meddow

Best season yet. By a long way. Season five is amazing. All out with the Dominion becomes an inevitability, Cardassia becomes a threat again, and there seems to be huge emphasis on families, both conventional and unconventional. This post also covers the first six episodes of series six because I got to Call to Arms and I just had to see the arc through as quickly as possible.

( Thoughts )

Not long to go now until I finish the series. Sigh. I want to watch it slowly and savour it, but I haven't got that kind of patience. Plus the DVD rental period is a week, so I have to watch about four episodes a day.

I finished watching Sports Night!

I think Quo Vadimus is one of my favourite series finales ever. I'm a big fan of endings being open ended, and it doesn't get much more open ended that that. The major plotline - the future of the show - is resolved, but none of the romantic plots are given resolution and Sorkin seems to deliberately leaves the relationships of the show in ambiguous places.

I, in fact, really like the way the show handles romance in general. Yes, the dating plan is contrived, but at the same time, I really like that after a season of will-they-wont-they, Dana and Casey screw up their relationship before it can even begin and it becomes a definite 'they-wont'. It's not satisfactory in a romantic comedy sense, but it is satisfactory in that it's realistic. Plus it reminded me of Broadcast News.

I will do a bit Sports Night pimping post eventually, with pictures and things, when I have the time/energy.

Also, watched Stargate Universe and – surprisingly - I don't hate it. I don't think it's great, but I don't hate it, which is something.

But basically what I got from watching it is that the Stargate writers obviously watched BSG and decided they wanted to make that show, so watched and took notes and decided that what made BSG great was death, darkness and the shaky-cam. So what we got was Stargate with death, darkness and a shaky-cam.

Unfortunately, what made BSG great was not death, darkness and the shaky-cam (although, I do think BSG is one of the most beautifully shot shows on telly). It was complex, layered characters, intelligent writing and big themes with more hits than misses their execution. And well, the Stargate writers have never been that great at characters, and particularly not at character development, the writing was to much of a rip off to be intelligent and themes, umm, what themes? (can we shoot some bad guys now?)

And more unfortunately, in order to make it a new, 'improved' and 500% more serious Stargate, they had to do away with the elements that made the Stargate franchise so wonderfully watchable in the first place: the funny, the crack and the team-y goodness. Coz what Stargate is to me, it's funny sci-fi crack, filled with team-y goodness.

Plus, I can't seperate it from the rest of the Stargate Universe, which means that I can't sit back and watch the characters scrambling around for a double episode trying to fix a problem and not think to myself, 'just give Sam or McKay duck-tape and a crazy straw and they'd have that fixed in five minutes.'

Still, I found it didn't actively suck. And it was great seeing what SG1 is up to these days (for the record: Jack's gotten fat, Daniel's the host of 'Stargate for dummies' instructional videos, and Sam's in command of her own spaceship, and has Teal'c waiting for her in her quarters. Okay, I made up that last part, but somebody's got to be a rabid Teal'c/Sam shipper, and the lack of a Teal'c cameo was disheartening). And I actually want to see what happens next week, so I will probably watch.

Oh, Emmys. Using music written by a composer you snubbed, for a drama show you snubbed, in the drama montage.

Fat!Lee salutes you!



(Hey, I'm happy. I've been looking for a good excuse to use this Fat!Lee gif for ages).

On to the actual subject of this post. A random thought that's come to me while watching lots of Sports Night: The West Wing is my Star Trek.

You know how you hear from engineer, scientists, actors, politicians and all manner of people in all manner of jobs that watching Star Trek back in the day helped them to go into those careers because it was a show that presented a vision of society and the world as it could be that inspired them. Well, that's how I feel about The West Wing, and Sports Night for that matter. That the world should be filled with smart, witty, passionate people who are genuinely compassionate and devoted to what they do. Work colleagues should be like family and a place of work a home. Reasoned debate conducted at a rapid pace while walking down corridors should rule decision making. And being a big dork should get you everywhere in this world

Aaron Sorkin's view of the world is one that's hopeful and positive, and thing is, coming back into the Sorkin's worlds after something of a break, I've realized how much that world and those characters meant to me how it's my idealized society, and I'm never going to stop wanting that world, just as I'm never going to stop wanting to be CJ Cregg when I grow up, or just as much as I'm never going to stop amassing a mind full of useless trivia. I'm always going to want to find that workplace and those colleagues and it's never going to stop driving my actions.

Of course, all this would make Aaron Sorkin my Gene Roddenberry, which is unfortunate since I think Aaron Sorkin is a jackass. But it does make Toby Ziegler my Spock, which I can totally live with.

With fall tv premiers happening soon, this is about the time when I go on a tv cull, deciding what to watch and what to not watch. But this year, I seem to be watching very little so I don't need to drop things to make room. Of the new shows last year, the only one I really checked out was Fringe, and I got bored of that pretty quickly and stopped watching. I keep on meaning to give up Grey's Anatomy, but somehow I keep watching despite myself. Last season's House finale disappointed me a lot and I loathe Huddy, real or imaginary. (For me it's House/misanthropy, House/Wilson/misanthropy or House/Wilson/Amber), but I'll probably still end up watching that as well.

But yeah, in new shows I'm quite excited about Glee, because the pilot was adorable, I seem to love musical television shows and I loved Popular back in the day, which was by the same guy (anyone else remember that show? It was a lot more witty than normal teen fare). Flash Forward's getting a bit of hype, and I can't help but love the cast, but the central premise seems just a bit dull. I'll check out the pilot, but if it doesn't get interesting quickly or turns out to be as frustrating as Lost, I'll probably not watch.

In the battle of the next potential BSGs, I'm really exited about V, which unfortunately doesn't premiere until November. I've got little to go on aside from buzz, but the buzz is good. I've seen the pilot for Caprica, which has an even further away premier date of January. I liked it a lot, but it's more Rome than BSG. That's not a bad thing as I loved Rome and I'll certainly watch Caprica, but the setting gives it such a different feel to its parent show and its certainly weird that my mental comparison goes first not to the show that spawned it, but to a completely different and not at all related show. But then, I think of BSG as Rome in space, since, aside from the religious aspects, it has a similar mixture of military matters, political intrigue and personal drama. Actually, it struck me the other day that Lee and Zarek from Sine Qua Non to Blood on the Scales are kind of like Octavian and Mark Antony, the inexperienced adopted son vs. the second in command for to be the heir to Julius Caesar's (Roslin's) throne. (And if Zarek is Mark Antony, I would suppose that would make Gaeta Cleopatra...).

Anyway, back to what I was talking about, Stargate: Universe actually has the most BSG-esq premise, but I'll only watch if it gets good reviews. I trust the Stargate writers to do lighthearted, snarky and slightly cracky. I don't trust them to be able to pull off serious, intelligent and dark.

One thing I have noticed lately is that aside from the likes of Doctor Who, Grey's and House, most of the television I watch these days I don't watch when it originally airs. Lately I seem to discover it on DVD some time after it originally aired and often after the series has ended (as is what happened with Rome, BSG and Life on Mars), and by the time I've gotten into it everyone else has moved on. So I'm determined to be more onto it with my show watching.

Hollywood's complete inability to come up with an original idea is only second to the writing of female characters in romcoms when it comes to making me despair about the current state of big-budget entertainment, and rebooting Battlestar Galactica again, so soon after it was just successfully rebooted, just proves how ridiculous it's getting. First of all, why? The 2003 reboot only provided six years of acclaimed television, lasted longer than the original series and spawned a spin-off. Was is not successful enough? Secondly, there is no way comparisons would not be drawn. And I understand it, if they return to the original material (I haven't actually watched the original series), there would be no Roslin or Six (or any of the other skin-job model Cylons for that matter), Baltar would be properly evil rather than, well, Baltar, and Starbuck, Boomer and Admiral Cain would all suddenly be men. Weird.

I watched The Edge of Darkness recently, a political thriller about nuclear weapons from the BBC, which aired originally in 1985. It is bloody good. Basically, it's about a cop who witnesses his daughter's murder which causes him to investigate and in turn become involved in a conspiracy involving governments, environmental protesters, secret agents and some wonderful larger-than-life characters. It gets a bit nuts, but just when I think its skirting the edge of credibility, I remind myself that the French government sent secret agents half way around the world to blow up anti-nuclear protest ship in Auckland Harbour the very same year it aired, and so things really were a bit crazy back in the 1980s.

While normally when I watch old TV, I kind of have to adjust my mindset to take into account the low budgets, sub-par effects and the plodding pace, going on twenty-five years after it originally aired it holds up. It seems the BBC actually spent money on it, and the direction and pacing holds up by today's standards. And thinking about its impact, I think it's clear Ashes to Ashes in particular borrows heavily from it, and the daughter hanging about the main character after her death makes me wonder if it was the first time the ghost trope was used on television. These days, its hard to think of television shows that don't have characters talking to dead people.

I also re-watched Children of Earth, and if any one character gets to come back, can it please be Johnson? I've decided she's my favourite of the new crop, as not only is she incredibly competent and morally ambiguous but for a purpose, but they also bothered to give her a degree of compassion, a quality writers don't usually bother with in secondary characters of that nature. Plus, I want Alice back, but that might be because Johnson/Alice is my Torchwood OTP, as messed up as it would be. Oh, and I want Lois as the new Ianto and creepy dude as the new Tosh, because they'd get left behind in the hub while the rest go on missions, and watching Lois constantly one-uping creepy dude to keep him in line could make for great entertainment.

twelvecolonies

Where three teams of BSG fans (Team Galactica, Team Basestar and Team Colonial One) battle it out for ultimate supremacy and bragging rights. It's loads of fun and if you say I sent you there, my team gets points.

Also, Rosencrantz watched Daybreak Part II for the first time the other day and had the best reaction I've seen so far: “Wow. Starbuck can run really fast.”

Now I've got to go finish that picspam I've been working on for picspammy

I'm very late to comment, but I love Eleven's costume. And I have exactly the same Converses as Amy Pond. Except I've worn holes in the soles of mine so I can't really wear them anymore.

Speaking of Eleven, over the past few days I watched Neverwhere. It's really too late to jump on the Paterson Joseph for Eleven bandwagon, isn't it? Not that I have any problem with Matt Smith and I'm really excited about seeing him in action (2010 is not coming quickly enough).

Anyway, Neverwhere was good, a bit predictable in the big bad (particularly if you've read Sandman) but I loved the setting and I'm sure everyone who plays the UK version of monopoly can appreciate one of the characters being an actual angel called Islington. Unfortunately it was completely let down by it apparent production budget of £2.50 and some choices of direction which might possibly have been interesting in 1996, but have not aged well. Watching it I couldn't help but wish for a movie remake, because it'd be Harry Potter meets Pirates of the Caribbean (I couldn't help but compare the Marquis de Carabas with Jack Sparrow) and the lead character just screams for James McAvoy to play him. But it's apparently 'in-development' so I'm not holding my breath.

(I'm becoming very bitter with Hollywood at the moment since nothing I want to see adapted ever makes it out of development hell. And if I don't want to see it adapted, it tends to be one of the biggest movies of summer.)

I think I'm the only person in the world who hasn't seen Harry Potter yet. I'll get there maybe next week or the one after that. I kind of blew my movie budget being dragged to see Star Trek for the second time last week. Well, not so much dragged as tagged along with Flatmate and her kid brother. I've decided the movie is doing something a bit wrong since the thirteen year old kid brother came out with the impression that Kirk was smarter than Spock, and also the question “So, Spark, is he a Cylon?”

Damn it Torchwood, exploiting my soft spot for characters who are civil servants and using it to keep me on tenterhooks.

I do have a huge soft spot for civil servants though. I was actually way more upset about what happened to Yvonne Hartman in Doomsday than I was about anything to do with the forcible ending of Ten and Rose's co-dependence. Of all the things Laura Roslin did in BSG, which included election fraud, ordering a genocide and baby stealing, one of the few things I can't get over were those few times she was mean to Tory (even after what Tory did in The Ties that Bind) and in fact what happened to Tory is my biggest Daybreak gripe, and I was totally a Percy Weasley apologist in Harry Potter fandom.

And then if you tally up my favourite characters in various fandoms, a hell of a lot of them work for the government in some kind of fashion: Nymphadora Tonks and aforementioned Percy Weasley, James Norrington and Weatherby Swann in PotC, nearly every character that has ever worked or been affiliated with UNIT in DW along with Yvonne Hartman and now John Frobisher, Billy, Gaeta and Tory in BSG, and, although technically elected officials, in my mind I lump them in with the above lot: Harriet Jones, Harvey Dent and Laura Roslin. There is most definitely a trend.

I blame The West Wing, it being my major fandom through my wilderness teenage years and nearly every character being a noble and put-upon civil servant.

As for the episode, I could have done with out the slime and certainly the slime sound effects. Reminded me of Aliens of London Saying that, oh I would laugh so very hard if the 456 turn out to be the Slitheen. And then I would throw things.

Being another unknown, there's really much to say about the new companion other than I really like her hair and I hope her character's going to be Scottish rather than another Londoner. It struck me on seeing a photo of her just how young Team TARDIS 2010 is going to be.

Speaking of Doctor Who, I was always a bit 'meh' about the idea of a Doctor Who movie, but when I was watching Star Trek XI recently I was thinking to myself about how cool it would be to watch other beloved sci-fi TV shows on the big screen with movie grade special effects, so I’m all for it now. Can I put a vote in for Ten and Donna team up there. Tennant being the iconic Doctor of the new series would have to be involved, and I've had my fill of one-off companions at the moment – I prefer it when I can create some attachment to the character - so I'd definitely be for bringing back Donna and/or a post-crush Martha. A multi-Doctor story with Nine and Eleven. Even better if they can get One through Eight in there somewhere somehow. And I'd imagine it'd be a Dalek story. Because, really, they would be the villain in a big screen version of the show.

Also, awesome news that Ten's going to be in an SJA story, and in a major role too, not a cameo.

I finished watching Law & Order UK and really hope there's a second series. I thought the main prosecutor guy was a bit dull, but other than that it was excellent. Best thing about it is that it reminded me why I have a huge great big crush on Jamie Bamber, because I really didn't find him all that attractive in BSG. While I did have my moments of Apollo love, I usually found him dull at best and down right annoying at worst. Anyway, L&O UK has got me re-watching Hornblower at the moment for poor doomed Kennedy.

Finally, I checked out the pilot of The Middleman and I love it. Major bonus points for Wendy mentioning she reads Astro City. So I'll watch the rest of that series when I have a chance.

1. I redesigned my lj. I'm kind of proud of it because for the first time, I myself did the header and modifications to the colour scheme myself (from a layout from the_fulcrum). I went to a bit of a BSG theme. Next up is to redesign my profile.

2. Speaking of BSG, I signed up for the bsg_bigbang. Twenty-thousand words by October. I learnt my lesson from the tardis_bigbang last year – no time travel plots with twists that do my head in when writing it. Instead it's going to be a nice linear more character driven New Caprica story.

3. Lame video store that did not have any Star Trek movies besides the franchise-killing Nemesis bought itself Star Treks I through V. I'm going to check them out one of these days.

4. In the mean time, I watched Blade Runner for like the first time ever and not only did I understand how much Red Dwarf: Back to Earth was a spoof (I knew it was a bit of a spoof, but I didn't realise the extent), but also, I get the deal with the pigeon in the BSG final now. It was very educational. Kind of like when I watched The Untouchables and finally understood why there was a baby in pram in every single movie made in the 1990s.

5. I'm stoked Jack Davenport's pilot got picked up as a series. Shame Katee Sackhoff's didn't. I know it was basically Law & Order: Cold Case in a market already oversaturated with procedurals, but I for one would have watched it for Katee Sackhoff.

6. I don't think the season finale of House was as good at the episodes leading up to it. And I'm so used to season finales of House having some massive twist, I kind of guessed it a minute into the episode – which possibly ruined it for me. Still, I hope Amber sticks around for at least the first couple of episode of next season.

7. The latest episode of Ashes to Ashes, however, I think was one the best yet so far. I'm loving the mystery at the heart of it.