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Battlestar Galactica, Season 4
Posted on January 6, 2008 by Brian under Reviews.
Little is out about the up-coming season 4 of Battlestar Galactica, other than a few promo trailers and the new premier date of March 2008. Looking around the web I am finding no leaks about the season other than rumor and speculation, nothing concrete. I anxiously await the premiere because of how season 3 ended, with Starbuck decked in white telling Apollo “Follow me” like some kind of messiah. It was exciting and spine tingling all at the same time. I literally had hairs standing up because I wanted to see what happened next. I scoped out the Sci-Fi channel web site and could not find anything other then the normal “Test your BSG Knowledge, take this quiz” stuff that they always do. From what I have seen of the previews and from what I have heard through the grape vine, I am sure that this season will be a great one. I know that they are going to incorporate more of the Pegasus crew into the story line and hopefully shed some light on what happened to Starbuck and maybe answer some of the questions that have now come up thanks to the “Razor” mini movie that was released. It seems to me that the creative team behind “Battlestar Galactica” is working to raise the bar of every new season. I just hope that they can keep up this momentum and the rumors floating around the water cooler about this being there final season are just that, rumors!
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Flash Gordon
Posted on January 5, 2008 by Brian under Reviews.
When this series started I had such high hopes for it. I am a big fan of the 1980’s Movie staring Staring Max Von Sydow as Ming the Merciless! Yes, it was a little campy, but what wasn’t back in the 80’s. The film captivated audiences then, and to this day the die hard fan boys like myself are still enthralled by its glitzy costumes and it obvious over acting! I myself went on the first day of the DVD release to buy a copy, and then forced my wife to watch it. I personally have watched the DVD 3 more times since (I’ve been busy or it would have been more). The series started on the Sci-fi channel in August of 2007 with hopes of competing with the likes of Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica all Sci-fi series and all doing successful. The series premier was less than desirable and left viewers wondering what the writers were thinking. I told myself that I would give it the same chance that I gave Painkiller Jane (another flop that could have been better). I would watch the first season and then make a choice to continue on, sometimes the seasons are off to a slow start, take SG-1 for instance. They really didn’t start to fly till the middle of the first season. However, the more I watched the more painful it got. With cheap looking costumes and and a complete rewrite of the story line itself it didn’t resemble the Flash Gordon movie or the 1930’s TV show (or the less popular 1950’s TV series). 
The Ming played by Max Von Sydow was ruthless in a very classy, imperialistic almost elegant way. The Ming in the TV series played by John Ralston is almost Nazi like. He dictates over the planet with an unrelenting Iron fist, taking neither man, woman or child into consideration and claiming his actions as “For the good of the people!”. This last episode was a perfect example of the Nazi like stylization of the character. Forcing genetic purification and purging (killing) anyone with even a 1% abnormality in there blood. I think the Sci-fi channel went way off base with this series. It could have been so much better with the proper writing and the proper budgeting. I would have liked to seen something that would rival that of the Stargate Franchise in story and effects. I am going to give it a little more time to see if Sci-fi can pull this series out of the pit that it currently resides in. I will give you more of my views on this show as the series progresses.
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Stargate: The Ark of Truth
Posted on January 5, 2008 by Brian under Reviews.
If you are a Stargate SG-1 fan (as I am) and felt that the final episode left more questions than answers. Well, never fear! The fine people in the Stargate franchise have decided to release a direct-to-DVD movie written by Robert C. Cooper called “Stargate: The Ark of Truth”. The movie went into production in April 2007 and will be released in the US on March 11, 2008. This movie will be what should have been the conclusion of Stargate SG-1’s Ori story arc, which began in “Avalon”. The Ori storyline was originally expected to continue into SG-1’s eleventh season, but the series was canceled by the Sci-Fi Channel in August 2006. Therefore, the movie’s storyline will pick up after “Unending”, the SG-1 series finale, but will take place before the fourth season of Stargate Atlantis. I had the pleasure to catch a screener of this DVD before it’s release and I have to tell you that I was impressed and felt a little more satisfied with the outcome of the story arc. The movie will cover SG-1’s attempt to recover the “Ark of Truth”, a piece of Alteran technology developed before the Ancients left for the Milky Way. In an attempt to prevent the Ori and their followers rising to power, the “Arc” was created to essentially “brainwash” individuals, for instance Priors, into believing whatever “truth” was programmed into the device. The Ancients’ non-interference policy and belief in free will resulted in the device never being used. Even though the gift of Ascension promised by Origin is a lie, the freedom to believe was something the Alterans ultimately decided they did not have the right to restrict. In the movie however, there is interference from an ascended being (as there always has been) to help guide the team in the right direction to find the “Arc”. However, they are not alone and the Ori’s army and legion’s of Priors are hot on their heals trying to get there hands on this piece of technology that they believe, will aid them in the effort to convert the universe to worship the Ori. This movie has all of the action and drama that you would expect from the TV series, so fans should not be disappointed. Look for this to hit the shelves in March of 08 and don’t be surprised if you see it still air on the Sci-Fi channel before the end of the year.
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Terminator 2: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Posted on January 5, 2008 by Brian under Reviews.
Recently, I was honored with a screening of the new “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” TV series that will air on Fox with a special two night premier on January 13 and 14. This small screen adaptation of the widely popular “Terminator” franchise fills in the gap between the 2nd and 3rd Terminator movies. It tells the story of Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) and her quest to stop Skynet and the destruction of humanity. While giving us a glimpse of the steps she takes to train John (Thomas Dekkerin) to be the leader of the resistance in the event that she fails. In this pilot episode, she is still running. Not content with the destruction of the man and the labs responsible for creating the machines. She is still haunted by a strong feeling that she will never be safe. Her fears are realized when a Terminator unit tries to kill John in his class room but is saved by a second Terminator unit named Cameron (Summer Glau) (a girl in his new school that he thought was interested in him for other reasons) who was sent to protect him. To top it all off, she is being perused by an FBI agent named James Ellison (Richard T. Jones). He is determined that Sarah is crazy, a threat to everyone and should be locked away for eternity. In the pilot you can see that Agent Ellison is beginning to realize that there are some things going on that he can not quite understand and is beginning to question weather Sarah is really crazy or in over her head. Originally, when I saw the previews for this series I was a little frightened that it might be cheesy and that the special effects would not translate well to the small screen. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of technical precision that was put into the make up and special effects. In one scene the Terminator unit that tries to kill John cuts his leg open to retrieve a gun hidden inside. The exposed endoskeleton that was shown was impressively detailed and didn’t look cheap at all. Other recent TV adaptations of films like “Flash Gordon” have been seriously lacking in not only the special effects department but in the writing as well, coming off very campy and almost child like in its approach. “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” is a good example of what movie adaptations should be like, allowing the writing and special effects to draw the viewers into the story instead of just simply relying on the popularity of the films to bring the viewers in. I think that if Fox keeps up this level of quality with the other episodes then they will be contenders with other Sci-Fi based series like “Heroes”, “The Bionic Woman” and “Stargate Atlantis”.
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Stargate Atlantis Premier
Posted on January 4, 2008 by Brian under Reviews.
Tonight was the premier of the new season of Stargate Atlantis. I have to say that this was one of their better openings. The alliance between the Wraith and the Atlantis team proved to be a worth while venture and the added support of the drift folks that Shepard ran into a few episodes back turned out to be a pleasant surprise. However, I have a feeling that Shepard’s little crush is going to pose a serious threat in the future. She has proved to be a very devious and cunning adversary and now that she knows the location of Atlantis I foresee her trying to exert her new found power over the team. As will be the Wraith that fled the battle in the end, you have a Wraith high guard out their that controls his own fleet of hive ships that knows the location of Atlantis, can we say security threat. And lets not forget the surprise ending that i am sure left some jaws dropping. The presence of Dr. Elizabeth Weir on an Ancient battle cruiser with her own crew and this announcement of a plan proved to be very interesting. The question now is, which Weir is this, the one that volunteered to be decoys or the Weir that is supposed to be dead. Hopefully the next few episodes will shed some light on that and help to unfold the mysterious plot that she is going to set in motion. All-in all, the series premier was very excellent and the visual effects were stunning as always, it gave be goose bumps to see that fleet of ships jumping into hyperspace. As I had stated before, I hope the creative team of Stargate Atlantis will continue with this momentum and provide even more exciting and complex story arc’s. I look forward to the future episodes and I am sure I will have more to say about the series later.
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