all of the humans and the toasters too if he can have that. But it took a bit of a jump to get here. He should have told Bill.

Hey look, Helo is making a not so touchy feely stupid decision! (He's wrong, because it's Starbuck, but I'm all for this one.)

Cliff-hanger! See you next week!

Famous Failures

Y'know, I actually have the last TWO BSG write-ups done. I just never remember to post them. Ah well, three is a magic number.

Anyway, this was cool. Jordan? Seriously?

BSG: 406 Escape Velocity

So say we all. Really good. Some great scenes. Good pace for the series this season. Written by Jane Espenson and directed by Eddie Olmos. Good times there. Always a laugh riot when Eddie's directing.

SPOILERS! RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!

First off, I love that Bear McCreary has re-purposed the funeral theme from Act of Contrition (better known as the season one opening titles) as Lee's theme. Maybe he did it a long time ago and I'm only just now noticing. The music has been top notch. Bear's been working hard to get to this.

So the Cylons are all crazy? iTigh, Tyrol, and hoooooh-boy Tory. All nuts. (Is Tory seeing things? Or is she just a sociopath?) Anders (I'm still going to call him #4, yes I know that that's a Simon) seems fairly stable other than that whole Starbuck thing. But anybody hanging around with Kara looks sane by comparison.

Almost no Starbuck! Yay! No Cylons. Booo. No "I'm so bitter" Gaeta. Awwww. The Demetrius' token red-shirt sees another day.

Laura's my favorite. Even more than iTigh. (Have I mentioned that I'm not buying for a MOMENT that iTigh hasn't told Wild Bill? Not even for a SECOND. Is it his programming? Well then they are just machines and they can all be turned off. That was easy. Remember when Six snapped a baby's neck right before calling down multi-planetary genocide? Wacky fun.)

Anyway, Laura. Whoo-doggy. "I'm dying and I'm going to make sure the human race is ok no matter what." Huzzah! Even if she's not The Dying Leader she is totally THE Dying Leader. This arc more than ever convinces me that her cancer remission was just because the show went for a season longer than it was supposed to. Now we're back on track. "I need you to know what I like." Awwww. "I want HIM to see ME." Yaay!

LAURA rounds down to 30,000! When I do that I get grief. But otoh I
figured out that she was wearing a wig. Which she was also wearing in
the Cylon Opera House in her / Six's / Athena's hallucination. Ooooo.

"He thinks he's doing the right thing."
"Of COURSE he does. He's LEE." - Awesome!

Mr. Adama Goes to Caprica seems to be going well. He hasn't gone TOO Helo on us yet. I'm sure he will. The Quorum meets on Colonial one? I guess, since Baltar blew up Cloud Nine and nobody CARES.

Speaking of NOBODY CARES: WE know who four Cylons are. Does anyone else? Remember when that used to matter to people? What's the average size of a fleet ship? How much room does anyone really have to move around? What do these people do with their time? I think most people living in a police state would be positively MOBILE compared to this gang.

Tyrol. Has anyone else noticed that he looks like Orson Welles? Especially when he gets all CRAAAAZY looking. So this will be interesting. I hope he's not just back at his job next week. That's season 3 thinking, that is.

Baltar's back and now he's a prophet. I love how weary/resigned he's become to Six. I don't even think she can convince him to do things with sex anymore. They've become very companionable. (What's going on with the Cylon fleet? Huh? HUH?)

Maybe it's just because of the confines of a TV show, but for twelve planets of people there seems to be a remarkable unity of religious faith. (They argue about HOW they worship but never WHO.) These people have been crammed into ships for years now and this is the first time such a conflict has come up? Nobody has noticed that it's just because it's Baltar?

Nice excuse to get Ellen back. Also a great bit where iTigh tells Tyrol that it's never going to get better. Nice.

Btw? iTigh? TELL THEM.

Next week: Leoben! Yaaaaay! Don't screw this one up like you did on NewCap guys. Don't bore us.

Boom boom boom.

BSG - The Ties That Bind

SO SAY WE ALL. AGAIN. Seventeen to go.

BTW, um, still SPOILERS. If you haven't seen the eps, this is not the place to be looking. Go get the DVDs and then watch the last three eps on Sci-Fi.com. We'll wait.

A pretty great episode. I'm hoping that this will be more like season 1 and something will come of this and not like season 3 where nothing would. (It's not a Lee story. Those evaporate faster than Ambrosia in vacuum.) It's been four days and I have to admit I'm still a little numb.

Cut to the chase: Go back and watch the miniseries where Wild Bill runs into his wayward deck crew who are sneaking about wanting to give him a retirement present. They are all dead.

Prosna died in the first attack on Galactica when EyesTigh had to vent the air to keep the fuel tanks from exploding.










Socinus died on Kobol. (Way to go, Crashdown.)











And now Cally. Very sad. (I didn't know her maiden name was Henderson.) I always liked Cally. A lot of people wondered at her marrying The Chief right after he broke her jaw. If he had been AWAKE when he did it I'd have been in that camp. (Now why anyone would marry STARBUCK is another matter...) I liked the two of them together. They felt a lot more solid and real than he and Boomer. One of my favorite moments in s3 was when Apollo asked Tyrol if he ever though about Boomer and he said "no", drank his drink, and walked away with a look of "viper pilots is DUMB". Other than being a toaster the Chief is a stand-up guy. Which is why he needs to tell people he's a toaster. Especially now.

She Who Is My Wife is impossible to write TV for. She knew what Cally was going to do the moment she grabbed Tyrol's keys. Then she knew what Tory was going to do the moment she got the baby. I'm fast but not that fast. (But I figured out The Prestige about an hour before she did.)

Alright, Saul. TELL PEOPLE. Tell Wild Bill. Let HIM figure it out. Galen? Your wife is dead. Why? Because one of you toasters is a might touchy about your secret and is getting into "the sensations". TELL PEOPLE. I'll hate all of you fraking skin jobs, I swear I will. Helo will no longer be my BSG punching bag. iTigh should know better. If you'd asked him a year ago to lay down his life for the fleet he'd have done it without blinking his eye. He tried to, more than once (no, not the blinking). And Athena is not only still free, still trusted, but she's off on a super-secret mission with Starbuck. Get some balance, people.

If it comes out that Tory killed Cally, and if it doesn't change Tyrol's mind BIG TIME, I give up. (I won't of course. I watched Black Market and still came back.) I want this to be the tipping point. If it turns out to be Tory vs. iTigh and Tyrol, bring it. Mind you, they did a great job of making it very possible that no-one except Tory will ever know. Cally was crazy and suicidal. I'm ok with that too, actually. (Let's just waltz past the idea that Tyrol's key wasn't on the inside of the airlock and that Tory now seems to know her way around a battlestar better than iTigh or the Chief.)

Oh, if you're going to drop an in-joke like "Weapons locker 1701-D", don't do it when the nerds are supposed to be caught in unbelievably high dramatic tension. It's distracting.

You know, I NEVER liked Tory. I used to just hate her because she replaced Billy.

Every decision made by any half-way responsible person in this fleet should begin and end with "There are 40,000 people left in the entire universe and we are being pursued by an implacable foe that will stop at nothing less than our destruction." Anything past that is details.

Which brings us to Lee and President Bush- er, Rosilyn. I had a moment of hope that Bush Derangement Syndrome had left the show for a while. No such luck. I have to admit that Laura's directive (or whatever they called it) is totally in character. Never let another Baltar trial happen. Ever. Mind you, Tom Zarek didn't want to have the trial to begin with. I LOVE seeing her and Lee knock heads though. I want to see a scene with just the two of them where they have out everything that's happened since Kobol. I want to see how much they used to adore each other.

The problem I have is that all of the rest of the Quorum and the Press (weren't they all supposed to get JOBS after Dirty Hands? And what did THEY do on New Cap?) seem totally agog at the idea of paranoia and security. FORTY THOUSAND PEOPLE LEFT. Someone snuck a NUCLEAR WEAPON onto Cloud Nine a year or so ago, remember? (Gee, THAT guy ought to go on trial.) "But what will our society turn into?" You know what? Worry about that when there are eighty thousand people left. (And why isn't anyone having babies?) This is frontier life. Go listen to Representative Adama's speech again from last season. I'd like to see how ANYONE is accepting that Roslin is President again. The only way that can be pulled off is if she is liked and trusted. (And she's a PRESIDENT, so how can THAT be?) Otherwise she just kind of waltzed in and got appointed. Again. And was Lee just appointed to 1/12th of the legislature? Because the man who argued Gaius Baltar free sure wasn't just elected. So I would think that the power structures in a rag-tag fleet such as this would be more... Fluid. So Laura resorting to legal subterfuge would be pointless and impossible to enforce.

Going off on THAT tangent: I'd like to see what the rest of the ragtag looks like. So far there have been no riots (unless they run out of food or martial law is declared, even then it seems pretty calm). People seem to be getting along pretty well for having been crammed into tiny spaceships for several years with only a short break outside for disease, starvation, and cylon occupation. So, all things considered, these people seem to be GOOD. It's not a fleet of Kara Thrace's. (Oh, sorry.) It seems pretty clear that the Galactica doesn't have marines scattered around the fleet keeping order by force. Of course, we never SEE these people. We only see the selfish and the stupid. I'd like to see more about how these people have adapted. What THEY think of their leaders. Maybe Laura's got a second honeymoon for having brought them through Caprica. Even more so for Admiral Adama. But how seriously do they take their "elected" government? 40,000 people. Some of us have worked for COMPANIES bigger than this. I can't imagine that the same government set up to manage twelve PLANETS would be as effective on this scale. Certainly not more effective. I just think that this "fourteen layers deep" legal intrigue with Laura's directive seems like overkill. Everyone in the fleet is at most only 39,999 people from the president (approximately).

Gotta say, I loved Wild Bill reading Airlock one of her trashy Raymond Chandler (IN SPACE) novels. Very sweet. Then we had the big chewing out scene about WB sending Starbuck off. I'd love to see this divide grow. She Who Is My Wife would hate that. She's the biggest Laura / Adama 'shipper out there. (Don't even get her started on Lee and Kara.) But I want to either see them have to argue to a consensus about something, or go back to something more like first season where they had to dance around each other a bit, because neither could run the fleet without the other. And I'd TOTALLY love to see the Laura was right all along. Right now she says "JUMP!" and Bill growls "whatever" and then he does it. But it's not boring and not out of character, so cool deal.

Speaking of our wayward babes, out on the less-than-rag-tag expedition ship Demetrius, Starbuck is going crazier. I don't like her. Let's just be clear on this. I have no reason to like her anymore. (But I still love iTigh. Funny, eh?) I think her crew is awesome though. What a crowd. Good grief! Can Felix get anymore bitter? Obama would be saying "Dude, lighten UP! It's not SO bad!" Who's the "unknown guy"? Should I recognize him? And if not, shouldn't he be wearing a red shirt? Or are they just going to kill Seelix to keep us guessing? HEY! Where's Hera?!? (And where's ADxA?)

And the Cylons are at war. WOW. So, did they kill off ALL of the Sixes and Eight's except for the ones on the Big G? THAT would be wild. So how long until they unbox the Three's?

A Baltar Free ep. Interesting.

I have NO idea where this is going. In a better world, RDM would. But it's great so far.

Boom boom boom.

BSG - Six of One

SO SAY WE ALL! (This post has NOT been spellchcked)

BTW, um, SPOILERS. If you haven't seen the eps, this is not the place to be looking. Go get the DVDs and then watch the last three eps on Sci-Fi.com. We'll wait.

Ok, 18 more episodes like that and I'll call BSG the greatest TV show ever. If they can keep it up I'd say that RDM and Co. have gotten a much needed breather and may have even looked back at last season and seen where they went wrong.

I mean, wow. WOW! First we have Starbuck telling Laura EVERYTHING that we (I) said when Kara showed up babbling and Laura was ignoring her. "Why am I crazy and you're not?" Then my wonderful hero, the harder than nails Laura Airlock Roslin (more later of course) says "I don't care" and still tries to shoot SB in the head. THIS is the show that I love. It's about what people DO. It's about what people CHOOSE. And it is rarely about what feels good. (They seem to be making people vaguely accountable for what has happened before. I hope this trend continues.)

I'll interrupt my gushing to note the last error that needs to be corrected. Put Airlock and NFL in scenes together again. With NFL's newfound political career (Zarek? Ha! That answers my question from last episode) this seems more likely. I want to see them toe to toe again.

Aiiieee! I just had a horrible thought, that is most likely not true. Is Lee being shuffled off the show? That send off was awful big! I'll need to go watch next week's trailer again. I'm all cold just thinking about it. I'm assuming that they're just re-writing the show on the fly (and doing a good job of it) and moving Lee into another role. But if not... Brrrrrrr.

ANYWAY, back to the gushing. After the greatest Kara / Airlock scene ever we have the greatest Wild Bill / Airlock scene ever. (I think there was a terrific Kara / Wild Bill scene in there too.) WB and Airlock get to have it out. The biggest thing that I like about this episode is that it really feels like the writer's are finally remembering stuff. (Got to go look and see who wrote this.) Laura as the dying leader. Going back to the myths that used to wander around the fleet daring people to believe in them. WB getting to admit how lost he is and how much he hates this myth stuff even when it turns out to be true.

Baltar: Is he really believing what he says these days? Is that possible? There was a podcast last year where they asked all the cast who they wanted to play other than themselves. They all said Baltar. James Callis said he wanted to play Six... So he could have scenes with Gaius Baltar. Seems RDM took this to heart. Wacky stuff. (Is it just me, or has James become a lot funnier looking since the miniseries?)

Cylons! Last season's Cylon stories were pretty boring. These are possibly more cool than the Galactica stuff!

And since BSG in 8 minutes was so cool, they've done THIS (I'm not sure how this widget thing works, find the recap):

Next up, The Ties that Bind. And then I'm caught up! (Except for Razor.)

Boom boom boom.

...the prize we sought is won

It's April 15th. Most probably think tax day. But really one of the defining days in our nation's history.

Take a moment for one of the greatest men our country has known, given to us when we needed him most. Sadly taken from us almost the moment his work was done. We will see his like again, I am sure. But we will never know until he or she is gone.

O Captain! My Captain!
Walt Whitman

O CAPTAIN my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:

But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,

You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;

Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

Wow. Bill's blogging again. Must be new TV on.

The short of it: Good solid season opener. Looks like they're laying some groundwork. Looks like Zach is a Cylon. (EyeTigh: DAMN!) (That's from the brilliant BSG in 8 minutes - posted earlier. I need it to be my error sound on my computer.)

Here's a quick rundown on the popular Tallguy character abbreviations (that I find funny at least):

• RDM: Ronald D. Moore - producer
• Wild Bill: Admiral William Adama.
• iTigh (formerly EyeTigh): Col Saul "Toaster's a Poppin'" Tigh - 'cause he's got one 'i'.
• NFL (Non-Fat Lee): Lee Adama
• Brett: This is a new one. I've decided that Sam "Toaster's a Poppin'" Anders is Brett Favre. Heh. If he gets a Cylon number he can be #4. Bwahahahahaha. Yeah, I'm running with that one.

They DON'T have a frakking plan anymore, eh? Nice that RDM finally admitted it.

Starbuck is back. And showing an alarming obliviousness, she thinks she's only been gone hours even though her hair is WAY longer. Wild Bill thinks he's got it all under control, even though this is Kara "Hey, remember the time we used half our fuel looking for you?" Thrace. I think Laura remembers. Regarding her potential toasterness Our Heroes seem to be doing enough to look good but not enough to be effective. (RDM has been hanging with TSA! ) If it were me? No way I'd trust her. But the fleet hasn't been that kind of paranoid since Kobol.

Wild Bill: He's a little lost here. Wants to be the rational man, big on security. But it's Kara. He's always in trouble there. He's going to be really bummed when Zach comes back and he's a toaster.

Laura: I'd be far more in favor of her hard as nails (where did they get all the nail polish three years after the holocaust?) attitude towards the craziness of Kara if this weren't the woman who sent same said crazy pilot in a stolen Cylon ship back to Caprica to get a museum piece. And set off a political coup in the process. Yeah, that Laura. So Kara can feel the way to Earth. You're hanging with 2 1/2 toasters in an imaginary opera house. Deal.

Hey, now that I look back on it, was that the most brilliant resolution to a seemingly unrelated plot ever? (Helo and Sharon on Cap getting picked up by Starbuck who is looking for the arrow of Apollo) Or at least close? Ahhh, that was writing. Now they would say "You know, we're just tired of it, it's not going anywhere. So they dream that they're at Woodstock and wake up on Galactica and everyone is like, Whoaaa." Love you, RDM. Mean it.

Baltar is interesting again! Still not smart (remember when he used to be smart? Like, "greatest mind of our time" smart? Like, invented a Cylon detector that he then threw away?) but at least interesting. He knows what he's accountable for. An interesting thing is that I don't think they will ever be mad at Baltar for the things he's actually done: not explaining how the colonies were attacked (he had one line about it last season: Treason implies intent), letting Boomer get past his effective Cylon screen, shooting Crashdown, and, oh yeah, GIVING A CYLON A NUKE. That last one is really problematic. I've seen the publicity shots of Baltar, so I kind of know where this story will lead. Again: interesting. At least they're giving James Callis something to chew on this year. (Other than Tricia Helfer and Lucy Lawless.)

I've dimmed a bit on iTigh's whole "That's the man I want to be!" speech. If he was all that worried about shooting the old man in the head, he'd tell people! Especially since four "people" on the fleet know that one of their viper jocks got freeze-framed by a raider. (It takes two months to train in raptors AND vipers, eh? Shiny.) The four of them are no better than Gaius fffRRRAAAAAAAkking Baltar (said with an iTigh growl).

iTigh has never been known for self-inspection. We don't know enough about Tori. #4 can be kind of squirmy. I guess the Chief has been through enough "YOU'RE A TOASTER! *WHACK*" sessions. And Cally would kick his butt more than a little. But no-one said being chrome was easy. Give it up, guys. There's less than 40,000 people left! Hey, Chief. Remember when you were keeping secrets about Boomer? How'd that work out?

So Starbuck is setting up the whole "toasters are people too" plot. She makes #4 uncomfortable with her talk of killing genocidal robots. So he can't say who he is. Awwwwww. A witch hunt isn't bad if they're actually witches! (Of the "I'll get you my pretty!" variety, not the Rosenberg type.) (Wait, that was a reference to Willow Rosenberg, friendly witch on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Not Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, executed for being traitors to the USA. I can see the confusion.)

NFL has a new job? Wait, who in "the government" is going to offer Lee "I sold Laura Roslyn down the river" Adama a job? Again: Remember when Lee and Laura talked to each other? One of the balls that got seriously dropped and I so miss from season 1.5. The big MOMENT in the court room would have been devastating if they had actually maintained that relationship.

Speaking of heart to hearts: Every time they lock up a toaster the toaster gets a new best friend. This time it's Laura and Six.

Six is SO much more interesting than the Six in GB's head. Although it seems GB's Six is becoming more like the real one and less May West on Acid. Maybe GB has grown. Naaahh. Again - Tricia Helfer: What a find. They hired a model and got an actress. Good on you, RDM.

I didn't want Helo thrown out the nearest airlock this week, like the traitorous hippie he is. That's always good.

Athena talking to #4 and the chief was nice. The Unknown Four (the UF?) don't know that even the Cylons don't know who they are, I guess. It'll be a mighty fine shindig all round when that comes out.

So next week we see the toasters (the ones not flying vipers) again. Hmmm. Ok. "WE'RE GOING THE WRONG WAAAAAYYYY!"

My prediction: Baltar will be the only one to make it to Earth. Maybe Baltar and Hera.

Boom boom boom.

Charlton Heston 1924-2008

There will be a lot of better writers than me writing about this in the next few days. And most of them will have at least something to do with this.



You can go look up The Ten Commandments on your own. And yes, it's people.

Oh. Oh, PLEASE don't be true

This would be the worst movie news ever.

BSG Top 10

Saul Tigh, keeping it real.

The War for the Future Might Continue

Just saw this at Hollywood Reporter:

""Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles." Fans need not worry: Sources say that "Terminator" will be back. Fox executives like the creative product and thought the finale's performance last week was solid. The network also spent a considerable amount marketing the show, giving Season 2 some cost benefit. Also: The fourth "Terminator" movie comes out in 2009, and as "The Simpsons Movie" proved, there are promotional advantages to film-TV synergy."

Please?

(Yes, yes, yes, the finale review is written I just need to edit and post. Then BSG starts again.)

Dave Stevens 1955-2008

Dave Stevens, creator of the Rocketeer, passed away on March 10th. *sigh*

What the Frak is Going On

I was going to try and cut together my own one of these. This is better and WAY funnier. And I don't have to do it. Nice. "Sorry Boomer."

Tone deaf?

This reminds me of when Hillary played Billy Joel's Captain Jack at a campaign rally a few years ago. Someone picked these clips because they figured it was Jack Nicholson saying cool things. Except a lot of us know the rest of these lines. And I'm not posting ANY of them on my blog. Let alone in a national presidential campaign.

I don't think Hillary would want any of these characters associated with her run for presidency if they were real. Especially... Well, no there's not an especially in the group since Jake Gittes is the most well adjusted in the bunch. Otherwise we have quite the collection of murderers and sociopaths. I want to see Jack Torrance coming through the door with an axe saying "Vote for Hillary!"

But anyway, if Col. Jessep gets his wish (the rest of that clip) then I'd just have to say didn't we have enough of that in the first Clinton administration?

Gee, where was Jessep stationed again? Think he had much of a problem with waterboarding?

Sarah Connor: The Demon Hand

One episode to go. How do I feel about this? Tell 'em, Greg.

HIGH DEF! Whoooooo! Hey, was this the first week that we didn't see the high school jumper from "Gnothi Seauton"? I'm not sure why they hammered that in week after week after week if they're not going anywhere with it.

Ha! Just heard about a post from the show's creator. There was some question as to how Cromartie's head could travel through time with Sarah & Co. Well, the idea was that it was still covered in living tissue but that it was on fire. So it could time-travel, but it would very quickly be much more Terminator-y. BUT - you can't show a decapitated head with burning bubbling flesh flying through the air on TV (even now). So it looks like just a metal skull that travels through time. And we know from the movies that that's impossible. So just go with it.

Still awesome. These are kind of tough to review / recap the morning after. Things get twisty. So I'll just hit what sticks with me.

Silberman. Yeeeaahhhhhh! I wish they had cast someone a little more reminiscent of Earl Boen from the movies. (Hrmm. I didn't remember him from T3 at all...) I mean going from dark haired and bald to blond with a magnificent head of hair. Also, Silberman was SO much dweebier in the movies. BUT we got Bruce Davison. And he was terrific as always. And it's always nice to see that these people will figure things out when they see a T-1000 going all morphy on them. Enough that he got a nice cabin away from the coming war. I'm not sure I buy Ellison putting him in a rubber room. Sure, he's totally unhinged. Maybe I do buy it. I kind of would have liked Sarah to greet him by saying "How's the knee?"

But what does Ellison do next? She Who Is My Wife was a little surprised when I said Ellison was my favorite character. But he is. I like watching where they're going with him. And he's a Christian that actually attends some kind of service at an organized place of worship (and not just Sunday service either, by the looks of it) and he's not crazy. Does anyone really read King James anymore? But he was my favorite before we found all that out.

"She always did love to dance." Writers room: "Hey, how do we get Summer to be able to do ballet on this show?" Still interesting to watch where this character goes. She's really got her own agenda. I'm not sure if Cameron didn't tell Sarah that the Russian fellow was dead because she's smart enough to know what Sarah's reaction would be or if it's because she really wasn't aware. Not her mission. Brrr.

Cool subplot that the Russian (not to be confused with the Haitian) sabotaged The Turk for the chess match. Wonder how this went down before everyone started hopping timelines? It's interesting that Kyle says in The Terminator that he is from "one possible future" even though none of his or the T-800's actions change anything (and actually set the war in motion). Then in T2 they WERE able to change time. But the groundwork had been laid that time could be changed and that these future timelines might still exist.

Cameron and Derek have set up a nice adversarial relationship. I'm looking forward to more. You know, this is often movie-speak for falling in love. Hee.

John's hitting on all cylinders. For some reason I'd like to see more high school. (Aren't there a couple subplots festering there? Didn't John almost get a best friend / side-kick? Weird girl being locked up by her Dad?) But he's hitting the perfect balance between needy kid and future leader. He wants Derek to stay so bad it's almost subtitled. Wow, a show that actually says boys need fathers. Even boys with superheroes for mothers. The callback to his foster folks in T2 was good. This show is great when it echoes the movies and it's great when it goes out on it's own.

Derek's kind of a slippery character. Like that. It hadn't occurred to me that he flat out lied to Sarah about killing Andrew Goode. (Unless he doesn't know he did it?) But he didn't take The Turk. Which is still out there. And of course we're creating paradoxes like weeds. I liked the scene with Derek and the grass. This really should be paradise for our future warriors. He seems a little too calm about hanging around with young John. And apparently not everyone in the future holds Sarah in such high esteem. Or John.

Oh, and did the pilot say that Cameron is from 2027? So is anyone from 2029 anymore? Curious change...

So, nobody knows that Kyle Reese is John's father. But they've got how many hours of videotape of Sarah talking about it? Hrrmmmmm.

Sarah. This is the first time I've really compared Leana Heady with Linda Hamilton. Heady plays everything so cool. She's so resigned most of the time. Her life has sucked since 1984 and it won't get better anytime soon. But now she's re-playing the scenes that Hamilton did in T2. And I'm not sure she played it raving enough. But she got to say "It's what they do! It's all they do!" Ahhhh.

This is an interesting twist for a time travel story. Usually it's all about "You can't know because otherwise the future could change." But their whole mission is to change the future. Fun.

So The Hand is gone. But Cameron still has metal and a chip. Hrm.

Nothing with the FBI Terminator this week. Probably saving it for THE BIG FINALE. Maybe they'll just skip over that until next season. That might be neat. But maybe not. So I'm sure THE BIG (2 hour) FINALE will be quite the ride.

BTW, we watched last weeks ep on Fox's streaming broadcast. Bear McReary wrote end title music! It's cool. Still not Brad Fiedel's theme (how much does he get paid for the ten drum beats that they use every week?) but still nifty. Got to figure out how to capture that.

Next week: Huge cliff hanger so Fox can cancel us! Think positive!

Dodged Bullet!

Wow, did I get lucky! I saw the trailer for Jumper and thought it looked moderately cool. Then I read the reviews and found out it wasn't. All the while not knowing it was a Hayden Christensen flick! Arrrrgh!

Tigh in '08

Ok, seems I'm not the first to think of this. Good, I don't have to put it together then.