George Takei
So, apparently George Takei – who played Sulu in Star Trek and, unbeknownst to me, also had a part in Heroes – has had an asteroid named after him. That’s very nice, and appropriate and all. But what I really want to know is whether there is a lump of rock out there with the sobriquet Shatner? How about Nimoy? or Kelley? (Bones is one of my very favouritest characters, if I as a non-Trekie had favourite Trek characters…). I’ll bet there’s not a Koenig (Chekov), and would bet an even greater sum that there is no Nichols (Uhura – the girl, remember?).
Anyway, this post is brought to you courtesy of my viewing yesterday of Star Trek V, in my ongoing quest to see all of the old Star Trek movies, which is quickly approaching completion. I’ll post more on numero 5 later… since I really ought to be writing reports at this precise moment.
(It started off lovely and warm today, is getting cooler with approaching rain; I have music and the cricket on – which I notice has just been stopped for rain, in sunny Hobart – so if I have to be writing reports, it’s a pleasant way to do it).
Australian Idol
This year, very boring. Seriously: there’s no one very interesting, some of their voices ok, but… meh.
The thing that I have enjoyed is Andrew and James, the comperes. I swear, they are getting funnier every time – and sometimes skating the very edge of rudeness. Certainly in terms of how they deal with the advertising they have to do – it really does look like they are simply reading the lines, and sometimes their body language shows just what they think of the whole deal. I love it! And tonight they sang part of Psycho Killer… very funny.
So yes, despite it being boring, we’ve still been watching. Bit sad… guess we’re just hoping for something interesting. Or we just like heckling… that could be it.
the HELL?!
Channel Ten, in its Infinite Wisdom, has changed the time for Torchwood.
Midnight! Tuesday night/Wednesday morning!
Midnight?!?!
Seriously! indeed. That is so … unspeakably annoying. Admittedly I usually tape it, but – !! I had to go to the Ten website to find out when it was on because it sure as hell wasn’t announced anywhere….
Grr.
OK, over it now. Until tomorrow when I have to set the video.
FarScape Season 3
So I really wondered how they would resove the whole two-Crichton thing.
Ouch.
Most definitely not what I expected. Impressive, while heart-breaking.
Doctor Who
The writers of The Shakespeare Code (ha! I say again: ha!) must just have had so much fun writing this episode. You get to include lots of nutty references to Shakespeare; a few other famous lines that Shakespeare isn’t allowed to steal; and you get a nice reference to Harry Potter as well! Very nice, very clever! And you set up a confrontation between the good Doctor and Good Queen Beth; I really hope they come through with that. I love her costume; it would be a shame to waste it on a 30 second spot.
And they definitely hinted at Shakespeare being bi. Ha! and again – ha!!
Doctor Who
I am very excited about the new Dr Who season. Having gone out last night, I taped, and only just remembered to watch it. Squee!
As a friend of mine said, one of the nice things about this episode (and the Christmas ep, too) is that they allow the Doctor to grieve for Rose, which makes him more… approachable, if not more human. Not that I’m a really great connoisseur, but I don’t remember any particular sadness at the departure of previous companions. I think this is the function and result of having a younger and, frankly, sexier doctor: if he was completely and utterly callous (rather than just the short-term callous we all know and love), then he wouldn’t really be very much fun at all.
So the new girl looks good, although I am a little dubious at shoving the sexual tension right in your face from the get-go – and is it just me, or are they making the Doctor more come-hither as well? This first episode was quite enjoyable… especially “Look! I even brought a straw!” with which to suck your blood.
Doctor Who
I just saw an ad for Torchwood, which will be on Channel Ten… and a little while ago, I saw an ad for Doctor Who, on the ABC. It’s going to be a weird, weird season of TV.
Very weird.
But hey, on the flipside, being on Channel Ten might make it cooler for the young ‘uns and spark a revival/discovery of interest in Who. Which can only be good.
Stargate Atlantis
Oh. My. Goodness.
Henry Winkler! On Atlantis! Playing some sort of Tommy Lee Jones Under Siege mercenary character.
Totally cool.
Stargate Atlantis
Having finished SG-1, we decided that we’d give Atlantis a go – having ‘met’ the cast in one or two of the SG episodes, and because we needed our fix. We’ve got so used to having TV shows to watch on DVD – SG, West Wing, Firefly… and J isn’t a fan of FarScape, so we thought: why not? And weve just signed on for Bigpond movies, so we made this our first request. The first four disks turned up within a few days, and voila – away we go.
I like Major Sheppard; he is going to be very entertaining. Certainly in the tradition of Jack O’Neill, but different enough that it’s not annoying. Rodney is definitely going to get on my nerves, and I’ve just realised who Dr Weir reminds me of: Janeway. And that is not a good association, as far as I am concerned. I was wondering early on whether they’d get their very own pet alien, as with SG1, and at the moment it looks like that will be Teyla – although I think IMDB says she’s only in a few episodes. Which is good, because I’m getting a bit sick of her shoulders-back-boobs-out posing.
So far, Atlantis is great – after three episodes. It’s also different enough, so far, from SG1 that it doesn’t just feel like a rehash of the same old stuff. It’s a lot more alien, which makes sense since the whole place is alien. I’m looking forward to watching the rest of it.
StarGate
I have, in the past, mentioned how uncomfortable I am about being the over-enthusiastic fan. Nonetheless, having just finished Stargate SG-1 season 10…
The last season was mostly brilliant. The 200th episode was hilarious: a revisit to Wormhole Xtreme!, which makes a lot of sense – the team being asked for their input into a telemovie. This enitre episode was an homage to the rest of the show, as well as a few others. There’s a comment about how weird it is to make a movie from a show that only lasted a few episodes, and T’ealc says there was a lot of interest on DVD… hello, Firefly! But my absolutely favouritest reference, which nearly made me cry with laughter, was Vala trying to convince the producer to create a new show – basically FarScape. Claudia Black was her own character, but Michael Shanks was Crichton and and Ben Browder was Stark. And the producer makes a quip about how he’s never heard of anything like it… Marvellous.
See what I mean about being a fan?
Anyway, the last episode was pretty cool, too, And my theory is that they knew the show was canned (so sad!!) when they were filming the last one, at least – the very last line is something of a reassurance to fans, I think, that there will be more Stargate, eventually.
I do hope so.
Randomly Yours, Alex 