No new post today...I'm not feeling very well and I really don't have anything to say.
There probably won't be a post next week either, since I have a medical thing going on next Tuesday that I am sure will leave me with no desire to be writing afterwards.
So...I hope all is well and hopefully I'll be back in full form in two weeks.
In the meantime, I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving.
-C
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Blah...
So I doubt this will be a long post tonight. I'm not terribly in the blogging mood (been fighting some health issues this week, again), and my smegging internet connection has been acting up every time I've logged into my lap top today. Heh. Can you tell I've been reading Red Dwarf?
Anyhoo. I wanted to be writing today about getting to see the forthcoming Battlestar Galactica telemovie Razor in a theater last night. Every once in a while Sci Fi Channel does something cool and not evil and one of those things was to arrange free screenings in several big cities across the U.S. a few weeks before actually premiering it on television. One of those cities happened to be the metroplex in which I find myself so as soon as I could I went and registered me and the hubby to go. Of course, enter the aforementioned health issues and I really really wasn't up to going, since we would have had to be out pretty late and have much car time, which isn't really my friend at the moment. So...I guess I'll just have to wait and see like the rest of humanity.
Is anyone else out there thinking April is way too far away for us to wait for new Battlestar episodes? Seriously...they're just going to tease us in November with a two hour special and then nothing until April. Plus...they haven't even released season three on DVD yet. There is something seriously wrong with the season four lead-in telemovie getting released on DVD and season three's release date not even having been announced yet. Grr.
Okay, rant over.
So, instead of Battlestar awesomeness, and in attempt to avoid Battlestar bitterness, I shall instead speak of Torchwood.
This week's episode was really nifty. Titled "Out of Time" it featured, wait for it...no aliens whatsoever. The crux of this episode was three people from the 1950's taking a short half hour flight from one part of the U.K. to another who just happened to fly right through a rift in time and end up in 2007. The episode featured no frenzied attempts to send the people back to their own time because, wait for it again...there was no way to send them back. Each of these individuals was faced with finding themselves fifty plus years in the future, all of their family dead or dying, and learning not only how to move on but how to do so in a world nothing like the one they had left. Each victim of the time rift was more or less adopted by a member of the Torchwood gang (which sadly left poor Tosh and Ianto with no screen time whatsoever), and the episode follows these people coming to terms with what has happened to them and deciding how to get on with their lives (or not). By doing this, the writers also managed to give the audience a profound insight into each of the three Torchwood members who interacted with our friends from the past. This was an excellent way to reveal these characters to us and make them all the more real, and very much fallible in their own ways.
This episode was beautiful to me in that it really reinforced that good science fiction isn't actually about "science," but about people. The point of science fiction (as with the point of most fiction in general) is to take a possible, impossible, probable, or improbable situation and put people just like you and me smack dab in the middle. Then we sit back and see how they roll. I enjoy science fiction because it allows the imagination to roam a little more, in my humble opinion. But the core of the story is always about the people and what they do when presented with aliens, or people from the past, or learning that their "perfect" Utopian society is anything but (I have a whole post planned on dystopia's once I get around to re-watching Jericho, just you wait).
So anyhoo, this is an episode of Torcwhood I would heartily recommend to even just the casual viewer because it's one that speaks to the heart of humans and how we meet change.
That's about it from me tonight. I want to express my best wishes to the WGA for their ongoing strike effort. I wish they didn't have to do it, but I totally get it. I can only hope, for their sake and ours, that a happy compromise for writers and studios alike can be found sooner rather than later--though I find that highly unlikely. I've never understood why fair compensation is something we, as people, are so unwilling to give. Perhaps I should start digging through my collection of science fiction to see if anyone has held a mirror up to that aspect of society yet...
As ever,
Ciao
-C
Recent Acquisition: Shrek the Third
Anyhoo. I wanted to be writing today about getting to see the forthcoming Battlestar Galactica telemovie Razor in a theater last night. Every once in a while Sci Fi Channel does something cool and not evil and one of those things was to arrange free screenings in several big cities across the U.S. a few weeks before actually premiering it on television. One of those cities happened to be the metroplex in which I find myself so as soon as I could I went and registered me and the hubby to go. Of course, enter the aforementioned health issues and I really really wasn't up to going, since we would have had to be out pretty late and have much car time, which isn't really my friend at the moment. So...I guess I'll just have to wait and see like the rest of humanity.
Is anyone else out there thinking April is way too far away for us to wait for new Battlestar episodes? Seriously...they're just going to tease us in November with a two hour special and then nothing until April. Plus...they haven't even released season three on DVD yet. There is something seriously wrong with the season four lead-in telemovie getting released on DVD and season three's release date not even having been announced yet. Grr.
Okay, rant over.
So, instead of Battlestar awesomeness, and in attempt to avoid Battlestar bitterness, I shall instead speak of Torchwood.
This week's episode was really nifty. Titled "Out of Time" it featured, wait for it...no aliens whatsoever. The crux of this episode was three people from the 1950's taking a short half hour flight from one part of the U.K. to another who just happened to fly right through a rift in time and end up in 2007. The episode featured no frenzied attempts to send the people back to their own time because, wait for it again...there was no way to send them back. Each of these individuals was faced with finding themselves fifty plus years in the future, all of their family dead or dying, and learning not only how to move on but how to do so in a world nothing like the one they had left. Each victim of the time rift was more or less adopted by a member of the Torchwood gang (which sadly left poor Tosh and Ianto with no screen time whatsoever), and the episode follows these people coming to terms with what has happened to them and deciding how to get on with their lives (or not). By doing this, the writers also managed to give the audience a profound insight into each of the three Torchwood members who interacted with our friends from the past. This was an excellent way to reveal these characters to us and make them all the more real, and very much fallible in their own ways.
This episode was beautiful to me in that it really reinforced that good science fiction isn't actually about "science," but about people. The point of science fiction (as with the point of most fiction in general) is to take a possible, impossible, probable, or improbable situation and put people just like you and me smack dab in the middle. Then we sit back and see how they roll. I enjoy science fiction because it allows the imagination to roam a little more, in my humble opinion. But the core of the story is always about the people and what they do when presented with aliens, or people from the past, or learning that their "perfect" Utopian society is anything but (I have a whole post planned on dystopia's once I get around to re-watching Jericho, just you wait).
So anyhoo, this is an episode of Torcwhood I would heartily recommend to even just the casual viewer because it's one that speaks to the heart of humans and how we meet change.
That's about it from me tonight. I want to express my best wishes to the WGA for their ongoing strike effort. I wish they didn't have to do it, but I totally get it. I can only hope, for their sake and ours, that a happy compromise for writers and studios alike can be found sooner rather than later--though I find that highly unlikely. I've never understood why fair compensation is something we, as people, are so unwilling to give. Perhaps I should start digging through my collection of science fiction to see if anyone has held a mirror up to that aspect of society yet...
As ever,
Ciao
-C
Recent Acquisition: Shrek the Third
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Magic time...
Do you know what's a really cool series? The Dresden Files. It only lasted for one (short) season on Sci Fi but man was it awesome. I've been rewatching the series (only one and a half episode to go) over the weekend as an interlude between seasons two and three of Doctor Who.
I had forgotten how truly fun this show was. Based on the series of novels by author Jim Butcher, the show followed the adventures of Harry Dresden. Harry is a Wizard. He lives in Chicago and works as a "consultant" for the Chicago PD--helping out on the "unexplained" or "weird" cases that us mere mortals couldn't possibly comprehend.
Really it's just another supernatural detective series but Harry is an interesting character. He belongs to the Morningway bloodline--a powerful line of wizards who are primarily known to the High Council (the governing body of the wizarding world) for being "trouble." But his mother broke tradition and married a simple magician--with no magical talent. Harry seems to me to want to live in the "real" world but he, like his family before him, has a knack for finding trouble of the supernatural sort.
My favorite part of the whole show? Bob. Bob is the ghost of a sorcerer who centuries ago fell in love with a sorceress named Winifred. When she died he broke all of the rules and brought his lost love back from the dead. Of course, this is highly forbidden, so he was sentenced to spend the rest of eternity as a spirit trapped in his own skull. Bob's kind of the straight laced guru to Harry's laid back PI. It's a really entertaining combo to watch.
Throughout the series we get to see Harry face off against werewolves, vampires, an incubus, and even a dragon. There are also lots of perpetrators of black magic on the loose and somehow our hapless wizard always ends up right smack dab in the middle of things.
I haven't read the books (I have a self-imposed moratorium on buying any new books or starting any new series until I have finished my large reading pile) but I am planning to. I can only imagine they are as rich or richer than the series they inspired.
So, should you find yourself looking for a quick fix in the world of sci-fi/magic on television, I would highly recommend this one.
On another note, it looks like the WGA strike is now in full swing. I am curious to see how it affects the rest of the television season. I hope for the sake of all involved that the strike won't have to last too long. I do take heart in the fact that our friends the writers have been joined on the picket lines by actors, producers, and just average schmoes. They seem to be getting a lot of support--hopefully the studios will take that into account and decide to start looking for some way to at least try to meet the writers in the middle. Also, kudos to the folks at Whedonesque for delivering pizza to the picket lines. Jane Espenson and Joss Whedon have already expressed their gratitude and it just made me happy to hear about. Huzzah!
If you're looking for something to occupy your viewing time once those produced scripts start drying up, I have a recommendation for you. Check out the wonderful online series Sanctuary. They've got eight webisodes in the can already, and they are excellent. We're not talking mid-level, made in someone's basement, web series here--we're talking about a full on production. It stars Amanda Tapping and Robin Dunne as well as featuring several familiar faces from the world of Stargate. It's good stuff.
Well, that's all I've got for tonight.
Wishing you all happiness and peace,
C
Recent acquisitions: Doctor Who season three; Opus 'n Bill in A Wish for Wings that Work; Ratatouille
I had forgotten how truly fun this show was. Based on the series of novels by author Jim Butcher, the show followed the adventures of Harry Dresden. Harry is a Wizard. He lives in Chicago and works as a "consultant" for the Chicago PD--helping out on the "unexplained" or "weird" cases that us mere mortals couldn't possibly comprehend.
Really it's just another supernatural detective series but Harry is an interesting character. He belongs to the Morningway bloodline--a powerful line of wizards who are primarily known to the High Council (the governing body of the wizarding world) for being "trouble." But his mother broke tradition and married a simple magician--with no magical talent. Harry seems to me to want to live in the "real" world but he, like his family before him, has a knack for finding trouble of the supernatural sort.
My favorite part of the whole show? Bob. Bob is the ghost of a sorcerer who centuries ago fell in love with a sorceress named Winifred. When she died he broke all of the rules and brought his lost love back from the dead. Of course, this is highly forbidden, so he was sentenced to spend the rest of eternity as a spirit trapped in his own skull. Bob's kind of the straight laced guru to Harry's laid back PI. It's a really entertaining combo to watch.
Throughout the series we get to see Harry face off against werewolves, vampires, an incubus, and even a dragon. There are also lots of perpetrators of black magic on the loose and somehow our hapless wizard always ends up right smack dab in the middle of things.
I haven't read the books (I have a self-imposed moratorium on buying any new books or starting any new series until I have finished my large reading pile) but I am planning to. I can only imagine they are as rich or richer than the series they inspired.
So, should you find yourself looking for a quick fix in the world of sci-fi/magic on television, I would highly recommend this one.
On another note, it looks like the WGA strike is now in full swing. I am curious to see how it affects the rest of the television season. I hope for the sake of all involved that the strike won't have to last too long. I do take heart in the fact that our friends the writers have been joined on the picket lines by actors, producers, and just average schmoes. They seem to be getting a lot of support--hopefully the studios will take that into account and decide to start looking for some way to at least try to meet the writers in the middle. Also, kudos to the folks at Whedonesque for delivering pizza to the picket lines. Jane Espenson and Joss Whedon have already expressed their gratitude and it just made me happy to hear about. Huzzah!
If you're looking for something to occupy your viewing time once those produced scripts start drying up, I have a recommendation for you. Check out the wonderful online series Sanctuary. They've got eight webisodes in the can already, and they are excellent. We're not talking mid-level, made in someone's basement, web series here--we're talking about a full on production. It stars Amanda Tapping and Robin Dunne as well as featuring several familiar faces from the world of Stargate. It's good stuff.
Well, that's all I've got for tonight.
Wishing you all happiness and peace,
C
Recent acquisitions: Doctor Who season three; Opus 'n Bill in A Wish for Wings that Work; Ratatouille
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