Well, hello there, and welcome to the first installment of the final season of the Stargate Atlantis Rewatch. Wow, how did we hit season five so quickly? Before we get started, I just wanted to take a moment to point out the new tab right up at the top of the page, above the post title. If you want to quickly find a review of a specific episode of the series, click on that and it will take you a list of all of my rewatch posts!
Anyhoo, after last week's crazy ending, I won't leave you hanging, so without further ado, let's jump into "Search and Rescue." Spoilers for the episode, of course, and any that came before it.
What Happened
When last we saw our heroes, they were caught in an imploding building while trying to find Teyla. So of course the episode starts off with John and Teyla drinking wine in a candlelit room with Teyla thanking John for rescuing her. He realizes he doesn't remember rescuing her and when he says so Ford appears and says he never did, just like he never rescued Ford. John looks down and sees blood appear on his side and then hears Ronon calling his name. He wakes up in the rubble of the building and finds that they are trapped together and he has a piece of shrapnel in his side. Also he is pinned under some heavy structural beams. He asks about the others but Ronon says he doesn't know, they were separated, and he can't get anyone on the radio.
Rodney and Lorne (who thankfully was with Rodney and so by the Laws of TV is fine, aside from a broken leg) are trapped together in another part of the building. Rodney is unhurt but anxious and Lorne tries to convince him to just sit still (so as not to collapse the building further) while they wait for help to come.
Zoom out via really cool but random visual effect and we find ourselves on Michael's ship, where we find him surrounded by his hybrid minions. Someone brings him a report and he declares that they are setting a new course, their compound has been compromised.
On Atlantis there is an unscheduled gate activation. One of the soldiers from John's strike team managed to make it out of the building before it blew. He comes through and tells them what happened. The Daedalus is still a few hours out so Sam has Jennifer assemble a medical team as well as a group of combat engineers to begin a rescue operation.
Rodney tries to occupy himself by going through the rubble and finds an intact hard drive with pretty much all of Michael's files and data. It means that once they are out they can finish him for good. They hear footsteps above them and start making noise. Up top Sam and Jennifer lead the team searching through the rubble. They have found four life signs in the wreckage. They hear Rodney and Lorne and get to work getting them out. But Rodney tells them that their time is short. His data shows that when the self-destruct went off Michael was notified, which means he is probably on his way. Sam says they will have to hope that the Daedalus arrives in time to beam out the other two life signs, which are much deeper down.
John and Ronon, meanwhile, are in pretty bad shape. Ronon is working to dig John free while John tries to convince him to dig a hole to the surface so a rescue team can get down to him. Ronon says once he gets John free, then they can dig out together.
On the ship, Michael gives Teyla another creepy ultrasound, excited that the baby should be arriving any day. Teyla is not enthused, knowing that Michael has less than honorable plans for her son's future. She calls him on not meaning to keep her around once the kid is born. Kanaan comes and tells Michael that "it is time" and Michael leaves to make preparations. Teyla tries again to get Kanaan to help her escape but he is clearly too afraid of Michael.
Sam's team gets Rodney and Lorne out of the building and then they get a notice that a wraith ship has arrived. Michael is there. Michael realizes that they are searching for survivors and scrambles darts to attack. Sam has the team fall back to the jumpers, reluctantly leaving the other two trapped men until they deal with Michael. They only have three jumpers against a cruiser and at least twenty darts, though, so they can't really fight back.
Michael activates the gate so no one can escape and goes after the buried survivors and Rodney wants them to do something. Sam points out that their best hope is to wait for the Daedalus to arrive. It will take Michael time to dig out their people the same as it would have them. From orbit they see Michael's cruiser and realize that Teyla is probably on board. So close but there's nothing they can do.
In the building John has been trying to convince Ronon to leave him behind and get out of there while he can. Ronon of course is refusing to do this. While they discuss the matter, they hear people digging above them and Ronon's hope is renewed.
The Daedalus arrives and sees the wraith ship. Before it can attack Sam sends them a message updating them on the situation and that they can't destroy the ship because Teyla is on it. When Michael realizes that the other ship's shields will sustain his attacks he orders his people to jump to hyperspace, calling the men on the planet "acceptable losses." Caldwell takes out his hyperdrive before he can jump, though, and so he turns to fight. Rodney and Sam tell Caldwell they still have two people trapped on the surface and ask if they can scan for their transmitters and beam them out.
John and Ronon wait for their rescuers to dig them out and John asks them a question about one of the engineers. They say that engineer is with them, but Ronon says he thought that guy was on leave. John nods. They realize that it is not their people but Michael's coming for them. They arm themselves and get into position to fire as soon as the hybrids are in range, planning to go down fighting.
Caldwell gets a lock on them and Sam asks him to beam them up. He tells her to bring the jumpers on board at the same time. They have to lower their shields to beam the people up and the ship takes significant damage before they get them back in place. So everyone's back on board (yay!) but the ship is pretty much dead in the water. Shields are holding for the time being though.
In the infirmary Jennifer gets to work patching up John and updates him on the situation. She also tells him that Rodney and Lorne were the only other two survivors. He wants to get patched up to go back out there. With Teyla so close he cannot sit still. Jennifer has objections, she says he needs surgery and recovery time, but he insists.
Sam and Rodney get to work trying to repair the ship. John and Ronon find them and say they have an idea to attack the ship with 302s to get Michael to launch his darts, allowing a cloaked jumper to sneak onto his ship through the dart bay. Then they can go rescue Teyla. The Daedalus and 302s would just have to hold the line while they do it. Caldwell is skeptical but Sam stands firm and he agrees.
Sam doesn't buy that John is actually fit for duty and Jennifer let him go willingly, but she lets him go on the mission anyway. As they get into place and wait for the darts to launch, even Rodney can see that John's in bad shape, suggesting maybe he should stay with the jumper while they are gone. They get into the cruiser and Rodney finds a spot to hack into its systems. He is alarmed to find that Michael already has the hyperdrive back online, they have maybe fifteen minutes to get Teyla and get out.
They find Teyla and she tells them she is in labor. She's not really in shape to move quickly and Rodney sees that the hyperdrive is powering up. He says they are near the main drive core though and if they put C4 on it that should shut it down for good. John and Ronon go to do that and leave Rodney to keep an eye on Teyla while they are gone. Of course, this is when the kiddo decides he is ready to see the world outside of mama. Rodney is thrilled.
John and Ronon get to the drive core and get the C4 in place. They get to a safe distance and detonate it, causing lots of ship-wide damage. Michael realizes they are on board his ship and wonders how they got on board.
Teyla's labor is well underway and she starts to crown. Rodney starts to freak out and she has to calm him down, telling him he just needs to catch the baby. The kiddo makes his debut and John and Ronon get back to find Teyla holding the baby and laughing in relief with Rodney. Ronon scoops up Teyla and the baby and they skedaddle to the jumper...which isn't there.
They go to plan B and decide to try to disable the ship's jamming code so the Daedalus can beam them out. On the way they run into Kanaan and Teyla convinces them not to shoot him. She shows him the baby and asks him one more time to help. He says he knows a way off the ship. Ronon doesn't trust him but Teyla says that she does. John asks Kanaan for his plan.
A dart approaches the Daedalus and hails them. It is John. He tells Caldwell he has the team and Teyla, and the baby (which he is holding in the cockpit, he did not beam it up, thankfully). He tells Caldwell to feel free to do what he wants to the cruiser and they blow it up. John then lands the dart and beams them out so they can take the stargate home.
Back on Atlantis, Rodney runs into Sam on his way to visit Teyla. She tells him she is headed back to Earth for some SG-1 related business and also so the I.O.A. can do an "exhaustive review" of her first year in command.
John and Teyla are in the hospital together, John waiting for surgery from his injuries and Teyla recovering from, you know, childbirth. She is cuddling her baby and totally in love with him. Jennifer comes to get John for surgery and as he is being wheeled off he asks Teyla what she will name her son. She said she was thinking Torren John, after her father and John. John is very honored.
Sam gets to Earth and is greeted by Woolsey, who informs her that she is being removed from command of Atlantis. She is gobsmacked by the news and asks who will be replacing her. Woolsey informs her that he will be the new commander of Atlantis.
Commentary
Wow, John's subconscious is clearly still harboring some self-recrimination about failing to rescue Ford. The accusation in Ford's voice when John is dreaming/hallucinating him speaks volumes. Although it led to a nice dovetail moment at the end when Teyla resolutely told John she never lost faith that he would save her. His team still has faith in him even when he doesn't, which is probably something he needs to know. Also, I think it's kind of important to remember that Ford never wanted to be saved. As far as he was concerned, being on the wraith enzyme made him better and he just wanted to prove first that he was good enough for and then that he didn't need John or Atlantis anymore. You can't help someone who doesn't think they need to be helped.
Rodney with Teyla in labor, oh my goodness! Rodney delivering Teyla's baby! Words cannot describe the awesomeness of that whole scene. They just can't. It was wonderful.
So, Teyla is back safe and sound with her baby. Michael doesn't get his key to galactic domination and Rodney managed to recover the tool to destroying all of Michael's resources. So it seems pretty read that he is done with, especially with his ship getting blown to bits and all. Of course, there is the matter of the missing jumper to keep in mind. But for the most part, a happy ending here and a big threat dealt with, so all is well.
Of course, then there is the whole matter of Sam being removed from command. Logistically speaking, this was so Amanda Tapping could go work on Sanctuary full time, but from a story standpoint it is kind of screwed up and very sudden. Of course, it is totally in keeping with character for the I.O.A. They have been getting more and more grabby about trying to control Atlantis all through the past season. Deposing Sam and putting Woolsey in her place probably shouldn't come as too much of a surprising move.
Hmm, Woolsey in charge of Atlantis. Why does that seem familiar? Oh, right, because in the alternate timeline where everything went to hell that John just got back from, Woolsey was in charge of Atlantis. Uh oh. Though at least Sam is just reassigned and not dead, John isn't missing, Teyla's been recovered, and Michael has been neutralized. So...maybe it won't be as terrible as what we saw in our glimpse of the future last season, right?
I guess we'll find out.
Favorite Quotes
"I'm pretty sure my leg is broken." (Lorne)
"I think I'm remarkably fine." (Rodney)
"Well isn't that wonderful. That brings me great comfort, thank you." (Lorne)
"I'm fine. It's just a couple of scrapes." (Rodney)
"Wow. Rodney McKay refusing medical help. Now I really know there's something wrong!" (Jennifer)
"We're getting a reading. The gate's been activated." (Sam)
"It's a classic wraith battle technique. They dial the gate, lock everyone out, make sure they can't escape." (Rodney)
"Well it's a good one." (Sam)
"Yeah, well, they're not idiots." (Rodney)
"If we get outta here, beer's on me boys. What do you like, uh, Duff Beer or Oprah Ale?" (John)
"...Duff." (Hybrid)
"Well, they don't watch The Simpsons or drink beer." (John)
"All right, how do you wanna play this?" (Ronon)
"Shoot until we can't shoot anymore." (John)
"As a rule, I like to keep daring rescues down to one a day." (Caldwell)
"It's closing." (Rodney)
"I see that." (John)
"It's closing quickly." (Rodney)
"I got it." (John)
"Now you need to catch him." (Teyla)
"Catch him?!?" (Rodney)
"Yes. You need to catch him when I push him out." (Teyla)
"Oh god. Okay, well just underhand him all right? I've never been good at baseball." (Rodney)
"How the hell are we supposed to get off the ship now?" (Ronon)
"I just delivered a baby! That's not enough for today?" (Rodney)
~*~
Whee! Well, that's season five started off with a bang. See you back here on Wednesday for the next episode, "The Seed."
Showing posts with label Sanctuary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sanctuary. Show all posts
Monday, May 7, 2012
Thursday, May 19, 2011
I Know What I Think It Looks Like, How About You
It seems clear to me from all of the internet chatter I have been mostly trying to avoid on the subject (in an effort to prevent spoilers), that HBO's Game of Thrones series has thus far been a huge success. That is awesome. I honestly can't wait until I am able to watch it. I am happy for George R. R. Martin, for fans of the series (book and television), and even for HBO. It sounds like Game of Thrones is setting the gold standard for adaptations of fantasy series to television in the same way that The Lord of the Rings films did for movies. Kudos to all involved.
An interesting (and not really unexpected) result of this success has been renewed chatter about getting a favorite series of mine adapted to television. Fans of The Wheel of Time have long wanted to see Jordan's creations brought to life on screen. Mostly the general consensus has been that it has to be done via a television series rather than a movie or set of movies, because that would be the only way to do it justice. WoT supporters have been keeping a watchful eye on HBO's venture with the adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, hoping that if done right, and successful, it would be the evidence needed to bring forth the long-desired WoT series. With only one book left to go, it is an easy thought to get excited about, I'll grant you.
I'll admit, my husband and I love to play the WoT casting game with each other. One of us is frequently pointing an actor or actress out to each other and saying, "Wouldn't (s)he make a perfect _______ (insert character's name here)?!?" Between the two of us, we have a fair chunk of the series' cast picked out, hypothetically of course. The fun part about this game is you can pick anyone, which includes people who are no longer with us or a certain person twenty years ago. But we've never been able to settle on a Rand, or an Egwene or Nynaeve. That's...telling, I think.
The more people start to talk about how awesome it will be to see WoT brought to the screen, the more I begin to think that it would be better if it didn't happen. At least...well. Let me explain.
I don't think the world needs a live-action WoT series. I think that if we were to get a television adaptation, we would be best served for it to be an animated one. Yes, that's right, I would prefer a cartoon.
Okay, wait, wait, hear me out here, okay?
Robert Jordan (and Brandon Sanderson filling in his shoes) has always been extremely descriptive of people, places, clothing, buildings, everything in this world. WoT fans are notoriously prickly about attention to detail. These two facts, coupled together, mean that anyone trying to make a live version of this series is going to be going up against a huge challenge to get everything right. I'm talking about casting--from hair color and eye color and height and age--to costuming to the sets to the props themselves. Not to mention some serious makeup challenges. With casting alone, any network is going to apply pressure to get a few big names in there, and even with everyone's dream casting games, just shoe-horning a celebrity into a role has the chance of ruffling a lot of feathers and could easily ruin the whole project for a lot of people.
The effects budget on a live-action series would be insane. Think about all of the magic that happens in this series, and think about how Jordan describes it. Even if the VFX crew managed to capture the feel of that action just right, they would have to replicate it how many times in each episode? Also, think of all of the creatures in this series. Trollocs. Myrddraal. Grolm. Draghkar. Gholams. Maybe, maybe, they could pull off the Trollocs with some guys in heavy prosthetics, but...there's a lot more going on there than Trollocs. Then there's the Aes Sedai appearance of agelessness. I don't think that will be achievable through makeup alone. That's gonna take some CGI to get right.
Forget getting the sets exactly right, for a moment. The sheer volume of different sets and locations, indoor, outdoor, cities, country, desert, blight, that also would be a huge challenge budget-wise.
When it comes down to it, despite fans' continued dream casting, casting this series will be a bitch. It is going to be almost impossible to find the perfect people to play the primary characters. Not to mention the number of people who are in it, who play important roles but only pop up once every two or three books? Someone is going to be hard-pressed to resist the urge to cut characters, combine others, and change around plot lines to reduce the number of recurring roles. That ticked me off enough in the Harry Potter movies, and that was only seven books, and nobody they glossed over was my favorite random character or anything. Actually, I take that back. I am still pretty miffed that there was no Charlie in the movies dangit. They try doing that with WoT and I promise you there will be an uproar.
Also, I don't think there is a horse in existence capable of portraying the sheer awesomeness of Bela. Just ain't gonna happen.
I suppose that it could be done completely green-screen a la Sanctuary. But look, as much as I love Sanctuary, and I really do, there is a level of cheesiness to that show due in large parts to the CGI. It works for what it is, but for WoT, that would not go over well at all. It just wouldn't.
So, yeah, I would like to see an animated version if we get WoT on our televisions at all. I'm not talking the kind of animation of regular cartoons. I am thinking more the modern video game style of animation. Have you seen the cut scenes of some of today's video games? They are beautiful, and gritty, and real, and fantastic, and perfect for Jordan's imagined universe.
With an animated series, there would be no need to try to find people or places to fit Jordan's descriptions. The artists could just render them faithfully from the books themselves. Sure, everyone sees the characters a little bit differently in their heads, but I guarantee you this way would be much much more satisfying across the board than trying to find real people to fit the fantasy. Also, voice casting with the required big-names will ruffle a lot less feathers as well.
You know what I would love to see? I would love to see an animation pioneering powerhouse like Pixar and a gaming animation master like Bioware sit down and animate up the prologue. I bet that would be enough to convince the masses.
I'll be honest, I have no idea how cost effective an animated series would be, but something tells me that in the long term, and when it comes to satisfying fans and getting The Wheel of Time world right, it would be more than worth it overall. Think about how absolutely groundbreaking such a series could be for the world of animation as well! There isn't anything animated out there like what a WoT series has the potential to be.
Maybe I am wrong, maybe there's someone out there who can bring us a live version of this series that will be as satisfying as Game of Thrones. If it happens I'll be the first person to apologize for saying it couldn't be done. But until then, I'm gonna stick with hoping that it's an animated series if anything. I'm also going to wish really hard that people will direct their ideas about the next big fantasy series to make the jump to television elsewhere. Nothing will kill the idea of a WoT series faster than a badly done WoT series.
An interesting (and not really unexpected) result of this success has been renewed chatter about getting a favorite series of mine adapted to television. Fans of The Wheel of Time have long wanted to see Jordan's creations brought to life on screen. Mostly the general consensus has been that it has to be done via a television series rather than a movie or set of movies, because that would be the only way to do it justice. WoT supporters have been keeping a watchful eye on HBO's venture with the adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, hoping that if done right, and successful, it would be the evidence needed to bring forth the long-desired WoT series. With only one book left to go, it is an easy thought to get excited about, I'll grant you.
I'll admit, my husband and I love to play the WoT casting game with each other. One of us is frequently pointing an actor or actress out to each other and saying, "Wouldn't (s)he make a perfect _______ (insert character's name here)?!?" Between the two of us, we have a fair chunk of the series' cast picked out, hypothetically of course. The fun part about this game is you can pick anyone, which includes people who are no longer with us or a certain person twenty years ago. But we've never been able to settle on a Rand, or an Egwene or Nynaeve. That's...telling, I think.
The more people start to talk about how awesome it will be to see WoT brought to the screen, the more I begin to think that it would be better if it didn't happen. At least...well. Let me explain.
I don't think the world needs a live-action WoT series. I think that if we were to get a television adaptation, we would be best served for it to be an animated one. Yes, that's right, I would prefer a cartoon.
Okay, wait, wait, hear me out here, okay?
Robert Jordan (and Brandon Sanderson filling in his shoes) has always been extremely descriptive of people, places, clothing, buildings, everything in this world. WoT fans are notoriously prickly about attention to detail. These two facts, coupled together, mean that anyone trying to make a live version of this series is going to be going up against a huge challenge to get everything right. I'm talking about casting--from hair color and eye color and height and age--to costuming to the sets to the props themselves. Not to mention some serious makeup challenges. With casting alone, any network is going to apply pressure to get a few big names in there, and even with everyone's dream casting games, just shoe-horning a celebrity into a role has the chance of ruffling a lot of feathers and could easily ruin the whole project for a lot of people.
The effects budget on a live-action series would be insane. Think about all of the magic that happens in this series, and think about how Jordan describes it. Even if the VFX crew managed to capture the feel of that action just right, they would have to replicate it how many times in each episode? Also, think of all of the creatures in this series. Trollocs. Myrddraal. Grolm. Draghkar. Gholams. Maybe, maybe, they could pull off the Trollocs with some guys in heavy prosthetics, but...there's a lot more going on there than Trollocs. Then there's the Aes Sedai appearance of agelessness. I don't think that will be achievable through makeup alone. That's gonna take some CGI to get right.
Forget getting the sets exactly right, for a moment. The sheer volume of different sets and locations, indoor, outdoor, cities, country, desert, blight, that also would be a huge challenge budget-wise.
When it comes down to it, despite fans' continued dream casting, casting this series will be a bitch. It is going to be almost impossible to find the perfect people to play the primary characters. Not to mention the number of people who are in it, who play important roles but only pop up once every two or three books? Someone is going to be hard-pressed to resist the urge to cut characters, combine others, and change around plot lines to reduce the number of recurring roles. That ticked me off enough in the Harry Potter movies, and that was only seven books, and nobody they glossed over was my favorite random character or anything. Actually, I take that back. I am still pretty miffed that there was no Charlie in the movies dangit. They try doing that with WoT and I promise you there will be an uproar.
Also, I don't think there is a horse in existence capable of portraying the sheer awesomeness of Bela. Just ain't gonna happen.
I suppose that it could be done completely green-screen a la Sanctuary. But look, as much as I love Sanctuary, and I really do, there is a level of cheesiness to that show due in large parts to the CGI. It works for what it is, but for WoT, that would not go over well at all. It just wouldn't.
So, yeah, I would like to see an animated version if we get WoT on our televisions at all. I'm not talking the kind of animation of regular cartoons. I am thinking more the modern video game style of animation. Have you seen the cut scenes of some of today's video games? They are beautiful, and gritty, and real, and fantastic, and perfect for Jordan's imagined universe.
With an animated series, there would be no need to try to find people or places to fit Jordan's descriptions. The artists could just render them faithfully from the books themselves. Sure, everyone sees the characters a little bit differently in their heads, but I guarantee you this way would be much much more satisfying across the board than trying to find real people to fit the fantasy. Also, voice casting with the required big-names will ruffle a lot less feathers as well.
You know what I would love to see? I would love to see an animation pioneering powerhouse like Pixar and a gaming animation master like Bioware sit down and animate up the prologue. I bet that would be enough to convince the masses.
I'll be honest, I have no idea how cost effective an animated series would be, but something tells me that in the long term, and when it comes to satisfying fans and getting The Wheel of Time world right, it would be more than worth it overall. Think about how absolutely groundbreaking such a series could be for the world of animation as well! There isn't anything animated out there like what a WoT series has the potential to be.
Maybe I am wrong, maybe there's someone out there who can bring us a live version of this series that will be as satisfying as Game of Thrones. If it happens I'll be the first person to apologize for saying it couldn't be done. But until then, I'm gonna stick with hoping that it's an animated series if anything. I'm also going to wish really hard that people will direct their ideas about the next big fantasy series to make the jump to television elsewhere. Nothing will kill the idea of a WoT series faster than a badly done WoT series.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Not Too Trendy, Please
So apparently in a recent interview Stephanie Meyer said something to the effect that there will be more books written in the Twilight universe some day. Sigh.
Look. I actually really enjoy vampire stories quite a bit. My favorite examples come from shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Moonlight, books like The Dresden Files, and movies like the (first two) Underworld films.
I read the Twilight books, sure. I even kind of enjoyed them. But they went off the rails a bit at the end, and the movie was just laughably awful. I mean, yeah, laughable, so that's not terrible. But let's look at these things for what they truly are folks, okay?
The Twilight books are just really high profile trashy romance novels with a supernatural bent.
That's it. No, I'm not kidding. I suspect that it is even possible (probable) that the quality of writing in trashy romance novels hold up much better under scrutiny than Meyer's famous books. I somehow doubt any of them feature a character with the godawful name of Renesmee. (Seriously, Stephanie? What the hell?) But whatever. Who cares. I am not going to use the fact that they are actually YA to justify the horrible writing (and I don't just mean her style, I mean some of the lessons she is putting out there under the guise of "it's just a story" about how relationships can/do/should work between friends/lovers/families). That fact, if anything, makes the horrible writing aspect worse. But these books, like Harry Potter before them, are responsible for getting a large chunk of the youth population reading--and reading more than just Twilight. I can forgive much of Meyer's issues on that merit alone, truth be told.
But I digress.
I am the last person in the world who would call myself a hipster. I'm not gonna try to claim that I was all into vampires before they became cool and whatnot. That's just silly. And not true. I was into them before Twilight came along, sure, but so were a ton of other people. But it used to be that whenever I heard that a new book/movie/show was about vampires, my interest would be peaked, and I would be at least 85% likely to check it out. Now, I just kind of roll my eyes and groan. We have reached the saturation point in vampire stories. We hit it quite some time ago, actually. For instance, I still haven't seen True Blood. Mostly because I don't have HBO, but you know what, I did have HBO when it started airing. So if I am being honest with myself, it is also because I heard it was about vampires and got a little bit turned off, so never checked it out. (I know, I know, by all accounts I am doing myself a great disservice here, and I am sure one day I might get on board that particular bus, but at the moment, I just can't make myself.)
Then, we moved on to zombies, which I was never really all that enamored with in the first place. Now it seems like everywhere I look, there's something going on with zombies. It seems to me like zombies took off even faster than vampires did. It's like multiple someones said all at the same time, hey, look how vampires caught on after that whole Twilight thing happened! Let's see if we can make zombies the next big thing! And oh my goodness they did. Sigh. I am so over zombies. I have enjoyed one or two of the zombified entries we've gotten out of the craze (*cough*Zombieland*cough*) but mostly, no, I am done. Can we make the next big thing a few smaller big things please?
Just leave the werewolves alone. I would like you to not ruin werewolves for me please, entertainment industry, okay?
You know what would be nice? I would like it if more themes took a lesson from Jack the Ripper.
I know, I know. What?!? Lemme 'splain.
The other day I saw a preview for a new Doctor Who comic story featuring none other than Jack the Ripper, and then the other night when watching Sanctuary (which through some wibbly-wobbly-time-wimey stuff actually features the notorious fiend as a character (no, I won't explain it further than that, watch the show if you are curious, it is awesome-sauce)), I made the connection and it got me thinking. At least one other series I have enjoyed, Babylon 5, has featured an episode about this iconic character from our past. Many others have had episodes or stories that featured this unsolved mystery. There have been plenty of books and movies over the years as well, and lots of speculation on the matter. But though this fascinating (and absolutely horrible, don't get me wrong, this was a bad bad dude, I am not in any way trying to say that the actual serial killer was cool) case has sparked the imagination of many creative people, mentions, tributes, homages, and theories about the Jack the Ripper case have almost always remained quietly in the background. Every now and again something new pops up. But it's never become a huge trend like, say, vampires or zombies.
Certainly, the idea of Jack the Ripper being glorified or turned into something consumers can identify is on par with vampires at least. Think about it, seriously. Maybe what has kept it from breaking out as "the next big thing" is that it is based on something verifiably real, and as such, makes creators uncomfortable playing in that realm? Though if you ask me, that challenge makes it a far more interesting prospect than vampires. But I love historical fiction precisely because it is intriguing to me how someone can take known facts, add a bit of "what if" and take off running to make something entirely new and engaging. I will note that most of the appearances I have seen of Jack the Ripper in my fiction have featured some sort of supernatural or science fictional explanation for his crimes/existence. I don't know if that is because the mystery lends itself more to the genre or if that is just the type of story I am most often exposed to.
My point is that it seems to me that vampires (and zombies) used to be like Jack. They were ever-present, available to the reader/watcher in many different forms and flavors, but never really in the spotlight. This managed to increase the longevity of their appeal and allowed people, for the most part, to discover them without too many preconceptions. These days, too many people hear "vampires" and just roll their eyes and shrug, many of them turning away without even giving the project a second look. There is so much out there that the really good stuff is getting lost in all the crap, and I think that does us all a disservice. I am just once more ready for the day when vampires subside back into their dark corners and shadows,* hanging out with Jack. There when I need them, sometimes when I don't expect them, but never just shoved in the public's collective faces.
A girl can hope, can't she?
*Oh, and yes, I am actually totally stoked about the Johnny Depp Dark Shadows remake. Sometimes there's enough there to overcome the ennui. Sue me.
Look. I actually really enjoy vampire stories quite a bit. My favorite examples come from shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Moonlight, books like The Dresden Files, and movies like the (first two) Underworld films.
I read the Twilight books, sure. I even kind of enjoyed them. But they went off the rails a bit at the end, and the movie was just laughably awful. I mean, yeah, laughable, so that's not terrible. But let's look at these things for what they truly are folks, okay?
The Twilight books are just really high profile trashy romance novels with a supernatural bent.
That's it. No, I'm not kidding. I suspect that it is even possible (probable) that the quality of writing in trashy romance novels hold up much better under scrutiny than Meyer's famous books. I somehow doubt any of them feature a character with the godawful name of Renesmee. (Seriously, Stephanie? What the hell?) But whatever. Who cares. I am not going to use the fact that they are actually YA to justify the horrible writing (and I don't just mean her style, I mean some of the lessons she is putting out there under the guise of "it's just a story" about how relationships can/do/should work between friends/lovers/families). That fact, if anything, makes the horrible writing aspect worse. But these books, like Harry Potter before them, are responsible for getting a large chunk of the youth population reading--and reading more than just Twilight. I can forgive much of Meyer's issues on that merit alone, truth be told.
But I digress.
I am the last person in the world who would call myself a hipster. I'm not gonna try to claim that I was all into vampires before they became cool and whatnot. That's just silly. And not true. I was into them before Twilight came along, sure, but so were a ton of other people. But it used to be that whenever I heard that a new book/movie/show was about vampires, my interest would be peaked, and I would be at least 85% likely to check it out. Now, I just kind of roll my eyes and groan. We have reached the saturation point in vampire stories. We hit it quite some time ago, actually. For instance, I still haven't seen True Blood. Mostly because I don't have HBO, but you know what, I did have HBO when it started airing. So if I am being honest with myself, it is also because I heard it was about vampires and got a little bit turned off, so never checked it out. (I know, I know, by all accounts I am doing myself a great disservice here, and I am sure one day I might get on board that particular bus, but at the moment, I just can't make myself.)
Then, we moved on to zombies, which I was never really all that enamored with in the first place. Now it seems like everywhere I look, there's something going on with zombies. It seems to me like zombies took off even faster than vampires did. It's like multiple someones said all at the same time, hey, look how vampires caught on after that whole Twilight thing happened! Let's see if we can make zombies the next big thing! And oh my goodness they did. Sigh. I am so over zombies. I have enjoyed one or two of the zombified entries we've gotten out of the craze (*cough*Zombieland*cough*) but mostly, no, I am done. Can we make the next big thing a few smaller big things please?
Just leave the werewolves alone. I would like you to not ruin werewolves for me please, entertainment industry, okay?
You know what would be nice? I would like it if more themes took a lesson from Jack the Ripper.
I know, I know. What?!? Lemme 'splain.
The other day I saw a preview for a new Doctor Who comic story featuring none other than Jack the Ripper, and then the other night when watching Sanctuary (which through some wibbly-wobbly-time-wimey stuff actually features the notorious fiend as a character (no, I won't explain it further than that, watch the show if you are curious, it is awesome-sauce)), I made the connection and it got me thinking. At least one other series I have enjoyed, Babylon 5, has featured an episode about this iconic character from our past. Many others have had episodes or stories that featured this unsolved mystery. There have been plenty of books and movies over the years as well, and lots of speculation on the matter. But though this fascinating (and absolutely horrible, don't get me wrong, this was a bad bad dude, I am not in any way trying to say that the actual serial killer was cool) case has sparked the imagination of many creative people, mentions, tributes, homages, and theories about the Jack the Ripper case have almost always remained quietly in the background. Every now and again something new pops up. But it's never become a huge trend like, say, vampires or zombies.
Certainly, the idea of Jack the Ripper being glorified or turned into something consumers can identify is on par with vampires at least. Think about it, seriously. Maybe what has kept it from breaking out as "the next big thing" is that it is based on something verifiably real, and as such, makes creators uncomfortable playing in that realm? Though if you ask me, that challenge makes it a far more interesting prospect than vampires. But I love historical fiction precisely because it is intriguing to me how someone can take known facts, add a bit of "what if" and take off running to make something entirely new and engaging. I will note that most of the appearances I have seen of Jack the Ripper in my fiction have featured some sort of supernatural or science fictional explanation for his crimes/existence. I don't know if that is because the mystery lends itself more to the genre or if that is just the type of story I am most often exposed to.
My point is that it seems to me that vampires (and zombies) used to be like Jack. They were ever-present, available to the reader/watcher in many different forms and flavors, but never really in the spotlight. This managed to increase the longevity of their appeal and allowed people, for the most part, to discover them without too many preconceptions. These days, too many people hear "vampires" and just roll their eyes and shrug, many of them turning away without even giving the project a second look. There is so much out there that the really good stuff is getting lost in all the crap, and I think that does us all a disservice. I am just once more ready for the day when vampires subside back into their dark corners and shadows,* hanging out with Jack. There when I need them, sometimes when I don't expect them, but never just shoved in the public's collective faces.
A girl can hope, can't she?
*Oh, and yes, I am actually totally stoked about the Johnny Depp Dark Shadows remake. Sometimes there's enough there to overcome the ennui. Sue me.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Strange Convergences
I know I said last week that on Friday my friend and I were going to go out and see The King's Speech, but unfortunately it didn't pan out. The show was sold out when we arrived, because apparently I failed to take in how ridiculously hopping the 7th Street Movie Tavern would be last Friday. Sigh. So we were bummed we couldn't see the movie, and there didn't seem to be anything else playing soon that looked interesting to us, so we decided to just grab dinner instead. It would give us the chance to chat anyway, rather than just sitting next to each other in silence. We picked a restaurant, went in, and were told it would be an hour's wait. Sigh. Nope, not so much.
While I had been driving around looking for a place to park (the garage was, like the theater, packed), I had noticed that I ended up close to a restaurant called Dos Gringos. Now, I have driven past this restaurant often in the twelve years I've been in Fort Worth, and I have mocked its name relentlessly in that time, but I have never actually eaten there. But, it was off the main stretch, away from the throng of hipsters who were thwarting our evening out, and the price point seemed to fit what we were looking at, so we figured what the heck and gave it a try. Okay, the food, it was not spectacular, and the service was a weensy bit lacking, but it wasn't terrible, and my friend and I had a mostly enjoyable meal and some good conversation, so the evening was not a total loss. We had fun, it was good. But I gotta say, the place was weird. My friend commented on how it just had a lot of pieces that didn't seem to fit together correctly, as if someone had dumped the pieces of two different puzzles in one box and mixed them up. The primary example of this was the live band in the bar. I'll be honest with you, I didn't even realize the band was live until about halfway through dinner, I really just thought they had a classic light rock station on. What's that, you say? Classic light rock in a Mexican restaurant? (Well, Tex-Mex.) Not Tejano? Not Country? Nope. Strange. Even the list of songs they played was a strange mix--ranging from Neil Diamond to Tom Petty's "Last Dance With Mary Jane." Also, their bathrooms were freezing.
Oh well, at least now I have a valid reason to mock the place, right? Also, my friend and I had a good time, which was the important thing.
I have to say, I was a little bummed I wasn't gonna get to get my Colin Firth on though. So I was super excited on Saturday when I discovered that Syfy's cheesy movie of the week was one I hadn't seen starring Kavan Smith. Yay! This week's monster flick, Iron Invader, was actually pretty darn amusing to me, I have to say. It had a super silly plot about alien bacteria that feeds off of metal taking over a big statue made out of scrap and wandering around a small town in Idaho, killing people by sucking all of the metal out of their blood. The effects were spectacularly low-budget (I am pretty sure the "bacteria" was just neon green paint with iron fillings mixed in that were manipulated with a magnet). But it was the casting, man, the casting is what really got me.
Here is the conversation I imagine the casting people had when putting together this movie:
"Hey, who is our lead for this one?"
"Kavan Smith."
"Oh, hey, yeah. He's cool. I loved him in Stargate Atlantis, and isn't he on Eureka now, too? Oh, and he had a brief appearance in Battlestar Galactica....dang, I think he's been in just about all of our big franchises, hasn't he?"
"Huh. I guess he has. Hey, you know what would be funny?"
"What's that?"
"Let's cast a bunch of people from all of the other Syfy shows he's been in!"
"Yeah, right on!"
So....this resulted in the cast being rounded out with:
Nicole de Boer, who appeared in the Stargate Atlantis episode "Whispers."
(Interesting fun side fact number one: She was also in the movie Cube with another SGA alum, David Hewlett.)
Donnelly Rhodes, who you may know better as Doc Cottle from Battlestar Galactica.
Paul McGillion, who you may know better as Doctor Carson Beckett from Stargate Atlantis (and who in this film for some strange reason had a southern accent, even though he was playing a small town sheriff in Idaho).
(Interesting fun side fact number two: Donnelly Rhodes was also a series regular on Canadian series Da Vinci's Inquest--which is, as far as I can gather, the equivalent of Law & Order in the Canadian acting community--and Paul McGillion made a guest appearance on that series back in the day.)
Chris Gauthier, who you may know better as Vincent from Eureka.
(Interesting fun side fact number three: Paul McGillion and Christ Gauthier and Kavan Smith have all made guest appearances on Syfy's Sanctuary.)
I know people joke about Syfy owning the actors that appear in their original series and "forcing" them to do these silly made-for-television movies, but dude. My head was seriously about to explode going over how connected all of these actors were. It was crazy. In the most awesome way possible.
I think that, along with The Room at the End of the Hall (or The Nightmare at the End of the Hall, depending on which country you are in), Iron Invader will be one of those television movies that I regularly record whenever it comes on. You gotta love those guilty pleasure movies, eh?
While I had been driving around looking for a place to park (the garage was, like the theater, packed), I had noticed that I ended up close to a restaurant called Dos Gringos. Now, I have driven past this restaurant often in the twelve years I've been in Fort Worth, and I have mocked its name relentlessly in that time, but I have never actually eaten there. But, it was off the main stretch, away from the throng of hipsters who were thwarting our evening out, and the price point seemed to fit what we were looking at, so we figured what the heck and gave it a try. Okay, the food, it was not spectacular, and the service was a weensy bit lacking, but it wasn't terrible, and my friend and I had a mostly enjoyable meal and some good conversation, so the evening was not a total loss. We had fun, it was good. But I gotta say, the place was weird. My friend commented on how it just had a lot of pieces that didn't seem to fit together correctly, as if someone had dumped the pieces of two different puzzles in one box and mixed them up. The primary example of this was the live band in the bar. I'll be honest with you, I didn't even realize the band was live until about halfway through dinner, I really just thought they had a classic light rock station on. What's that, you say? Classic light rock in a Mexican restaurant? (Well, Tex-Mex.) Not Tejano? Not Country? Nope. Strange. Even the list of songs they played was a strange mix--ranging from Neil Diamond to Tom Petty's "Last Dance With Mary Jane." Also, their bathrooms were freezing.
Oh well, at least now I have a valid reason to mock the place, right? Also, my friend and I had a good time, which was the important thing.
I have to say, I was a little bummed I wasn't gonna get to get my Colin Firth on though. So I was super excited on Saturday when I discovered that Syfy's cheesy movie of the week was one I hadn't seen starring Kavan Smith. Yay! This week's monster flick, Iron Invader, was actually pretty darn amusing to me, I have to say. It had a super silly plot about alien bacteria that feeds off of metal taking over a big statue made out of scrap and wandering around a small town in Idaho, killing people by sucking all of the metal out of their blood. The effects were spectacularly low-budget (I am pretty sure the "bacteria" was just neon green paint with iron fillings mixed in that were manipulated with a magnet). But it was the casting, man, the casting is what really got me.
Here is the conversation I imagine the casting people had when putting together this movie:
"Hey, who is our lead for this one?"
"Kavan Smith."
"Oh, hey, yeah. He's cool. I loved him in Stargate Atlantis, and isn't he on Eureka now, too? Oh, and he had a brief appearance in Battlestar Galactica....dang, I think he's been in just about all of our big franchises, hasn't he?"
"Huh. I guess he has. Hey, you know what would be funny?"
"What's that?"
"Let's cast a bunch of people from all of the other Syfy shows he's been in!"
"Yeah, right on!"
So....this resulted in the cast being rounded out with:
Nicole de Boer, who appeared in the Stargate Atlantis episode "Whispers."
(Interesting fun side fact number one: She was also in the movie Cube with another SGA alum, David Hewlett.)
Donnelly Rhodes, who you may know better as Doc Cottle from Battlestar Galactica.
Paul McGillion, who you may know better as Doctor Carson Beckett from Stargate Atlantis (and who in this film for some strange reason had a southern accent, even though he was playing a small town sheriff in Idaho).
(Interesting fun side fact number two: Donnelly Rhodes was also a series regular on Canadian series Da Vinci's Inquest--which is, as far as I can gather, the equivalent of Law & Order in the Canadian acting community--and Paul McGillion made a guest appearance on that series back in the day.)
Chris Gauthier, who you may know better as Vincent from Eureka.
(Interesting fun side fact number three: Paul McGillion and Christ Gauthier and Kavan Smith have all made guest appearances on Syfy's Sanctuary.)
I know people joke about Syfy owning the actors that appear in their original series and "forcing" them to do these silly made-for-television movies, but dude. My head was seriously about to explode going over how connected all of these actors were. It was crazy. In the most awesome way possible.
I think that, along with The Room at the End of the Hall (or The Nightmare at the End of the Hall, depending on which country you are in), Iron Invader will be one of those television movies that I regularly record whenever it comes on. You gotta love those guilty pleasure movies, eh?
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Stargate Thursday: The Greater Good (Revisited)
I know, I know. Two days about the same episode of Stargate? Really? But, I want to take a few minutes to "update" yesterday's SGU review based on some links I stumbled across on the webs. Notably here and here.
Apparently, I may have jumped the gun in calling Perry's (and by extension Ginn's) death.
In the Q & A section of his blog, SGU writer and executive producer Joe Mallozzi had this tidbit:
On his Facebook page David Blue (who is notoriously anti-spoilers of any kind, which is totally his prerogative but bears mentioning here) had this to say:
All of this seems to be trying to say that Creepy LA Guy did not, in fact kill Perry/Ginn. Now, as I said yesterday, while the end of the episode is a fade-to-black so we don't know exactly what happened, the teaser trailer for next week's episode seemed to pretty much explicitly state that they died at the end of this episode. I do acknowledge it has been a method long in use to tweak the scenes in trailers to make it seem like something happens that really doesn't at all, just to get potential viewers to tune in and find out. I will give you that. Maybe that's the case here, and I, like many many other people jumped the gun in making an assumption. BUT, I can't imagine what other way it could have gone down from the ending where Creepy LA Guy is advancing on Perry. In that situation, his only recourse to stop Ginn from spilling her guts to Homeworld Security is to kill Perry in Ginn's body, therefore killing both women.
I included the bit from Mallozzi's blog about Creepy LA Guy's guards because I wonder if maybe that isn't the answer and Mallozzi was trying to give us a clue. Maybe right after the scene cuts away, the guard(s) catch up to him and save Perry, and it's some other "she" entirely who is dead next week. But that all seems a bit eleventh hour to me. Don't get me wrong, I like Ginn. A lot, actually. And I hope for Eli's sake that she's alright. But if she is, there had better be a damn good explanation for how she and Perry survived the confrontation with Creepy LA Guy.
It is entirely possible, of course, that Mallozzi and Blue are just trying to throw us off the scent. Mallozzi certainly doesn't deny that they died. He just says that it's unlikely that what we think happened is what actually happened--which could mean anything. And as I've mentioned already, Blue really really really hates spoilers. I wouldn't put it past him to deny a story element right up until it airs if he believes that people thinking they know what's going to happen will cause them not to tune in. Again, totally his right to feel that way, I am not judging. It is just a plausible explanation for the comments above if Creepy LA Guy turns out to have really killed those women.
I said yesterday I couldn't wait for next week's episode, and now that is even more the case. On a positive note, this week's viewership saw an increase (huzzah!), which hopefully means that next week will stay strong or (knock on wood) rise again, considering this episode left us hanging in a rather artfully suspenseful manner.
In other news, as it is Thursday, there is a new episode of Riese up to watch, yay! I forgot to link to Tuesday's episode (bad Cori). So, here are the links to both:
Riese Episode 5
Riese Episode 6
I am really enjoying this web series so far. Though, I do think the addition of the narrator, as much as I love Amanda Tapping, is way too intrusive. It feels like they are trying to dumb it down for an everyman audience or something. This is, by the way, just one more example of how Syfy doesn't actually understand its audience (or even try to, really). I think it's a pretty safe bet that anyone who is going to go to the Syfy website twice a week to watch a web series is intelligent enough to infer some things that are shown on the screen without dialogue to explain them in detail. In fact, I'll even go so far as to say that a lot of us prefer to work some of these things out on our own, as it makes the show more interesting. Some people have been griping about the addition of the map, to show where each character is, but I kind of like that. Granted, I am one of those people who gets super happy when I crack open a new book and see a map inside of it. I think maps are pretty spiffy as a general rule. Sigh. But still, I wholeheartedly support this endeavor, and would love to see it have enough online popularity to go the full television series route like Sanctuary did. Riese would be an excellent addition to Syfy's scant genre lineup.
On the plus side, however, it is great to see Alessandro Juliani play someone awesome again (so far at least). His character was hands down my favorite on the recent Battlestar Galactica series until his character took an unfortunate (understandable, but still one I couldn't get on board with) turn in the last season. In fact, if they make Riese a television series, they could make it all about Alessandro Juliani, and I would be a happy Cori.
Word Count Update: 21,054 out of 50,000
Apparently, I may have jumped the gun in calling Perry's (and by extension Ginn's) death.
In the Q & A section of his blog, SGU writer and executive producer Joe Mallozzi had this tidbit:
Kassian writes: “Please, please can you tell me something regarding her story arc, because I love Julies charakter Ginn and it´s just heartbreaking what happened to her.”
And also this one:Answer: What happened to her? If you think you know, think again because this is science fiction, after all. Anything can happen. And will.
Nathan writes: “Those guards should’ve been completely focused. Any thoughts as to why there was no guard with him???”
Answer: Now that you mention it, that IS strange. After all, we did establish the fact that all Lucian Alliance prisoners are only been permitted out of their quarters with an armed escort. What happened to Simeon’s guard? Hope he’s okay. Well, guess we’ll find out next week.I mean
On his Facebook page David Blue (who is notoriously anti-spoilers of any kind, which is totally his prerogative but bears mentioning here) had this to say:
David Blue BTW guys, avoid teasers/trailers/sneak-peeks of next week's all-new SGU ("Malice"). It'll just ruin things for you, or make you think things that aren't true. Watching it clean is always best. And, can I just tell you, Robert Carlyle gives an amazing performance in this one. ;)
All of this seems to be trying to say that Creepy LA Guy did not, in fact kill Perry/Ginn. Now, as I said yesterday, while the end of the episode is a fade-to-black so we don't know exactly what happened, the teaser trailer for next week's episode seemed to pretty much explicitly state that they died at the end of this episode. I do acknowledge it has been a method long in use to tweak the scenes in trailers to make it seem like something happens that really doesn't at all, just to get potential viewers to tune in and find out. I will give you that. Maybe that's the case here, and I, like many many other people jumped the gun in making an assumption. BUT, I can't imagine what other way it could have gone down from the ending where Creepy LA Guy is advancing on Perry. In that situation, his only recourse to stop Ginn from spilling her guts to Homeworld Security is to kill Perry in Ginn's body, therefore killing both women.
I included the bit from Mallozzi's blog about Creepy LA Guy's guards because I wonder if maybe that isn't the answer and Mallozzi was trying to give us a clue. Maybe right after the scene cuts away, the guard(s) catch up to him and save Perry, and it's some other "she" entirely who is dead next week. But that all seems a bit eleventh hour to me. Don't get me wrong, I like Ginn. A lot, actually. And I hope for Eli's sake that she's alright. But if she is, there had better be a damn good explanation for how she and Perry survived the confrontation with Creepy LA Guy.
It is entirely possible, of course, that Mallozzi and Blue are just trying to throw us off the scent. Mallozzi certainly doesn't deny that they died. He just says that it's unlikely that what we think happened is what actually happened--which could mean anything. And as I've mentioned already, Blue really really really hates spoilers. I wouldn't put it past him to deny a story element right up until it airs if he believes that people thinking they know what's going to happen will cause them not to tune in. Again, totally his right to feel that way, I am not judging. It is just a plausible explanation for the comments above if Creepy LA Guy turns out to have really killed those women.
I said yesterday I couldn't wait for next week's episode, and now that is even more the case. On a positive note, this week's viewership saw an increase (huzzah!), which hopefully means that next week will stay strong or (knock on wood) rise again, considering this episode left us hanging in a rather artfully suspenseful manner.
 |
| Nerds in love (and leather). |
In other news, as it is Thursday, there is a new episode of Riese up to watch, yay! I forgot to link to Tuesday's episode (bad Cori). So, here are the links to both:
Riese Episode 5
Riese Episode 6
I am really enjoying this web series so far. Though, I do think the addition of the narrator, as much as I love Amanda Tapping, is way too intrusive. It feels like they are trying to dumb it down for an everyman audience or something. This is, by the way, just one more example of how Syfy doesn't actually understand its audience (or even try to, really). I think it's a pretty safe bet that anyone who is going to go to the Syfy website twice a week to watch a web series is intelligent enough to infer some things that are shown on the screen without dialogue to explain them in detail. In fact, I'll even go so far as to say that a lot of us prefer to work some of these things out on our own, as it makes the show more interesting. Some people have been griping about the addition of the map, to show where each character is, but I kind of like that. Granted, I am one of those people who gets super happy when I crack open a new book and see a map inside of it. I think maps are pretty spiffy as a general rule. Sigh. But still, I wholeheartedly support this endeavor, and would love to see it have enough online popularity to go the full television series route like Sanctuary did. Riese would be an excellent addition to Syfy's scant genre lineup.
On the plus side, however, it is great to see Alessandro Juliani play someone awesome again (so far at least). His character was hands down my favorite on the recent Battlestar Galactica series until his character took an unfortunate (understandable, but still one I couldn't get on board with) turn in the last season. In fact, if they make Riese a television series, they could make it all about Alessandro Juliani, and I would be a happy Cori.
Word Count Update: 21,054 out of 50,000
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