Blog: Articles filed under television

Compared to the rest of the week, Monday and Tuesday play host to an inordinately large number of cultural attractions. Yes, there’s Doctor Who on Friday nights and Smallville on Saturdays, but

Ever since school began in September, I’ve been cooking dinner on Mondays to practise my rudimentary cooking skills. While preparing dinner, I like to listen to podcasts. This schedule works nicely, because The Vinyl Cafe podcast is up by Monday at the latest, and I prefer to listen to the podcast, as I can’t catch it every Sunday; sometimes I‘m at work. I love the on demand convenience of podcasts. In addition to Vinyl Cafe, there’s a new podcast of Search Engine every Monday. Lastly, if I have any left over interviews from Spark’s enhanced podcast feed, I’ll listen to those. Occasionally I listen to an Ideas podcast, but not regularly.

After dinner, my dad and I watch a couple of TV shows if we‘re both home. First there’s Stargate Atlantis, then Chuck, and finally Heroes—sometimes we save Heroes for Tuesday if we don’t have time to watch it. This week’s episodes of Stargate Atlantis and Chuck were particularly awesome! I loved seeing Bill Nye guest star on Atlantis—he got several great comic relief lines. Then, of course, there was the kiss! (Oh, by the way, that was a spoiler alert…). Similarly, Chuck continues to wow and astound me. Although the episodes are often predictable, it’s just so enjoyable to watch them. The lines are witty and delivered perfectly by the stellar cast. I love that show.

My opinion of Heroes is that the writers are squandering a good concept by producing inconsistent episodes. They still have too many characters, so it’s hard for them to integrate these disparate elements into a coherent storyline, resulting in continuity errors and flat moments in episodes that really detract from the better parts.

We record Terminator: The Sarah Chronicles later that night to watch on Tuesday. Earlier during the afternoon, since I‘ve been lucky to have no class on Tuesdays, I usually listen to the week’s episode of Spark as soon as it’s available for download.

Now, however, I have an additional show to watch on Tuesdays: The Guild, Felicia Day’s webseries about a group of gamers who spend waaaaay too much time gaming. The first season, originally available on YouTube, was a set of 10 hilarious 2-5 minute episodes. This season, the show has partnered with Microsoft to make the series available on MSN Video and for download on Xbox Live—in HD, no less! So now I can watch the episodes on my shiny HDTV. I love technology, and free stuff….

Then after my dad and I catch up on leftovers from Monday night, including Terminator, I get to watch House. It apparently perplexes my dad why I enjoy House; I just love Hugh Laurie’s character. His performance is entertaining, and some of the scenarios in that series are just so absurd—clearly no doctor could actually act like House and keep his or her license, but since when has TV had anything to do with reality?

Lastly, The Rick Mercer Report and This Hour Has 22 Minutes are on Tuesday nights. Since the CBC kindly makes these available online, I don’t always watch them, and sometimes I don’t even bother recording them. But it’s fit to include them in my Tuesday night of culture osmosis, since I could watch them on Tuesday if I didn’t have math homework….

Now I must try to complete my ring theory assignment so I can hand it in tomorrow. My ring theory assignment and the education paper I must revise and print out before going to bed are my last assignments of this term. Next week, exams begin—one next week and two the week after. Then I get a nice break before the second term plunges me into a new scheduling hell!

I need a haircut.

I‘m sitting here, still full of endorphins after SNL’s Presidential Bash, watching a rerun of Stargate SG-1—“Line in the Sand,” one of the final nine episodes of the series. And watching it, I’m coming to this realization that I may have given the final two seasons of Stargate SG-1 shorter shrift than they deserve.

I mean, yes, the storyline sucked and the themes were flimsy and transparent. The injection of two actors from Farscape as series regulars was suspicious and also somewhat funny. But let’s back up for a moment. This is Stargate SG-1. It’s always vacillated between the absurd realm of Farscape and the lecturing tones of Star Trek, erring to the side of humour wherever possible. That’s what made it a great show. So to criticize the last two seasons on those grounds is rather hypocritical.

So rather than criticizing the last two seasons and harping on how much they jumped the shark, here’s a couple of things about seasons 9 and 10 (especially 10) that I love:

Daniel and Vala.

Need I say more? These two have great chemistry. Both Claudia Black and Ben Browder (more so Black than Browder, however) demonstrate that they are versatile enough to transcend their former Farscape characters and inhabit new ones.

Ba‘al.

As his performance in Stargate: Continuum demonstrates, Cliff Simon plays a great megalomaniacal villain who shows us why every evil overlord should follow the Evil Overlord list. Ba’al’s ability to adapt makes him the most enduring Goa’uld (and most enduring villain in the series), even more so than Anubis (who seemed to think everyone else should adapt to him, i.e., he was going to destroy all life in the universe and redesign it to his wants). More than anyone, Ba’al carries the show over from season 8 to season 9, and then continues to be an excellent guest character in season 10, serving as a link to Stargate past and a source of comic relief.

“200”

This episode captures the spirit of Stargate SG-1. Throughout its entire run, the show was never afraid to make fun of itself or engage in meta-references.

“Bad Guys”

Similar to “200”, this show temporarily suspends the threat of the Ori to bring us some “SG-1 Classic”: SG-1 gates to a planet without a working DHD, where the Stargate is in a museum, and get mistaken for rebels who have taken everyone at a museum gala hostages.

The Ori arc.

No, seriously. The story itself may not have been Stargate SG-1’s best; however, the arc itself is enjoyable to watch now that I know how it turns out. Taking a second look at the development of some of the recurring characters (like Tomin and Adria) and anticipating that twists and turns is what made me re-evaluate my opinion of these two seasons.

So there you have it. Stargate SG-1’s television run is over, and maybe its last two seasons weren’t the best. But they had their good moments, so I think I’ll focus on those.

Ugh. I‘ve been sick since Wednesday and didn’t feel like blogging. I should have posted one of the drafts I‘ve got saved up for such an occasion, but by the time I remembered that, I was too lazy. Anyway, here’s my reaction to a news tidbit from today.

I like freedom of expression and freedom of access to information. To me, these two related freedoms are fundamental to any society that claims to be “free.” Unfortunately, the spectre of political correctness (and more recently, patriotic correctness) shackles this freedom of speech with restrictions designed to prevent “offence” to groups of people. We see this everyday when we watch television with the profanity beeped out or listen to edited songs on the radio.

Today CBC News reported that a Belgian broadcaster would not be airing a Hitler-themed episode of a cooking show. At first glance, one wonders how a cooking show could have a Hitler-themed episode. If you read the article, however, you’ll get a better idea of what it aims to do: it cooks the favourite dishes of famous people.

I take issue with this statement in particular by Michael Frelich, editor of Antwerp’s Jewish affairs magazine Joods Actueel:

The problem is that Hitler is being featured in a cooking show, without any historical context.

Pardon? Your problem with this cooking show is that they‘re talking about Hitler instead of using their time slot to lecture everyone about all the atrocities Hitler committed or commissioned? Do you really think that anyone watching this show, especially anyone in Belgium, is ignorant of who Hitler is?

It’s a cooking show! It’s not pro-Nazi; it’s not anti-Semitic. All it wanted to do was cook Hitler’s favourite food, and show us some history along with it. What if I was interested in knowing what Hitler liked to eat? Now I’ll never know.

This is the most recent example of an absurd trend of political correctness trumping our freedom of speech. I understand that some people are offended by things I deem unoffensive. Tough luck. Thanks to the plethora of television channels available these days, no one is forcing you to watch a TV show you deem offensive. That being said, if you want to write a letter to the broadcaster because you deem it offensive, go right ahead: I support everyone’s right to free speech, even if they don’t happen to agree with me.

But censorship is an ugly weapon of mass destruction, and it’s one that all too easily backfires on the wielder. You might censor me today, but what’s to stop me from censoring you tomorrow, when our positions are reversed?

I have discovered how I will get through the next six months. Or year. Or two years. However long it is until Stephen Harper tries to get a majority again. I will watch CBC comedy news shows.

What would I ever do without The Rick Mercer Report or This Hour Has 22 Minutes?!

For my American friends, The Rick Mercer Report is similar to The Colbert Report. Mercer does a lot less in-studio, however, and has more clips where he goes out and meets people, politicians¹, goes to schools, and gets naked.² He has a regular photo challenge on his site where anyone can edit a photo he posts, and he’ll put them up in his gallery.

I don’t know what the American equivalent of This Hour Has 22 Minutes is. You’ve got a cast of news anchors who know no boundaries in “reporting” current events. When I was younger, I grew up on Royal Canadian Air Farce; I didn’t watch This Hour Has 22 Minutes much. However, as Air Farce declined, I started watching 22 Minutes more and more, and now I watch it exclusively. Some of their sketches are quite creative. And they are Canadian, so obviously Canadian. It’s wonderful.

There’s clips (pretty much full episodes broken down by sketch) for both the Mercer Report and 22 Minutes on their respective CBC websites. Not sure if non-Canadians can watch them, but it’s worth a try if you’re interested.

These sort of political commentary shows, in both Canada and America, can do something regular news corporations cannot: they don’t have to impartial! And that makes it so much more fun. Moreover, these comedians can poke and pry into issues that might be too sensitive or not “politically correct” enough for the evening news. Whether or not you agree with these comedians’ perspectives or laugh at their jokes, they do us a great service in a society where freedom of speech is eternally at risk.

• [ 1 ] Yes, I am implying what you think I’m implying
• [ 2 ] Really. But I won’t tell you any more than this, because now you’ll waste half an hour searching the Internet to find out. Muwahahahaha!

I woke up today and went to Future Shop to buy Stargate: Continuum, although I couldn’t actually watch it until after work tonight. It was worth the wait.

I admit that I feared Continuum would be a “Well, let’s turn ‘Moebius’ into a movie.” Yet another time travel episode. Yes, there were similarities—it’s time travel, after all, with alternate timelines and whatnot—but this movie really captures the Stargate genre and provides the essential link between the old Stargate SG-1 series and (hopefully) the future movies to come.

The story is largely self-contained, due to the nature of the time travel. By the end, nothing in the Stargate universe has really advanced, with the exception of the execution of Ba‘al. That doesn’t stop it from being an excellent story, and the characters make it that way. Richard Dean Anderson’s “special guest appearance” brought O’Neill back into the mix. I would have liked more of him, but what little screen time he had was well used. The other members of SG-1 were awesome. Teal’c managed to pull off yet another convincing Heel Face Turn. Michael Shanks has a fun scene where he talks to the alternate timeline version of himself on a phone—we only see our Daniel Jackson and the phone and hear one side of the conversation.

Ba‘al is such a fun, classic Stargate villain. He really embodies what makes Stargate venerable: it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It has fun. Ba’al is your classic evil overlord who tosses off his gloating “last lines” and claims he can never be defeated (those of you familiar with the series may recall that he came close to fulfilling that claim once and a while). Cliff Simon portrays him in exactly that way: moustache-twirling bad guy who’s trying to see his latest evil scheme to fruition.

The effects are cool. The best effects, however, come from the non-visual effects. Some of the cast and crew went up to the Arctic and shot there, which is cool enough by itself. But the navy actually let them use the USS Alexandria, a nuclear-powered submarine. So we’ve been watching Carter and Mitchell trek across the frozen Arctic ocean, they meet up with their rescuers, and suddenly we see this submarine—a real U.S. navy submarine—surface through the ice. It is amazing. We also get to see it submerge again, and then the real crew of the submarine appears as themselves. You can tell that they are a bit nervous about appearing on camera. If you watch some of the special features, particularly “Stargate Goes to the Arctic”, you’ll learn how difficult some of those shots were to obtain. We also get to see some nice close-ups of real F-15s. The Air Force and Navy have been very good to the show. :P

The special features are great. I haven’t watched the commentary yet, but “Stargate Goes to the Arctic” shows you how those who went to the arctic lived and filmed. “The Making of Stargate Continuum” is interesting. “The Layman’s Guide to Time Travel” will be interesting if you want to learn more about time travel.

Stargate Continuum remains true to what Stargate SG-1 has been for ten years; existing fans will be pleased. Unlike The Ark of Truth, which served to tie up an existing storyline, Continuum will be a pleasant introduction to the series for new fans, mostly because of its self-contained nature. Those familiar with the series are going to have a grand time watching the various references from the past ten years of the show. I snickered several times when I noticed something that I recognized from another story. New fans will get to see the cast of SG-1 at their best and some great action.

Act three of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is up. You can watch all three acts until midnight July 20. Go do it. Right now.

I‘ve got mixed feelings about act three. As I write this, it’s only been up for about an hour and a half, so fan reaction is still formulating. A lot of people are angry. I can see how act three seems like a let down after the first two acts. Now, this may just be major denial on my part, but I think Joss planned it that way.

A supervillain musical isn’t something you see every day. Instead of casting Dr. Horrible as the straight antagonist and villain, he has made him a villainous protagonist. We actually root for him; we want him to get the girl. But having him succeed in his evil plans and getting the girl would blow our suspension of disbelief out of the water—Penny’s character doesn’t allow that. So the ending is the only natural way for the plot to conclude (if it is a conclusion).

The saddest scene for me, however, was not the one at the climax after the explosion of the death ray causes you-know-what (if you don’t know what, I won’t spoil it for you—go watch!). Instead, it was when Penny was sitting in the laundromat, with two frozen yogurts … alone. It just said so much. She missed Billy too. She had come to enjoy his companionship. Later, we get the sense she’s becoming disillusioned with Captain Hammer’s act. Billy (not Dr. Horrible) was a real guy, with weaknesses and charming traits. He liked frozen yogurt.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is an amazing technical accomplishment. Produced independently, funded privately by Whedon himself, and through the efforts of very dedicated people, we’ve got a great quality production. It won’t appeal to everyone,¹ but what does?² Plus, Joss has a legion of sleeper fans out there, ready to eagerly partake in his latest creations. He’s like some sort of television chef, preparing succulent dishes. Each one is unique, but they all carry a certain flavour that is Joss’ trademark style.³

Joss Whedon’s next big project will be Dollhouse on Fox (hopefully they won’t cancel this one after 12 episodes…), including Buffy and Angel actors Eliza Dushku and Amy Acker. I‘m excited. It’ll be a new premise, with new stories and stakes, but the writing style will be Joss’, which means lots of humour and lots of action-packed fun.

• [ 1 ] Two words: supervillain musical
• [ 2 ] Sliced bread?
• [ 3 ] Okay, I’m getting a bit hungry now….

For those of you who haven’t watched Buffy, Angel, or Firefly, (I hear you exist, apparently) let me give you a quick rundown on who Joss Whedon is. Those familiar with his oeuvre, please skip to the third paragraph.

Joss Whedon is an amazing writer. He is the creator of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel, along with a western science-fiction (yes, it’s that cool) series called Firefly. Once upon a time, a big bad network cancelled Firefly after airing 12 of the 14 episodes (out of order), much to the consternation of the fans the show had already acquired. It seemed like there was no hope for resurrecting the series, and an Age of Terrible Darkness ensued. Then, a glimmer of hope: thanks, in part, to fan demands, Universal Studios bought the movie rights to the series, and Joss Whedon made a feature film called Serenity, which may very well be one of the best science fiction films of our time.

With me? Good. During the Writers’ Strike, Joss Whedon decided to get together with some family and friends to write a fun musical. Specifically, a supervillain musical. This week he is releasing the three episodes online, where they will be available until July 20, after which you’ll need to buy them from iTunes or when they come out on DVD. The show stars Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion. It is made of win.

Why are you still reading? What more do you need to know? Go watch it now.

One week from now, we will be witness to a great thing. The premiere of the fourth and final season of Battlestar Galactica. This is the sort of thing you’ll tell your children about. Even if you don’t watch it now, you’ll want to retcon your memories so you can claim you were always a fan.

Why is BSG great? Because it’s the only science fiction show that isn’t a science fiction show. Unlike Star Trek, Stargate SG-1, etc., BSG isn’t a science fiction show set in space.

“What?!” you say. “Of course it is. They have space ships. And robots. And … and …” No, it doesn’t. BSG is a drama that happens to be set in space. The issues it deals with are the same issues we face today—in fact, the show is a thinly-veiled critique on controversial contemporary issues, particularly the war in Iraq. The conflicts the characters deal with, especially the morally ambiguous questions that arise as a result of a prolonged war, are relevant to us in every way. All they do is remove it one step from us, putting it in space. The technology isn’t even that much different. You’ve got guns, not lasers, phones, not communicators.

So if you look past the brittle sci-fi exterior into the heart of the show, which is the characters and the drama they face, you’ll see something that anyone can watch. It’s real. It’s edgy. It doesn’t hold back. The writing is amazing; the acting is amazing, and the plot twists keep you wondering what will happen next.

Am I sad the show is ending after four seasons? Yes. Am I enraged, like I am about jPod? Not at all. In fact, the show’s creators say they are totally behind this decision, and I agree with their reasoning: they want BSG to end while it’s great. Because they have a goal (finding Earth), logically the story has a conclusion (hopefully involving the arrival at Earth!). So now it’s a matter of getting us there in the best, most entertaining, most breathtakingly awesome way possible.

Don’t let us down, guys. You have a huge audience watching. And some of us may be Cylons.

Stargate: The Ark of Truth came out on DVD today, so I went right to Future Shop after class to buy it. Yes, MGM tells me to buy something, and I buy it. I am such a franchise junkie.

Obligatory spoiler warning here. Read more and feel the wrath of the Ori—oh wait….

I’m so satisfied. It took ten years to get here, but every step of the way was totally worth it. I was initially upset, but quickly resigned, to Stargate SG-1’s cancellation. They were kind of running out of apocalypses after all—and the recent terrible writing on Stargate Atlantis seems to reinforce that fact. That doesn’t mean I was going to ignore the direct-to-DVD sequels MGM wanted to produce, especially because the writers deliberately left the Ori saga half-concluded. More SG-1? Yes please.

Overall, I loved it. The dialogue among the SG-1 characters is just so satisfying; they are so comfortable with each other. Since the series has such a rich universe and backstory, it allows the writers to tie together elements that may once have been disparate, and even expands their creativity by giving them a better canvas. Yes, they brought back the replicators, but it was a temporary appearance—I would have been irked if the replicators became the villain once again—and I think that it served its purpose. The plot was intriguing, with just enough twists to keep me going and not too many to make me think, “This is utterly illogical.” There were a few parts I didn’t like, though.

What was up with the deus ex machinae? (Is that the plural form? I’ve never had to use it before.) Firstly, let me say that I realize the dilemma of the writers—of anyone who is writing a story involving interaction between humans and semi-omnipotent, nearly-cosmic beings like the Ancients/Ori. Morgan Le Fay healed Teal‘c after he was somewhat badly injured, then proceeded to toy with Daniel. Just make your mind already! It was Oma Desala versus Anubis all over again. When it comes to people like Teal’c miraculously surviving being shot, of course, it’s a good thing that the bad guys want to capture the good guys all the time. If the objective were to merely kill the good guys—well then, our series would be much shorter. When I am an evil overlord, I promise to summarily execute all good guys, starting with the ones who make the most defiant wisecracks.

Speaking of wisecracks, where’s O’Neill?! Richard Dean Anderson was—and is—the best part of Stargate SG-1; without him, it isn’t really “SG-1”, just “Stargate.” I understand his reasons for leaving the show, and seasons 9 and 10 were not terrible. But I miss him, and I hope he makes guest appearances in future SG-1 features.

But the best part of the show was just being immersed in that universe again. Stargate has a special place in my heart among various other science fiction series because of the way it successfully combines science fiction technology—wormholes, alien civilizations, starships, etc.—with present day humanity. Unlike Star Trek, it isn’t set far in the future when we’re used to having advanced technology at our disposal. Even now that Earth does have space travel technology in the form of the Prometheus-class cruisers, the characters bring that very contemporary element into the show with pop culture references and dialogue. Mitchell exemplifies this best at the beginning as he takes command of the Odyssey and says, “Weapons to maximum.” Major Marks plays the straight man: “Sir?” “Just make it go!” This isn’t Captain Kirk comfortably in command of the Enterprise—it’s an Air Force officer, who happens to be used to dealing with alien situations, nervously assuming command of a huge battlecruiser about to take a trip to another galaxy. Stepping into this universe that is so much like our own, yet slightly different, is very rewarding.

I had a very good day today. Everything just seemed to go well. Sure, there were some rocky moments—I got stuck behind a tow truck trying to hoist a vehicle on two separate occasions—is that weird or what? But I won’t let that ruin the rest of the good moments.

If you come up to a group of people waiting outside a room, don’t assume they‘re waiting because the door is locked. Until you actually try the door yourself, you don’t know it’s locked—maybe the first person to show up didn’t try it, and people just followed along. That’s what happened today at my English class. I’ve learned this lesson before, however, so I tried the door—and it was unlocked. I turned on the lights, and the rest of the class followed me in. Now all we need are textbooks.

I had a pleasant lunch with my dad, then I submitted my passport application. The person at the passport office told me that everything was in order, so I’ll get my passport in a couple of weeks when they do their next mail-out. Since we’re already required to travel to the U.S. with a passport if we fly, and we’ll soon have to do the same if we drive (currently you only need a birth certificate and photo I.D. if you drive, but that will change soon), I figure it’s prudent to get my passport as soon as possible.

We got PVR! My dad and I bought a new Toshiba HDTV for the living room on Saturday, and today my brother and I set up the PVR box. We got it working literally just as JPod premiered on the CBC. For those of you not up on your Canadian content, JPod is a novel by Douglas Coupland, who is a superb author. JPod, the spiritual sequel to his earlier Microserfs, is about a core group of employees at a fictitious computer game company. They’re a work pod (the “JPod”) and spend most of their time fooling around instead of doing actual work. The main character’s mom runs a marijuana grow-op from her basement. Tim, a rather shady character, attempts to intimidate her for money, only to trip and electrocute himself in a puddle of water. So Ethan, the main character, must help his mom dispose of that body. Only it’s never quite so simple. That’s the reason I love JPod. It’s irreverent, funny, sarcastic, and it’s light-humoured sometimes, but very dark at others. I can’t wait to see how the series compares—Douglas Coupland is writing and producing, so I have high hopes. The first episode covers from the beginning until when Ethan brings one of his workers over to his apartment (the new girl, Katelyn, who just wants to get out of JPod) only to find that his brother has set up a number of illegal immigrants there… . Joy!

PVR is way awesome. The whole pausing/rewinding TV is a very attractive option. Now all we need is our new TV to arrive, and we can actually begin watching high definition television. :O Until then … well, I have a lot of work to do. Good night.

Disney and I have a sort of love-hate relationship going on when it comes to its television.

I‘m from the mid-nineties generation of children. I grew up on the after-school and Saturday-morning Disney cartoons like Disney’s Recess and The Weekenders. To this day, I proudly admit that I watch those whenever I can. I‘ve got less opportunity to watch The Weekenders, but Recess comes on every day after school, so I watch it if I’m not working. Old school Disney rock on!

Lately I‘ve been less and less impressed with the average after-school shows they’ve been producing. Maybe I‘m just losing touch with today’s “cool” brand of pre-adolescents. Maybe I‘ve become too cerebral. But some shows I just can’t stand, like Jake Long: American Dragon. Then there are some shows like The Suite Life of Zack & Cody or That’s So Raven which I can’t help watching while simultaneously loathing and despising myself for watching them. The acting and writing’s just so terrible; the gags are just so … juvenile. I understand that this is children’s programming; maybe I‘m being too judgemental. But then when I compare these shows to what I watched as a kid (and still watch), there does seem to be a decline in the quality of the productions.

So what gives, Disney?!

P.S. I enjoy Kim Possible, because it presents positive themes for kids in an extremely entertaining matter. But Kim and Ron dating? The show should have ended after So the Drama. I’m sceptical about this fourth season, although on average it hasn’t been terrible so far. Just okay…

Today in chemistry my two friends and I somehow got on the subject of the Muffin Man and his place of residence. Being Mythbusters fans, we agreed that the Mythbusters should test the myth of whether a muffin man does, in fact, reside on Drury Lane.

Meanwhile, the Build Team can see if ogres really do have layers…

And that brings us to a new poll!

That last scene between Rose and the Doctor was just so sad, but poignant. It wasn’t the catharsis for which I was looking—not really—but it came close. I cried. I knew that the Doctor would run out of time before he could say it, but still, watching it happen…. Wow.

The Tenth Doctor is my favourite television character bar none now. At the beginning of season 2 I was worried, I’ll admit, that David Tennant would not make a good Doctor. However, he has shown himself to be a stupendous Doctor (not that I’m really qualified to judge, since I haven’t seen any of the older episodes). The way that he captures the character of the Doctor—and the character of the Doctor himself, his actions—is why I love to write. I must admit that I am envious of Russel T. Davies and the other Doctor Who writers. Season 2 wasn’t the best television I’ve watched, but the Doctor himself made it worth watching.

The DVD set for season 2 is $113.96 on Amazon though, and I can’t find it on the Future Shop website, so I don’t think I’ll be buying season 2 anytime soon, sadly—even though I am becoming addicted to buying DVDs, I have not yet fallen so far as to justify a >$100 purchase. That’s more than the cost of my DVD player.

I don’t know where to go from here. I hope that the CBC will show the Christmas special sometime before, say, next Christmas. You never know; it could happen.

And I‘m freakin’ jealous of the TARDIS. The Stargate has nothing on the TARDIS (anyone who knows of my love for the Stargate as a plot device will know how significant a statement that is).

I just watched Stargate SG-1’s 200th episode, “200”, and it was simply incredible!

With ten years and (now) over 200 episodes under its belt, Stargate SG-1 has crossed the threshold from science fiction series to phenomenon. Part of the key to its success was that it has never taken itself too seriously; the show makes references to pop culture and even itself in semi-fourth-wall breaking moments. The 200th episode takes this and delivers it a hundredfold. It’s a gift to the fans, of course, those who have been with the show from its inception right to the present.

The show ended with a really poignant quote, however, of Isaac Asimov:

Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today—but the core of science fiction, its essence, the concept around which it revolves, has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.

And that’s basically why I love to read and write science fiction.

So Stargate SG-1 remains cancelled. Or sort of. The issue is more that Sci-Fi, the channel which airs Stargate SG-1, isn’t renewing it. There are rumours MGM, which produces the show, will take it elsewhere to continue it. I’m not sure if I’m so keen on that. Honestly, 10 years is enough for me. I would rather that Stargate SG-1 ends on such a high note than continue for another two or three years, slowly decaying until eventually it fades away.

The Ninth Doctor’s catchphrase was “Fantastic!”, but I think that the Tenth prefers to say variations of “That’s brilliant!” I really like the Tenth Doctor; David Tennant is doing a brilliant job at portraying his character, and the writers have done a smashing job with the plot.

I just finished watching “The Impossible Planet” tonight (yes, I know the CBC is behind on the shows…). Wow. Part of the reason I love the Doctor, of course, is because he’s one of the last action heroes on TV who is fun for the entire family. He doesn’t swear and spit as he shoots a massive laser gun into the hordes of rampaging aliens. In fact, when the chips are down, he is usually seen admiring the work of his enemy and attaching adjectives like “brilliant” and “stupendous” to things.

Like in tonight’s episode, the Doctor and Rose end up beyond the range of the TARDIS’ knowledge—smack on a base on a planet that is orbiting a black hole (as opposed to being ripped apart by its gravity). And the Doctor, upon hearing the story of why this ship full of humans came to the planet, hugged the captain. He even warned him—“I’m going to hug you now.” He hugged the captain because he just loves the human spirit of exploration. And watching the Doctor’s admiration for adventure, especially when it comes to beating the odds, is quite enjoyable.

Of course now I can’t wait until next week’s episode to find out how Rose and the Doctor get out of this one… (no spoilers!!)

Last updated Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 1:07 PM

My Children of Dune DVD arrived today. The other two items have still not been shipped, let alone arrived, but that’s all right. This one got here way faster than I expected, and of course, it is sweet.

Stargate SG-1’s 10th season premiered tonight. It was also awesome. It answered a lot of the questions raised in season 10, and I don’t think I’ve seen a better premiere. Most premieres suffer from too much or too little action. I think that the show has finally gotten the best grasp of Cam and Vala too; they really mix well with the older cast now. I will certainly be watching with much interest as the season progresses.

Interesting observation about the world of television—or rather, our view of the world behind television. Especially now that the Internet provides a 24/7 resource for us, we’ve become increasingly interested in the behind-the-scenes aspect of production. Who directed? Who was that guest star in season 6, episode 3? And when the producers of our favourite television show make a bad decision, or the writers introduce a clichéd plot twist, what do we do? We turn around and say, “Ugggh, I could do better than that!”

Well, some of us probably could. Most of us probably couldn‘t. And the truth is, not many of us actually want to. That’s the thing with TV, you see. The entire concept of fiction is centred around watching things happen to people without being able to do anything about it. This extends beyond fiction itself, however: most of the television industry happens without the public having direct control over it. We can’t control who they’ll hire as that new regular or who will write the season finale, and we wouldn’t want to be in control. It’s good to have things to complain about, after all.

Boy, this sounded a lot more interesting in my head. I think I’ll stop now before someone throws a pie at me—speaking of which, the pumpkin pie we’ve still got left over from Thanksgiving is really, really good—and go to school.

Oh, The Hour premiered for season 3 last night. For those of you aren’t aware, it isn’t a hip new drama on ABC—and don’t let George Stroumboulopoulos’ attitude fool you. I‘m glad that it’s back on now, because I can finally catch up with what’s going on in the world. Nuclear weapons, insane dictators—oh, and Kim Jong-il too.

Last night was the Canadian premiere of Battlestar Galactica, season 3. It was fantastic as television episodes go, but only okay by BSG standards—it was no “Kobol’s Last Gleaming”. The main problem was not enough action, too much talk—they had to spend too much time explaining what had happened during the four months that elapsed over the summer. It was too rough of a transition into the BSG universe for me. That said, I did enjoy it and I’m sure that the season will pick up as we see more episodes.

Air Farce is still no longer funny, but luckily both This Hour Has 22 Minutes and The Rick Mercer Report are carrying on the tradition of Canadian political satire. I‘ve also been watching The Colbert Report lately. And tomorrow The Hour starts again, so I can actually catch up with the real news! Doctor Who starts tomorrow as well, but unfortunately it conflicts with Stargate Atlantis. Why?! Why must you do this to me?!

Drama class is putting on a play; we’re doing 7 Stories, by Morris Panych, and I got cast as the lead role of “the Man”, who is a jumper. That’s right: I spend the entire play on a window ledge (on the seventh storey) trying to decide whether or not to jump while zany characters interrupt me. I have a lot of lines to memorise. But it’s a fun play.

And the epic novel writing continues, as much as it can. I really want to finish this second draft. I need a title. Blah. That’s what I feel. Very blah. I’ve been tired so far this weekend, and I really should relax, since it’s Thanksgiving and all. Happy Thanksgiving! Oooh … turkey. Mom’s turkey. There’s no excuse to eat like turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. Can’t blog now. Must … eat … delicious … food.

Here’s just a random distillation of the thoughts swirling around in my head today (happy Labour Day, everyone). Maybe after doing this I can actually get some writing done before I go to bed.

Speaking of which, I have school tomorrow. Yes, grade 12, my last year of high school. For those who would like to pretend to be interested in my course schedule:

First semester: Geometry/Discrete Math, AP Physics, AP Calculus, and Drama
Second semester: AP English, Chemistry, History, and Data Management

Yes, I have three math (physics is basically math-on-a-stick) courses in a row. There is a theory that lunch will sneak in between physics and calculus, but it’s a fringe theory at best.

For those of you whom I haven’t told, I originally wanted to take Writer’s Craft, but that was only offered once, at the same time as Geometry. :/ But by not taking it, I wouldn’t get a group 1 credit, which I need to graduate. Enter History class, say goodbye to my spare period. My workload shall be intense. But I don’t feel too bad, because I don’t deserve to—my friend Viv is getting royally screwed over in her schedule, which is quite messed up and will require some creative solutions to fix it. It’ll work out though.

Er, Steve Irwin died. In other news, the Department of Homeland Security has now banned stingrays from carry-on luggage. In a recent press release, a source revealed that $50 million has been allocated for the installation of stingray-detection technology at all major airports in the continental U.S.

I’ve spent most of the day putting off writing (not-writing, as I like to call it). I wasted a good half hour to hour browsing Wikipedia. Do you know how addictive that is? Oh sure, one article to fulfill curiosity seems harmless enough. But there are so many tantalising links to other articles! And before you know it, entire hours pass while you hop from article to article, never finishing one because you‘re going on to the next. It’s madness, I tell you! Madness!

I spent most of my time there browsing idly through the Sailor Moon articles, as well as taking a glance at the Big Bad Beetleborgs—whose name I’ve been trying to remember for ages; I can picture the costumes clearly in my head but had completely forgotten the name. Remember when those shows, and others, were on TV after school when we were young‘uns? I don’t know if they‘re just too old and have been replaced by fresher shows, or if I’m just too old to watch them in their time slots nowadays, but I do miss them, as poor as they were. I was a fan of Sailor Moon but only vaguely remember it nowadays (ironically I now watch no anime whatsoever, even though Sailor Moon was one of the first animes to migrate from Japan to North America). The Big Bad Beetleborgs were my substitute to Power Rangers (which I could never fully enjoy for some reason).

So yeah, I wasted time reading Wikipedia articles. And now I‘m wasting time doing this. But it’s worth it, no? It means I will avoid writing.

Stargate Atlantis Season 3 premieres in a week! I watched Episode 19 of Season 2, “Inferno”, tonight. The Movie Network is airing the Season 2 finale right before Season 3’s premiere next week, so I can catch it then. I also can’t wait for Battlestar Galactica (October 7), Doctor Who (Thanksgiving), and Stargate SG-1 (dunno when). And I‘m reasonably enthused for Smallville’s return, since the season finale was interesting, plus I will give Eureka a try, I think. Yes, folks, September is upon us, and that means that television is back in full swing.

And the promise of plenty of procrastination.

That’s right, the 2006 Spacey Awards are here! Vote for the best in science fiction and fantasy.

My picks:

Favourite Movie

Serenity

Favourite TV Show

Battlestar Galactica

Favourite TV Ensemble Cast

Stargate SG-1

Favourite New TV Character

Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell

Favourite FX

Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

(I didn’t vote for either Favourite Video Game or Favourite Action Sequence because I saw none of the games/movies nominated.)

Choosing my favourite TV show, in particular, was tough, since Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1, and Doctor Who were all nominated. Eventually I chose BSG, however, since although I find SG-1 enjoyable, BSG is just … awesome. I chose SG-1 for ensemble cast partly because I hadn’t voted for them as best TV show, but also because I like SG-1’s cast a lot.

It was either Mitchell or Vala for this one, since I don’t watch Lost and Milton Fine (aka Brainiac) isn‘t, in my mind, my favourite new TV character. I chose Mitchell because he’s a nice new thread that joins the rest of the SG-1 team together now that RDA has gone.

So … go vote. Go now.

Wow, that break went by pretty fast. So fast that if you blinked you probably missed it. I must say…I‘m not all that enthused about going back to school. This saddens me, because last year I would be definitely ready. This year, as I’ve said in previous posts, not so much. So I won’t harp on that here. This isn’t supposed to be a rant, eh.

I‘ve started work on Vanilla Guestbook’s total rewrite. I have the installation functions done and am working with the signing functions now.

I’ve also started book two—as in, the sequel to my novel. Originally I intended for it to be a trilogy, but lately a little doubt about that has been cast into my mind. Today at work I thought of a brilliant ending for book two! I’m really excited, because it has given me direction and inspiration. However, if I use the ending, it also opens up the unforeseen possibility of additional books before the saga reaches its conclusion. Maybe four, five—possibly even six. I’m open to the possibility—I was never locked on the idea of a trilogy; it was just a rough guide to start out. But it will require some thought.

Anyway, I should get to bed. School tomorrow and what not. Good night.

P.S. Did anyone else watch This Hour Has 22 Minutes on Friday?! If you haven’t heard yet, Canadian Tire has fired the Canadian Tire family. Any true Canadian is (if they haven’t already) now feeling a happy, satisfied glow over this news. Now remember that we have Stephen Harper as the Prime Minister. (And the glow disappears).

Well 22 Minutes had an excellent farewell parody. They had Mark Critch as the Canadian Tire guy and Cathy Jones as his wife talking about being fired. The Canadian Tire guy just couldn’t stop working Canadian Tire products into his sentences, though, and his wife was getting annoyed. She matter-factly told him that she was divorcing him and left, passing him at his request some rope (from Canadian Tire) and closing the garage door with the automatic door closer (from Canadian Tire). We last see Critch looping the rope around his neck (the implication being that he’s going to hang himself).

I shall post a link to the video when/if they put it up.

And now to sleep.

That was the episode of Battlestar Galactica last night. It was frakkin‘ awesome (to use the vernacular). To put that in perspective: my dad didn’t fall alseep during the episode!

It started off okay, but the music was a bit weird. I grew used to it, however, and the episode only got better. I think part of the reason that it was so cool was due to the fact that the Pegasus has “counterparts” to our Galactica crew. We got to see these more stringent, less ethical counterparts and how they operate—and it endears us that much more to the Galactica crew.

Best part of the episode: when Commander Adama’s on the phone with Tigh and Kallie is next to him. Tigh tells him about Helo and Tyrol’s court martial and impending execution, and you can literally feel Adama’s anger. You can also feel his regret, because it’s that moment when he finally stops lying to himself. Something had been upsetting him ever since the Pegasus arrived—this wasn’t a sudden decision; it was just the final culmination.

Then he orders that marine strike force, slams the phone down, and stalks away. He’s committing mutiny, but you love him for it, because it is so obvious that he is the hero.

That was probably the best single part of the episode. But nearly every character got some nice development—I didn’t see Gaida around, surprisingly. But Helo and Tyrol had a sort of “bonding moment”…if you call killing the Pegasus interrogator while attempting to defend the Cylon whom you love a “bonding moment”, I mean. And then Baltar’s overtures to the tortured Number Six aboard Pegasus were a nice conclusion to the episode. Notice the absence of the hallucination-Number Six during that scene…he actually got to do something on his own for once.

I can’t wait for next week. *fast-forwards time.*

So CBC News: The Hour had its season premiere tonight. I loved this show, and I still do. I have been waiting all summer for it to come back, because I can finally watch something each night and get up to date on all that “news” stuff happening in our world.

They changed the format a bit … and the guy working the cues needs to pay more attention to which buttons he (or she) is pressing and when. So while I mourn the loss of last season’s opening music, I think this season will grow on me.

So to start of the season, I shall now blog about politics!

One of the things I’ve always found interesting about Canadian politics is the fact that, especially with a minority government, our government is technically always on the verge of “collapse.” In the U.S., you vote someone into the White House as president and they stay there for four years. In Canada, Paul Martin has been struggling to stay in power within the last year alone.

Now, to change the tune about, how about that Gomery Report, eh? I actually liked Jean Chrétien better than Paul Martin, because at least you couldn’t understand when he was a lying and when he was being incomprehensible. However, his latest reactions to the Gomery Report are blatantly selfish and just goes to show that the public really doesn’t have any power.

What’s the point of setting up a public inquiry if you’re just going to do what you want after the results are delivered anyway?

Canadian politics. So much more interesting than your average politics, because we spell colour with a u.

I got my new sunglasses on Monday, and new glasses on Tuesday. So this is what you ordinary people see, eh? Mmm, shiny.

Watching late-night/early-morning television is extremely difficult, because it turns out that finding good late-night/early-morning television is more difficult than finding a Liberal Member of Parliament in Alberta. TBS generally has a movie on, although whether or not the movie is one I would like remains a difficult question.

There’s lots of Atlanta-based commercials that scare me. Almost half of them (if not more) appear to centre around career training/diploma training things. So I’m wondering, early at the morning, if TBS’ targetted demographic are high-school dropouts with low grades and a tendency to watch bad television programming?

The scary thing is that the answer is probably yes… .

John Morgan, memorable Air Farce comedian with character such as Mike from Canmore and Jock McBile, died on Monday.

I grew up on Air Farce, and John Morgan was my favourite of the troupe … it’s said to see so many good actors dying when I’m so young …

http://www.canoe.ca/Television/nov17_comic-cp.html