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Science-Fiction

DVD REVIEW: Stargate Atlantis: The Complete Fourth Season: Wraith, Replicators and Pregnancy!

Posted by   on July 29, 2008

in DVD,DVD Reviews,Sci-Fi Channel,Stargate Atlantis

One thing you can say about the Stargate franchise – it may rarely reach brilliance, but it’s equally rarely less than fun. Season four of SG Atlantis found Torri Higginson’s Dr. Elizabeth Weir leaving her command for a pretty good reason – to keep the Replicators from destroying Atlantis. In her stead, the Atlantis Expedition welcomed [all except for maybe David Hewlett’s Rodney McKay] Col. Samantha Carter [Amanda Tapping] as their new commander.

Box Art

Along with other familiar villainous faces [like the Genii], season four also brought the former Wraith Michael [Connor Trinneer] back and tied his arc into the story of Teyla’s [Rachel Luttrell] pregnancy [Luttrell’s real pregnancy sparked the writers’ ideas]. We got to see Rodney attempt to propose marriage; the deserted Atlantis of twenty-eight thousand years in the future, and a fable about a little girl who was about to become queen. The season’s creative high point may have been Tabula Rasa [with everyone’s memories gone, including his, Rodney has to save the city], but I particularly enjoyed Midway wherein Col. Carter asks Teal’c [Christopher Judge] to help Ronan [Jason Momoa] prepare for his IOA interview – and things go, of course, hilariously wrong.

Overall, Atlantis’ fourth season rarely disappoints. The writers have a firm handle on the characters and seem able to produce interesting new riffs on the many aspects of the series. The cast is a well-oiled unit, figuratively speaking, and each has shown the capacity for bringing new shadings to their characters as the writers delve more deeply into them.

Features include: Audio Commentaries on nineteen of the twenty episodes [excepting only the one I wanted most, Midway]; four Mission Directive Featurettes [Doppelganger, This Mortal Coil, Quarantine and Outcast]; A New Leader: Amanda Tapping Joins Stargate Atlantis Featurette; The Doctor is In: The Return of Paul McGillion Featurette; The Making of Trio Featurette; A Look Back at Season Four Featurette; Bloopers; Deleted Scenes, and the usual collection of Photo & Design Galleries.

Grade: Stargate Atlantis: The Complete Season Four – B

Grade: Features: A+

Final Grade: A-

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TELEVISION: Eureka Kicks Off Season Three With A Bang!

Posted by   on July 29, 2008

in Sci-Fi Channel,Television,TV Reviews

When Eureka [Tuesdays, Sci Fi, 9/8C] returns for its third season, tomorrow night, it will feature a number of big bangs – and not just from the scientific menace. Bad to the Drone will feature [among other things]: Allison’s [Sally Richardson-Whitfield] answer to ex-husband Nathan Stark’s [Ed Quinn] proposal; an efficiency expert, Eva Thorne aka The Fixer [Frances Fisher], whose mandate is to stop the town’s financial woes by helping/forcing Global Dynamics to find ways to turn their top-secret projects into merchandise; and a terrific riff on the Robert Sheckley short story classic, Watchbird – and all of these threads combine to create more problems for Sheriff Jack Carter [Colin Ferguson].

eureka-tv

Other plot points include Zoe’s [Jordan Hinson] part-time job and Henry’s [Joe Morton] incarceration for treason – not to mention Deputy Jo Lupo’s [Erica Cerra] difficulty in finding a suitable romantic counterpart. Then there’s the problem posed by the town’s most popular eatery [plus, we learn how it’s possible for Cafe´ Diem to serve whatever the customer wants – no matter how bizarre or obscure...].

For a breezy, light summer series, Eureka continues to be as Calvin used to say, “Just packed!” Somehow, though, director Bryan Spicer manages to shoehorn in all of writer Jaime Paglia’s script without making the ep seem either too busy or too forced. Something else that comes through – and very plainly – is the enthusiasm the cast has for the show. Their performances [especially Colin Ferguson’s as the sheriff and a very concerned father] are as good here as they’ve ever been.

Upcoming eps see The Fixer’s particular expertise rendered useless when the inhabitants of a Global Dynamics biosphere begin evolving in reverse; Zoe beginning her accelerated physics program; the annual dog show growing more competitive than usual, and there appears to be an earthquake. Seems like just another season in Eureka.

Final Grade: B+

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MOVIE REVIEW: The X-Files: I Wanted To Believe!

Posted by   on July 25, 2008

in Movie Reviews,Movies

As an X-Phile who sat through every single episode of the The X-Files [yup, all nine seasons and the first movie], I have to say that it was disheartening to see a mere eighteen people in the theater for the first matinee of The X-Files: I Want To Believe. What was even more disheartening was watching the film unfold to pretty much stony silence from the assembled [I’d hardly call it a crowd].

You don’t need to have watched the television program to understand what’s going on in I Want to Believe, but it certainly helps when it comes to some of the inside jokes and character moments. Even a non-X-Phile can follow the plot – which revolves around a specific urban legend – and the relationship between former FBI agents Fox Mulder [David Duchovny] and Dr. Dana Scully [Gillian Anderson] is apparent even to the uninitiated [though some of their exchanges might not have the same impact for those new to the X-Files experience].

Mulder and Scully

Duchovny and Anderson slip back into their roles so well, it’s like they’ve always been there and there are pleasantly surprising performances from newcomers to the X-Files, Xzibit [as a sceptical FBI Agent who seems like a Skinner-in-training, but without the people skills] and Billy Connolly as a psychic pedophile ex-priest. Amanda Peet, as Agent-in-Charge Dakota Whitney, is merely adequate. Callum Keith Rennie, as the primary villain, brings a suitable menace to his performance.

Unfortunately, the plot is pretty average – to the point where the B-plot [Scully’s efforts to save the life of a boy with a deadly brain disease] is actually more involving. On the plus side, series creator Chris Carter – who co-wrote the script with Frank Spotnitz – does a good job of creating the murky, atmospheric feel that made the series unique to the proceedings. That compensates for many of the film’s flaws.

The X-Files: I Want To Believe is an adequate way to kill a couple of hours, but it’s not likely to spawn the kind of fervent glee that the best episodes of the series generated. I fear this will be the last new X-Files adventure/investigation. Pity… [Please note, stay through the credits and you’ll see a glimpse of Mulder and Scully that is particularly memorable for Scully fans – two words: black bikini.]

Final Grade: C+

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DVD REVIEW: The Invaders: The First Season – They’re Here! by Sheldon Wiebe

Posted by   on June 2, 2008

in DVD,DVD Reviews

In January, 1967, a new science fiction series called The Invaders premiered on ABC [“In Color”]. The show ran for two seasons and vanished. In its short run, it influenced a lot of writers – echoes of the series can be seen in one-season wonders like Dark skies and long-running hits like The X-Files.

The series revolved around architect David Vincent [Roy Thinnes], who had pulled off the main road after too many hours without caffeine to take a nap. He was awakened by an eerie sound and watched as a UFO landed scant yards from where he was parked. The basic premise of the series was that Vincent had to find proof of the aliens’ existence so the world could be alerted to its danger. The problem was that the aliens could assume human form – only deformed pinkie fingers were a sign of their otherness.

Invaders Season 1

The first season DVD set includes all seventeen episodes. Shot in producer Quinn Martin’s trademark quasi-documentary style [like his best-known hit, The Fugitive], The Invaders was written and performed without resorting to colloquialisms, making it seem timeless [even some of the ‘60s fashions have been back a time or two]. Roy Thinnes does a marvellous job of making Vincent’s growing paranoia palpable, and the show’s plots felt very real.

The show had an all-star selection of guest-stars to add to its impact – J.D. Cannon, Ellen Corby, James Daley and Diane Baker appeared in the premiere alone. Others to guest star include Roddy Macdowall, Laurence Naismith, Suzanne Pleshette, Arthur Hill, Louise Latham, Jack Lord and Diana Hyland [and that’s just in the first half-dozen eps!].

Besides crackerjack writing and the all-star guest starring cast, the series also had extremely good effects for the time. Both the UFOs in flight and the alien immolations hold up pretty well when compared with similar work being done today.

Features include: The Extended, 60-Minute Version of the Series Premiere; A New Interview – and Episode Introductions By – Roy Thinnes; Commentary on The Innocents by Series Creator Larry Cohen, and Network Promotional Spots.

Grade: The Invaders: The First Season – A

Grade: Features – B

Final Grade: A-

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INTERVIEW: Roy Thinnes, TV’s David Vincent, Talks The Invaders by Sheldon Wiebe

Posted by   on June 2, 2008 · 1 comment

in Hollywood Insider,Television

thinnes-roy-

When The Invaders premiered as a mid-season replacement on January 10, 1967, science fiction on television was a pretty grim genre. The heyday of Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits was past and – other than Star Trek – the best the genre had to offer was campy series that played fast and loose with the science because it was “science fiction and you could do what you wanted” [generic quote from producers of every bad television science fiction series ever made]. Like Star Trek’s Gene Roddenberry, the creator of The Invaders wanted to avoid that kind of silliness – as did the show’s producer, the legendary Quinn Martin [The Fugitive]. It was their straightforward, no-nonsense, dramatic approach that convinced Roy Thinnes to take on the role of David Vincent, the architect who saw an alien ship land way too early one morning. Mr. Vincent was kind enough to chat with me about the series and its effect on his life.

[click to continue…]

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Television Review: The Andromeda Strain, Sheldon Says Don’t Strain Yourselves For This Weak Remake!

Posted by   on May 26, 2008

in Television

Robert Wise’s The Andromeda Strain was the first adaptation of a Michael Crichton bestseller to film. That was in 1971, and the 2001-like elegance of its design, and the computer-like efficiency of the members of the Wildfire team, gave us an entertainment was scary on so many levels that it was almost an improvement on the novel. The same can’t be said for the A&E mini-series which airs tonight and tomorrow at 9/8C.

When a satellite crashes to Earth, a couple of kids find and haul it into town, where a well-meaning firefighter cracks it open. A very short time later, the town is found to be dead – bodies lying everywhere – except for one person, who’s to blitzed to be much help. So, the Wildfire Team is called into action – and set up with the satellite and its contents in a lab five miles blow the surface.

ASremake-thumb

The team includes Dr. Jeremy Stone [Benjamin Bratt], Dr. Charlene Barton [Viola Davis], Dr. Tsi Chou [Daniel Dae Kim], Dr. Angela Noyce [Christa Miller] and Major Bill Keane MD [Ricky Schroeder]. Other major players include General George Mancheck [Andre Braugher], reporter Jack Nash [Eric McCormack], U.S. President Scott [Ted Whittall]. The plot remains the same – the Wildfire Team is to figure out what caused all those deaths before the thing mutates too far and breaks out. They are hampered by communications problems [deliberately imposed by Mancheck]; not having a lot of time, and by racial problems between two team members, among other things.

The movie was 130 minutes long. The mini-series goes for 180-plus. The difference? Lotsa cool new tech toys to play with – lotsa pretty flashing lights and a much younger and prettier cast. Also, a much less imaginative script, plodding direction and less than excellent acting. To put it plainly, the A&E Andromeda Strain mini-series looks good – and that’s all it does well. None of the cast distinguishes themselves and some [Bratt and Braugher in particular] are painful to watch.

Here’s a better idea: tonight rent the movie, and tomorrow night rent The Terminal Man. Both are based on Crichton’s novels, and both are vastly superior to this particular waste of time.

Final Grade: D

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