DVD, Stargate SG-1 S5 (Proving Ground)
It didn't take long for the penny to drop, but I did begin the episode wondering why all the soldiers were so young. I'm not really interested in seeing young ambitious people striving to succeed as I'm not of that age any more, but it makes sense for them to do an episode like this for their teen audience and I imagine it would have been a popular episode among that demographic purely for the vicarious enjoyment of imagining yourself as part of the Stargate program. After initial lack of interest since I didn't care in the slightest if any of these people actually made it into a team (despite the return of Hayley whom Carter had inspired last season), it became more interesting once the apparently real scenario began to play out. I was fully expecting it to be a continuation of the training so I was watching it from that perspective, but it isn't until you see O'Neill on the phone in the base that you know for sure that that's what it is.
It makes a lot of sense to train up a new generation of soldiers to fight in the unique settings the Stargate leads to, and I already mentioned that it was a good idea from the audience's standpoint, but I still didn't feel that this was a worthwhile episode until right near the end. For one thing the SG-1 team are reduced to making a few jokey comments - I'm sure they enjoyed the extra time off, and showing the perspective of the support staff would give new insight into the main cast, but that isn't what happened. If it had been the support staff; Walter, Fraiser and others we've seen, it would have added a lot that was missing from the story. The main thing is whether you care about these people, and if you don't it's hard to get drawn into the episode.
It failed to wrong-foot me again when the real problem occurred and Hayley gets killed operating the 'gate, because I was expecting the familiar formula of the raw cadets on a training mission which changes into something else and eventually turns around to become a real situation. At least that's what I thought. The episode succeeded, finally, in tricking me into believing Hayley really had died and that there really was radiation coming from the 'gate, and all of that was real. So it was fun to realise that the lead of the fresh-faced ones chose to sacrifice himself even though he thought it was the real thing and it included some much-needed attachment to the characters missing from most of the episode. It was quite a revelation that Hayley was a plant from the start, but they'd already stated she was pretty much the best of the bunch so it made sense that she didn't need to pass the test by being one of the tested.
I should have guessed it was yet another blind by the way Hammond and the others didn't get quite as agitated as might be expected, but even so, it was well done. On the casting front, as well as interest from the return of Hayley we had Grace Park as one of the young recruits, who I think is the sister of Linda Park on 'Enterprise' which would have been in its first season at this point. I felt the episode was a mix of the 'TNG' episodes 'Coming of Age' (in which Wesley goes through similar tests to see if he's Academy material), and 'Lower Decks' in which we experience the episode from the point of view of some low-ranked members of the ship. Because I'm not all that keen on the military nature of SG-1 I don't get too excited about soldiers running around shooting things, preferring the Trek way of semi-military, and consequently I didn't feel that the episode stood up as well as those two, despite their age. But it did end well, with O'Neill suggesting that even then the test wasn't over, but I suppose in the life of a Stargater every day is a mental, physical, philosophical or psychological test in itself.
**
Monday, 26 March 2012
Kill Huggy Bear
DVD, Starsky & Hutch S1 (Kill Huggy Bear)
It's taken almost half the season, but we get to a Huggy-centric episode at last, and with his name in the title it's as close to being his own series as can be. That's what you'd think, but although he features a lot more than in any previous story, it's still mostly about S&H. After the success of the last story, 'Pariah', it's a bit of a comedown to find this returns to some of the mistakes of the weaker episodes, although they do seem to have learned to keep the pace a bit steadier. So if pace can't be blamed for bringing the story down, it must be that it's quite a simplistic and generally uninteresting story. One that has some good stunts, but fails to excite much in the execution. For instance, we have S&H chased by a car and ending up in a fight against two bodybuilders, a scene in which their car drives downhill and the brakes won't work, and a last-ditch rooftop shootout, and only one out of these three works particularly well.
The shootout works and I think it's because in the other two cases humour is pushed over tension. It's funny to have Starsky watching Hutch have trouble with his fighting partner after he'd given so much advice about how to beat a muscle man in a fight, but it doesn't make us fear for his safety. Similarly, when they're shouting at each other on the unstoppable downward journey thanks to the brakes being cut, it's fun to see them arguing over who should bail out, but the situation is resolved fairly simply by driving around a corner and skidding to a halt. How much better would it have been for them to smash through a window into a house or trash some law-abiding citizen's front garden in their effort to stop, let alone both having to leap out of the doors. The shootout, on the other hand, is a battle to the death with a dangerous criminal. Harry's not in the Prudholm league, but he is a cold-blooded killer and a bit of a psychopath.
As soon as you first see him you know he's bad thanks to the black goatee he sports and the way he menaces hapless crook Dewey. It becomes clear he only cares about what he can get, enjoying Sarah's company until it comes to taking the money, happily finishing off Dewey with Sarah's consent, and gambling that he won't be seen as he cuts Starsky's brake cable. He seems like the sort that will do anything if he feels he can get away with it, with no empathy for others. It was a nice touch for the villain to use his own skills against S&H - he was a mechanic so he does what a mechanic can do. Sarah was weak-minded, easily led by a more powerful mind, but also quite evil in her ability not to care about Dewey: greed was her motive, betrayal her reward. All the same, despite the pair's nastiness, they didn't make for a strong challenge and if it hadn't been for Lou Malinda's health club mob boss S&H would probably have solved the mystery much quicker. Instead they get bogged down with the muscle men and muscling their way into Malinda's establishment.
I've said very little about Huggy Bear and there's a reason for that. Although the story ostensibly revolves around him, he doesn't do much to move the story along, instead relying on S&H to make the moves. We do get to see how he handles a tight spot when two of the muscle-bound meatheads arrive to rough up his place. He seems to have some kind of getaway plan primed in the eventuality some unwanted guests visit as he soon shoots behind a curtain into a small storeroom in the back and launches himself like a springing snake through the narrow window - two episodes in a row where people make a quick getaway by leaping through a window. Nice!
He ends up hiding in a storm drain, one of the few times in the episode where we visit a rundown area of town, and is assisted by S&H at last. An interesting aspect of his role in this is that he finds himself compromised by Dewey, unable to be honest with his friends, and they sense it. For the first time he's caught between the law and his shady street life. This was far better addressed in Season 4's 'Huggy Can't Go Home', and I suppose it's asking too much for them to have seen the opportunity this early for a more dramatic situation, but the thread isn't pulled and Huggy never faces the consequences, aside from his friend Dewey being killed. Maybe he should have displayed some guilt over that, but on the positive side (if you like black humour), at least he won't have to cover for him any more.
Another interesting side-plot that never went anywhere was Dobey's interest in the case from a perspective of rivalry within the force - he wanted S&H to solve the case of the store that had the mob drop because the gambling squad had been watching it and he wanted to get one over on them. If there had been an actual rival for Dobey to talk to he would have had some kind of presence in the story, but as it was he was reduced to a couple of conversations by radio and that was it. So too much potential was never reached and I think that hurt the episode. It was better paced than some, but not very exciting in general, apart from the gunfight on the rooftop, and with such an exciting title it was set up to be so much better, so the lowering of expectations is noticeable. The car chase did at least make me pause for thought and wonder how many people we see in the background are extras and how much do they did by filming through the streets. They could have got away with it this season because no one would have known who they were or what was going on. I think it came about because there were a couple of people in the distance, behind the chain-link fence that seemed to be watching and I wondered if they were spectators or extras.
There were few of the usual jokes and gags, but Starsky is once again trying to bring Hutch round to his love of the Gran Torino. This time his partner cuts him down with the simple statement that it's red. "Candy-apple-red" he responds, hurt. I thought it was funny that whenever we see the room full of muscle men, Malinda's protection, they were always sitting around as if waiting for something, rather than actually doing any exercise! It was another case of simplicity that Malinda was so easily cowed into taking his operation away from the city, and another reason the episode feels too easily and quickly resolved. I know Hamilton Camp better for his role as the psycho Ferengi Leck in 'DS9' so it was fun to see him out of makeup. The only pop culture reference I picked up was Mohammed Ali's 'float like a butterfly sting like a bee,' but I did notice the stunt guy was driving the Torino when it's tailing the muscle men's vehicle and when it's out of control.
I wondered if the drug store was the same one used in 'Savage Sunday' for the holdup as its orientation of a counter on the left was the same. There's also the wacky person who provides the police with information outside - last time it was the man with excellent memory, this time it's a lady who wants her pay phone dime back! We also see the back exit of Huggy's for what I think is the first time, though it looks like a reuse of a back alley seen in 'The Fix'. The attack on Huggy didn't look very convincing as it appeared he was hit on the back or shoulders rather than his head. Like the early episodes the dull green car makes a reappearance, or does it? It's the same colour, but in those episodes the car was a Chevrolet, and in this it's a Ford, so probably not the same vehicle after all. I couldn't tell if it was Diane in the background at Huggy's this time or not, but we hear him say the name of someone else that works for him: Angie.
I felt the blood work in the episode didn't look at all real. When the store owner gets shot and or when Harry's wounded in the leg, both times it looks like red paint! Nice to see Hutch's place again, they're really getting their money's worth out of it, even when there's no real reason to go there. For a moment I thought we were going to see Starsky's apartment, but it turned out to be the villain's place. This is another episode that features more of the better part of the city than the slums. The health club is an obvious example, as is the villain's well-furnished apartment (I hope she wasn't too attached to that glass vase!), and the only time we see more rundown areas is in Huggy's storm drain hideout and the fenced off area where S&H have their unconvincing fight with the muscles. Even the rooftop is all bright white so, although there isn't much goodness in the story, neither is it a depressing one and must go in the 'positive city' category.
**
It's taken almost half the season, but we get to a Huggy-centric episode at last, and with his name in the title it's as close to being his own series as can be. That's what you'd think, but although he features a lot more than in any previous story, it's still mostly about S&H. After the success of the last story, 'Pariah', it's a bit of a comedown to find this returns to some of the mistakes of the weaker episodes, although they do seem to have learned to keep the pace a bit steadier. So if pace can't be blamed for bringing the story down, it must be that it's quite a simplistic and generally uninteresting story. One that has some good stunts, but fails to excite much in the execution. For instance, we have S&H chased by a car and ending up in a fight against two bodybuilders, a scene in which their car drives downhill and the brakes won't work, and a last-ditch rooftop shootout, and only one out of these three works particularly well.
The shootout works and I think it's because in the other two cases humour is pushed over tension. It's funny to have Starsky watching Hutch have trouble with his fighting partner after he'd given so much advice about how to beat a muscle man in a fight, but it doesn't make us fear for his safety. Similarly, when they're shouting at each other on the unstoppable downward journey thanks to the brakes being cut, it's fun to see them arguing over who should bail out, but the situation is resolved fairly simply by driving around a corner and skidding to a halt. How much better would it have been for them to smash through a window into a house or trash some law-abiding citizen's front garden in their effort to stop, let alone both having to leap out of the doors. The shootout, on the other hand, is a battle to the death with a dangerous criminal. Harry's not in the Prudholm league, but he is a cold-blooded killer and a bit of a psychopath.
As soon as you first see him you know he's bad thanks to the black goatee he sports and the way he menaces hapless crook Dewey. It becomes clear he only cares about what he can get, enjoying Sarah's company until it comes to taking the money, happily finishing off Dewey with Sarah's consent, and gambling that he won't be seen as he cuts Starsky's brake cable. He seems like the sort that will do anything if he feels he can get away with it, with no empathy for others. It was a nice touch for the villain to use his own skills against S&H - he was a mechanic so he does what a mechanic can do. Sarah was weak-minded, easily led by a more powerful mind, but also quite evil in her ability not to care about Dewey: greed was her motive, betrayal her reward. All the same, despite the pair's nastiness, they didn't make for a strong challenge and if it hadn't been for Lou Malinda's health club mob boss S&H would probably have solved the mystery much quicker. Instead they get bogged down with the muscle men and muscling their way into Malinda's establishment.
I've said very little about Huggy Bear and there's a reason for that. Although the story ostensibly revolves around him, he doesn't do much to move the story along, instead relying on S&H to make the moves. We do get to see how he handles a tight spot when two of the muscle-bound meatheads arrive to rough up his place. He seems to have some kind of getaway plan primed in the eventuality some unwanted guests visit as he soon shoots behind a curtain into a small storeroom in the back and launches himself like a springing snake through the narrow window - two episodes in a row where people make a quick getaway by leaping through a window. Nice!
He ends up hiding in a storm drain, one of the few times in the episode where we visit a rundown area of town, and is assisted by S&H at last. An interesting aspect of his role in this is that he finds himself compromised by Dewey, unable to be honest with his friends, and they sense it. For the first time he's caught between the law and his shady street life. This was far better addressed in Season 4's 'Huggy Can't Go Home', and I suppose it's asking too much for them to have seen the opportunity this early for a more dramatic situation, but the thread isn't pulled and Huggy never faces the consequences, aside from his friend Dewey being killed. Maybe he should have displayed some guilt over that, but on the positive side (if you like black humour), at least he won't have to cover for him any more.
Another interesting side-plot that never went anywhere was Dobey's interest in the case from a perspective of rivalry within the force - he wanted S&H to solve the case of the store that had the mob drop because the gambling squad had been watching it and he wanted to get one over on them. If there had been an actual rival for Dobey to talk to he would have had some kind of presence in the story, but as it was he was reduced to a couple of conversations by radio and that was it. So too much potential was never reached and I think that hurt the episode. It was better paced than some, but not very exciting in general, apart from the gunfight on the rooftop, and with such an exciting title it was set up to be so much better, so the lowering of expectations is noticeable. The car chase did at least make me pause for thought and wonder how many people we see in the background are extras and how much do they did by filming through the streets. They could have got away with it this season because no one would have known who they were or what was going on. I think it came about because there were a couple of people in the distance, behind the chain-link fence that seemed to be watching and I wondered if they were spectators or extras.
There were few of the usual jokes and gags, but Starsky is once again trying to bring Hutch round to his love of the Gran Torino. This time his partner cuts him down with the simple statement that it's red. "Candy-apple-red" he responds, hurt. I thought it was funny that whenever we see the room full of muscle men, Malinda's protection, they were always sitting around as if waiting for something, rather than actually doing any exercise! It was another case of simplicity that Malinda was so easily cowed into taking his operation away from the city, and another reason the episode feels too easily and quickly resolved. I know Hamilton Camp better for his role as the psycho Ferengi Leck in 'DS9' so it was fun to see him out of makeup. The only pop culture reference I picked up was Mohammed Ali's 'float like a butterfly sting like a bee,' but I did notice the stunt guy was driving the Torino when it's tailing the muscle men's vehicle and when it's out of control.
I wondered if the drug store was the same one used in 'Savage Sunday' for the holdup as its orientation of a counter on the left was the same. There's also the wacky person who provides the police with information outside - last time it was the man with excellent memory, this time it's a lady who wants her pay phone dime back! We also see the back exit of Huggy's for what I think is the first time, though it looks like a reuse of a back alley seen in 'The Fix'. The attack on Huggy didn't look very convincing as it appeared he was hit on the back or shoulders rather than his head. Like the early episodes the dull green car makes a reappearance, or does it? It's the same colour, but in those episodes the car was a Chevrolet, and in this it's a Ford, so probably not the same vehicle after all. I couldn't tell if it was Diane in the background at Huggy's this time or not, but we hear him say the name of someone else that works for him: Angie.
I felt the blood work in the episode didn't look at all real. When the store owner gets shot and or when Harry's wounded in the leg, both times it looks like red paint! Nice to see Hutch's place again, they're really getting their money's worth out of it, even when there's no real reason to go there. For a moment I thought we were going to see Starsky's apartment, but it turned out to be the villain's place. This is another episode that features more of the better part of the city than the slums. The health club is an obvious example, as is the villain's well-furnished apartment (I hope she wasn't too attached to that glass vase!), and the only time we see more rundown areas is in Huggy's storm drain hideout and the fenced off area where S&H have their unconvincing fight with the muscles. Even the rooftop is all bright white so, although there isn't much goodness in the story, neither is it a depressing one and must go in the 'positive city' category.
**
Wormhole X-treme!
DVD, Stargate SG-1 S5 (Wormhole X-treme!)
Not quite the absolute barnstorming collection of hilarity that I recalled, but I think I'm merging this one with a sequel that continued the story. It certainly fulfils its remit of celebrating the series in a fun and self-referential way. Because this was, I believe, the 100th episode and they wanted to do something different. They'd already come up with Martin Lloyd, an alien stuck on Earth, and here they took the story and ran with it. There are so many subtle moments that laugh at both 'Stargate' in general and the genre overall. General Hammond's derogatory line about the TV series 'Wormhole X-treme!' being useful for plausible deniability should the 'gate programme ever leak out, but 'only if it lasts that long' is more true today than ever before, with a series easily cancelled in a few episodes if it doesn't pull in the right numbers. Equally, I loved O'Neill's line about the General making a cameo in this TV series - 'a small one, but integral', talking about his own superior in a roundabout way. The crack about the female character asking why, if she's out of phase and can pass through matter, she doesn't fall through the floor, someone else saying the aliens all speak human anyway, so why do they need alien fruit… there are so many of them.
The jokes don't come thick and fast, but it's enough that you can chuckle along to, and the caricatures of 'Wormhole X-treme' are brilliant, the only disappointment is that they don't feature more. The Teal'c-alike who has an eyebrow on a string because he can't move one on its own! I don't know how many behind the scenes staff made it into the episode, but there's the obvious appearance of the producers at the end, and I think the guy in glasses early in the episode may have been one of the writers. I wouldn't have recognised them previously, but I've since watched the DVD extras that are available on the slimline boxed sets so the faces stood out. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the crew got their faces onscreen too, as a reward for getting to this milestone, and it is a milestone and a great achievement to make it that far.
The B-story of Carter and Daniel trying to track Tanner wasn't as interesting as the on-set antics O'Neill has to go through, leading to more rivalry with the NID - couldn't they be arrested for assaulting the guy assigned to make sure they didn't leave? Whenever a TV appeared onscreen, like when Daniel and Carter search one of the alien's apartments and it was so prominent, or when O'Neill's in Martin's trailer, I was expecting them to flick to an episode of the new sci-fi phenomenon. That wouldn't have made sense as the trailer at the start stated that it would be coming in September, or whenever it was, but we don't know when the trailer was made so the series could have been broadcast.
I get the impression that a lot of the jokes were directed at and for the makers of the real programme themselves, knowing how difficult it was to do things and saying things like 'we'll do it in post [production]', or fading out, so I bet they had a whale of a time making and watching this episode. It even ends with a spectacular special effects moment that neatly ties up the story of Martin's alien brethren on Earth, though he stays behind in his new life. But then there's the other ending which is really weird as if it's behind the scenes of the fake show, but in real life - the guy playing the Daniel impersonator cites all the way back to the film (and was a good Daniel impersonator!), and the way they're talking it sometimes feels like it's a scripted reaction in their world, and sometimes a natural reaction in reality, so it was difficult to get my head around, but a fun segment all the same. Here's to another 100 episodes (and they did them, too!).
***
Not quite the absolute barnstorming collection of hilarity that I recalled, but I think I'm merging this one with a sequel that continued the story. It certainly fulfils its remit of celebrating the series in a fun and self-referential way. Because this was, I believe, the 100th episode and they wanted to do something different. They'd already come up with Martin Lloyd, an alien stuck on Earth, and here they took the story and ran with it. There are so many subtle moments that laugh at both 'Stargate' in general and the genre overall. General Hammond's derogatory line about the TV series 'Wormhole X-treme!' being useful for plausible deniability should the 'gate programme ever leak out, but 'only if it lasts that long' is more true today than ever before, with a series easily cancelled in a few episodes if it doesn't pull in the right numbers. Equally, I loved O'Neill's line about the General making a cameo in this TV series - 'a small one, but integral', talking about his own superior in a roundabout way. The crack about the female character asking why, if she's out of phase and can pass through matter, she doesn't fall through the floor, someone else saying the aliens all speak human anyway, so why do they need alien fruit… there are so many of them.
The jokes don't come thick and fast, but it's enough that you can chuckle along to, and the caricatures of 'Wormhole X-treme' are brilliant, the only disappointment is that they don't feature more. The Teal'c-alike who has an eyebrow on a string because he can't move one on its own! I don't know how many behind the scenes staff made it into the episode, but there's the obvious appearance of the producers at the end, and I think the guy in glasses early in the episode may have been one of the writers. I wouldn't have recognised them previously, but I've since watched the DVD extras that are available on the slimline boxed sets so the faces stood out. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the crew got their faces onscreen too, as a reward for getting to this milestone, and it is a milestone and a great achievement to make it that far.
The B-story of Carter and Daniel trying to track Tanner wasn't as interesting as the on-set antics O'Neill has to go through, leading to more rivalry with the NID - couldn't they be arrested for assaulting the guy assigned to make sure they didn't leave? Whenever a TV appeared onscreen, like when Daniel and Carter search one of the alien's apartments and it was so prominent, or when O'Neill's in Martin's trailer, I was expecting them to flick to an episode of the new sci-fi phenomenon. That wouldn't have made sense as the trailer at the start stated that it would be coming in September, or whenever it was, but we don't know when the trailer was made so the series could have been broadcast.
I get the impression that a lot of the jokes were directed at and for the makers of the real programme themselves, knowing how difficult it was to do things and saying things like 'we'll do it in post [production]', or fading out, so I bet they had a whale of a time making and watching this episode. It even ends with a spectacular special effects moment that neatly ties up the story of Martin's alien brethren on Earth, though he stays behind in his new life. But then there's the other ending which is really weird as if it's behind the scenes of the fake show, but in real life - the guy playing the Daniel impersonator cites all the way back to the film (and was a good Daniel impersonator!), and the way they're talking it sometimes feels like it's a scripted reaction in their world, and sometimes a natural reaction in reality, so it was difficult to get my head around, but a fun segment all the same. Here's to another 100 episodes (and they did them, too!).
***
Extreme Measures
DVD, Stargate SG-1 S5 (Extreme Measures)
These home planet spy stories either work or they don't. Perhaps an obvious statement, but there's a lot of mileage to be had from spies and shady deals, I just don't often get the feeling the series played them the best way. As soon as I saw the close up of the soldier smoking I instantly got the impression he was foreign and probably Russian. Is that racist to suggest such a slovenly or tardy stereotype? From there the story pretty much slotted into the boxes you'd expect, not really doing anything new or clever, although I did enjoy O'Neill's conversation with the homeless man. And he wasn't joking, he really did have a ton of 'National Geographic' magazines! The teaser boded quite well with it's mysterious branded prisoner of the Russians and Carter being abducted by 'Ninjas' - she certainly knows her hand to hand combat. From there the story degenerated into locating Carter, suspecting Simmons, getting Mayborn involved, running around inside an abandoned building and chasing a Goa'uld that has escaped by pretending his host, the woman's boyfriend, is still in control… ho hum.
It was good to have Mayborn back, even though he's just a slimy, untrustworthy, loose cannon you can barely turn your back on. At the same time as giving the impression he'd ditch O'Neill and the rest at any opportunity that suited his profit motive, he also appears to genuinely care what happens to the SG-1 team as if he has real affection for them. I can't see him sacrificing himself to save one of them any time soon, or ever, but he loves to act as if he's part of the gang. It's kind of endearing, but also disturbing, knowing that he is so treacherous. He impresses with his ability to run around and play games, and even Jack takes him a little more seriously these days, seemingly impressed by him returning to the country even though he's a wanted criminal. I never used to like him, but he's had his uses over the years and is much more interesting as a third party that has all the knowledge the general public don't, but very little allegiance to any side.
On the subject of knowledge, it's a wonder the Stargate project remains a secret. It's explained away as spies passing on top secret information to the public sector for dough, but if such practice were widespread the 'gate would surely have come out by this time. There's always the argument that no one would believe such stories without proof, but it's a crack in the structure of the series that could potentially erode the credibility and mystery of its premise - I preferred the days when it was known only to a select few. Since then we've got former enemy nations butting in, other organisations, politicians and myriad other parties. Amazingly the 'gate has remained unknown to the general public!
I'd love to know how Mayborn made it back into the country, but with his newfound wealth (or additional wealth), from being paid off like that, I expect he could do a lot of things. Simmons being a bit of a traitor, or alternatively doing what he can for his corner of the power base, isn't a surprise and I haven't felt de Lancie has had much to work with so far in the role. Knowing how it pans out doesn't help, but even at the time I originally saw it, this wasn't an episode I was enamoured with. I think it's because the team isn't integral to the story, it's much more heavily on the shoulders of more powerful forces above our heroes. All they can do to be a part of it is to go round mopping up guards with guns at the end (Teal'c wearing his best 'Murray' hat). I didn't believe in little details such as Carter sawing her way out of restraints with a scalpel blade. I buy that it's possible, but the execution (gently rubbing against the thick leather would take ages, plus it could be seen from the angle on the security monitor), was harder to accept.
Despite this, I felt the direction was to be commended. There were several nice shots that stood out to me as having flair, it was the story that was at fault, usually going in the direction you'd expect. Always easy to say ex post facto, but even so. There were few characters that elicited interest, though it was fun to see Frank C. Turner as the homeless man as I'd also seen him on 'Smallville' as a farmer and he has that memorable kind of face where you know you've seen it before, but can't remember where. I also thought the large, bald guy with glasses did a good job of portraying menace amidst passion for an exciting project. O'Neill rushing in to rescue Carter should have meant more at the time, and it was also ridiculous, and an obvious loose end for the writers to play with in future, that he leaves Mayborn to guard the two men when it would have made much more sense to let the ailing Carter sit with a gun trained on them. But she had to get her action bit in.
At least they didn't go down the route I was expecting and have her held captive by the Goa'uld, leaving O'Neill no choice but to let him go. Still, when expectations are lifted by a good opening it's best not to drop the ball and let an episode drift into banality as this one did. At least they got the 'Starsky & Hutch' joke in again.
**
These home planet spy stories either work or they don't. Perhaps an obvious statement, but there's a lot of mileage to be had from spies and shady deals, I just don't often get the feeling the series played them the best way. As soon as I saw the close up of the soldier smoking I instantly got the impression he was foreign and probably Russian. Is that racist to suggest such a slovenly or tardy stereotype? From there the story pretty much slotted into the boxes you'd expect, not really doing anything new or clever, although I did enjoy O'Neill's conversation with the homeless man. And he wasn't joking, he really did have a ton of 'National Geographic' magazines! The teaser boded quite well with it's mysterious branded prisoner of the Russians and Carter being abducted by 'Ninjas' - she certainly knows her hand to hand combat. From there the story degenerated into locating Carter, suspecting Simmons, getting Mayborn involved, running around inside an abandoned building and chasing a Goa'uld that has escaped by pretending his host, the woman's boyfriend, is still in control… ho hum.
It was good to have Mayborn back, even though he's just a slimy, untrustworthy, loose cannon you can barely turn your back on. At the same time as giving the impression he'd ditch O'Neill and the rest at any opportunity that suited his profit motive, he also appears to genuinely care what happens to the SG-1 team as if he has real affection for them. I can't see him sacrificing himself to save one of them any time soon, or ever, but he loves to act as if he's part of the gang. It's kind of endearing, but also disturbing, knowing that he is so treacherous. He impresses with his ability to run around and play games, and even Jack takes him a little more seriously these days, seemingly impressed by him returning to the country even though he's a wanted criminal. I never used to like him, but he's had his uses over the years and is much more interesting as a third party that has all the knowledge the general public don't, but very little allegiance to any side.
On the subject of knowledge, it's a wonder the Stargate project remains a secret. It's explained away as spies passing on top secret information to the public sector for dough, but if such practice were widespread the 'gate would surely have come out by this time. There's always the argument that no one would believe such stories without proof, but it's a crack in the structure of the series that could potentially erode the credibility and mystery of its premise - I preferred the days when it was known only to a select few. Since then we've got former enemy nations butting in, other organisations, politicians and myriad other parties. Amazingly the 'gate has remained unknown to the general public!
I'd love to know how Mayborn made it back into the country, but with his newfound wealth (or additional wealth), from being paid off like that, I expect he could do a lot of things. Simmons being a bit of a traitor, or alternatively doing what he can for his corner of the power base, isn't a surprise and I haven't felt de Lancie has had much to work with so far in the role. Knowing how it pans out doesn't help, but even at the time I originally saw it, this wasn't an episode I was enamoured with. I think it's because the team isn't integral to the story, it's much more heavily on the shoulders of more powerful forces above our heroes. All they can do to be a part of it is to go round mopping up guards with guns at the end (Teal'c wearing his best 'Murray' hat). I didn't believe in little details such as Carter sawing her way out of restraints with a scalpel blade. I buy that it's possible, but the execution (gently rubbing against the thick leather would take ages, plus it could be seen from the angle on the security monitor), was harder to accept.
Despite this, I felt the direction was to be commended. There were several nice shots that stood out to me as having flair, it was the story that was at fault, usually going in the direction you'd expect. Always easy to say ex post facto, but even so. There were few characters that elicited interest, though it was fun to see Frank C. Turner as the homeless man as I'd also seen him on 'Smallville' as a farmer and he has that memorable kind of face where you know you've seen it before, but can't remember where. I also thought the large, bald guy with glasses did a good job of portraying menace amidst passion for an exciting project. O'Neill rushing in to rescue Carter should have meant more at the time, and it was also ridiculous, and an obvious loose end for the writers to play with in future, that he leaves Mayborn to guard the two men when it would have made much more sense to let the ailing Carter sit with a gun trained on them. But she had to get her action bit in.
At least they didn't go down the route I was expecting and have her held captive by the Goa'uld, leaving O'Neill no choice but to let him go. Still, when expectations are lifted by a good opening it's best not to drop the ball and let an episode drift into banality as this one did. At least they got the 'Starsky & Hutch' joke in again.
**
Pariah
DVD, Starsky & Hutch S1 (Pariah)
Prudholm. George Prudholm. It's a name that any aficionado of 'Starsky & Hutch' will instantly recognise, because, for a series made up of individual, mostly unconnected episodes, this villain proved to be almost too much for our favourite coppers to handle, and provided a uniquely personal enemy, particularly for Starsky, on two occasions. He appears here in this episode where everything comes together to create the best of the season so far, and indeed, the best of Season 1 in total. He returned in an even better episode in Season 2 where once again everyone was at the top of their game. I don't know why this episode should be so well-paced compared to the previous few episodes, or why the moments of heart and courage and the noble emotions should be released here in such abundance. I don't know why it was better written, better directed, better cast and perhaps even better acted than previous stories, but for whatever reason all the creative members of production came together to make a strong episode without any misfiring.
Credit must go to the creation of a villain that not only has a real, believable, personal motive of vindictiveness, at odds with so many of the two-dimensional or unformed villains that had been slapped in for some of Season 1's stories. What helps him work so well is that he's kept in the background for much of the time, seen only by us, the viewers, until gradually he's revealed and an incident from S&H's past draws them onto his trail. Admittedly, once the man is unmasked and his character opened up, the mystery is lessened, but it then shifts gears to become a wild west showdown in a deserted graveyard zoo, abandoned and empty, full of dark holes and twisting branches. This could be considered the first episode that brought in the horror elements that would later be used more fully and become a sub-genre within the series, identified here in the first use of the discordant clinking, clanking bell noises to throw us off balance as we watch Starsky stalk through the Old Zoo, all his senses alert.
Looking back at many of the early episodes, especially the three that precede this one, there's an uneven pace, as if they were sometimes just filling time. The villains were obvious most of the time and either had little motivation beyond money, or didn't act in the way their motivation might have suggested, such as Lou in 'Death Notice' who works for Delano, happily going about killing girls and shooting at cops, apparently assuming he's bulletproof, both literally and legally. Dobey and Huggy, who, though appearing in the opening credits, sometimes didn't have much to do, even being shoehorned in for the sake of it. All these problems are overcome in this episode: the villain provides a level of tension that we haven't felt very much by this point. The pacing is just right, with scenes that mean something constantly played out - there's even a different style to some of the directing, such as the handheld nature of the holdup. Huggy's there to help in a couple of scenes and Dobey provides strong moral support for his man, throwing out that he knows how he'd feel in Starsky's position, but "ya gotta hold on!" Though we see the weight on his shoulders when he's alone, becoming more fed up as the story progresses.
It helps that it's set firmly in the positive side of the S&H world. It deals with negative things, such as racial tension, the young misled, and the consequences of a split second decision, but it also shows more compassion, more truth and more justice than we generally get in any single episode, as well as dealing with respectable folks, and showing a better side to the city, with a courtroom, a supermarket, neat houses in a suburban area. The issue of black against white doesn't become the issue it at first seems, taking the story off in a different direction entirely. The most important pointer to this being an upbeat story is that Starsky is tested and not found wanting - his actions "proved commendable" in the eyes of authority and that's comforting to see in a TV series when so often truth is twisted in real life. You can't get more positive than right winning out.
Paul Michael Glaser's performance is powerful as he goes from regret at having to pull the trigger on an armed felon that turns out to be a sixteen year-old boy whose Mother weeps over the body, to holding his chin up with good-natured bravado in the face of opposition when it seems he may be found guilty of making the wrong move thanks to false testimony, to being justified in front of everyone, to sensitively approaching the boy's Mother, not for forgiveness, but to get every lead he can and catch the man that led Lonnie down the criminal path. He then has to deal with enmity from his fellow officers when Prudholm starts killing them at random, Dobey's refusal to allow him to hand in his badge, and frustration that he can't get his hands on the man that has chosen to destroy his life. He even shows professional restraint and the ability to refuse revenge, even when his enemy is there before him, continuing to taunt and goad him. We haven't seen Starsky put through so much in one episode before!
Even though he has his friends Hutch and Huggy keeping him sane, and Dobey's loyalty and belief, he's still more alone than ever before because he knows he did the right thing, yet the outcome of a teenager dying was wrong. When he's up against a twisted man he becomes even more alone. You'd think the police would show solidarity, but the fear gets to some and they take it out on Starsky. It's not until later in the episode that a kind fellow cop informs him that most of the boys are behind him. He still must wrestle with issues and feelings both personal and professional, and he's more than happy to accept Prudholm's challenge to meet him one on one, but he should have realised that he was never alone: Hutch would always be watching his back. At first he physically bars his way to prevent the dangerous showdown, but quickly realises his friend is going to do it and the only way to help is to let him think he's going to allow him to take Prudholm on alone. His intervention saves Starsky's life. Subtle moments are as important as big scenes, and they're very well handled, Hutch following his partner out to the car, but not getting in, though he wants to. Starsky gives him a nod that says it all, thanking him for not stopping him and for understanding that he needs to do it.
I got the impression Prudholm was ex-military as well as an ex-con, from the way he handled his rifle, his expertise with explosives and his tactics of taking the high ground at the Old Zoo. He's quite effective in putting Starsky in hot water by remaining anonymous and killing off innocent cops, it's only when his personal rage takes over and he can't quell the desire for revenge on Starsky's person that he loses his cool. Even then he thought he couldn't lose, and it was only due to Hutch's unexpected assistance that he did. It was a coup for them to bring him in alive, but I did feel that the ending was the only weakness of the episode, being unspectacular and anticlimactic: Starsky shoots Prudholm and knocks him down, and after all the build up it would have been better if there had been a more action-packed ending - perhaps booby traps to avoid. If it had been a physical fight Prudholm would have lost, being an older man, but the psychological battle of wits suits him just fine and gets Starsky's goat, giving us a much more compelling enmity than we usually see.
It could be said that Starsky turning up at the wake, (which I always thought was at a church, but was clearly the family home), was insensitive, but it was a very brave thing for him to do, as far from thumbing his nose at the afflicted people as can be - time was of the essence and he only did it to get any little lead he could to find the man that had led Lonnie on his path to destruction. It's a very rewarding scene and shows Starsky in a very good light with the tact and sensitivity in his approach. You just don't know how they're going to react, and then they do so in such a sensible, calm way and it's a relief. Maybe it was too easy, maybe they were more likely to hate him, but it's very satisfying to see and shows their nobler side. Tidings is the mouthpiece of hate early on when in the heat of the moment he shouts that Lonnie had put his hands up. The way he comes to his senses and tells it the way it really happened, pleading the case for the truth to Eunice Craig, Lonnie's Mother as he sits in the dock, even though it's not what she wants to hear, is a very touching moment. So when they both shake hands with Starsky it means so much.
There is the issue of propriety again, because although this time there is at least an investigation of the incident, Starsky isn't suspended and is allowed to carry on about his business. Equally, S&H are allowed, even encouraged to track Tramaine and we're shown how much Starsky has invested in it by the way he loses his temper, and not in the hard cop/hard cop game they sometimes play on a criminal. He shoves the man up against the wall which sets up how he reacts to Prudholm when he eventually captures him, and the restraint he shows there. It also seemed as though they had no warrant to search Prudholm's home and Starsky loses his cool and ends up kicking the place up - he'd surely be in trouble for that nowadays! Prudholm isn't above making mistakes, however. He could have been all wrong about Starsky's resignation because he doesn't check pages two and three of the newspaper, flipping straight on in his eagerness!
The episode is much more serious than some, so there's less time for the jokey nature of the series to come through, but it begins with one of the best intro's when Starsky is tricked into drinking some of Hutch's health drink. It works on multiple levels because it mixes in the running gags of S&H's names being confused, as well as Starsky eating bad food and Hutch eating healthy fare, while integrating them into an elaborate joke. They're certainly getting mileage out of Hutch's place. They make it clear this isn't a 'regular' girlfriend in the way that she's going to show up every episode, since she's dashing off when we meet her and she mentions coming round 'next trip'. They didn't like to tie too much down on the series by adding extra recurring characters and keeping S&H available, a common tactic in TV, although I wondered if Huggy's barmaid Diane was in the background at his place. One actor that was used again was Graham Jarvis who played Collins, the bald guy with glasses who takes Dobey to talk to the press. He appeared at least once more as a villain, Basil Monk, in Season 4's 'Photo Finish'. One of the cops who sat and took calls at reception looked like the same extra that had stared like a goldfish at S&H when they went to the blood donor in 'Texas Longhorn' - it was the eyes that did it.
It's odd that in the episode from which the clip of Starsky running with a gun is taken, it's not used in the credits, replaced again by the 'ape' running from 'Savage Sunday'. It makes sense if they didn't want to give anything away, but they'd shown it several times before. The Old Zoo was one set definitely used again, and several times, I think, and the reception desk at police HQ appeared to be a reuse of the hospital set from 'Death Ride'. There's another layer of interest to be had when we're told about S&H's history in connection with Prudholm, and how it ties into their first case out of uniform, two years before the episode. It's tantalising to hear such details, even though we know they're unlikely to be expanded upon, just as it was when we heard about Dobey's partner previously. The series was always going to be a fascinating record of 70s America, and that continues when they use locations such as the supermarket, showing us what they looked like back then - the episode has a lot more interest than the main story alone.
To recap, Dobey's used well, if sparingly, the casting is perfect, the action is great - Tramaine leaping through a glass window to escape (Starsky having the same trouble as in 'The Fix' where he's stuck in front of an oncoming vehicle at the most inopportune moment - I love the way both S&H just walk over car bonnets at every opportunity, even when it would take about the same time to walk round the car, as in Hutch's case when he borrows the Panda!). Everything came neatly together to show just what the series was and could be capable of. They rarely reached this level of sophistication and maturity. Perhaps the killing of the cops now seems a little neat and tidy, but it still has some degree of shock value. I was half expecting the restroom to blow up in the same shot as the cop going inside, but they did cut away to the mechanic's reaction. I think it could certainly be suggested that George Prudholm was the best villain the series ever had, and though this isn't the best episode of the series, it's an early example of what it looked like when things went right.
***
Prudholm. George Prudholm. It's a name that any aficionado of 'Starsky & Hutch' will instantly recognise, because, for a series made up of individual, mostly unconnected episodes, this villain proved to be almost too much for our favourite coppers to handle, and provided a uniquely personal enemy, particularly for Starsky, on two occasions. He appears here in this episode where everything comes together to create the best of the season so far, and indeed, the best of Season 1 in total. He returned in an even better episode in Season 2 where once again everyone was at the top of their game. I don't know why this episode should be so well-paced compared to the previous few episodes, or why the moments of heart and courage and the noble emotions should be released here in such abundance. I don't know why it was better written, better directed, better cast and perhaps even better acted than previous stories, but for whatever reason all the creative members of production came together to make a strong episode without any misfiring.
Credit must go to the creation of a villain that not only has a real, believable, personal motive of vindictiveness, at odds with so many of the two-dimensional or unformed villains that had been slapped in for some of Season 1's stories. What helps him work so well is that he's kept in the background for much of the time, seen only by us, the viewers, until gradually he's revealed and an incident from S&H's past draws them onto his trail. Admittedly, once the man is unmasked and his character opened up, the mystery is lessened, but it then shifts gears to become a wild west showdown in a deserted graveyard zoo, abandoned and empty, full of dark holes and twisting branches. This could be considered the first episode that brought in the horror elements that would later be used more fully and become a sub-genre within the series, identified here in the first use of the discordant clinking, clanking bell noises to throw us off balance as we watch Starsky stalk through the Old Zoo, all his senses alert.
Looking back at many of the early episodes, especially the three that precede this one, there's an uneven pace, as if they were sometimes just filling time. The villains were obvious most of the time and either had little motivation beyond money, or didn't act in the way their motivation might have suggested, such as Lou in 'Death Notice' who works for Delano, happily going about killing girls and shooting at cops, apparently assuming he's bulletproof, both literally and legally. Dobey and Huggy, who, though appearing in the opening credits, sometimes didn't have much to do, even being shoehorned in for the sake of it. All these problems are overcome in this episode: the villain provides a level of tension that we haven't felt very much by this point. The pacing is just right, with scenes that mean something constantly played out - there's even a different style to some of the directing, such as the handheld nature of the holdup. Huggy's there to help in a couple of scenes and Dobey provides strong moral support for his man, throwing out that he knows how he'd feel in Starsky's position, but "ya gotta hold on!" Though we see the weight on his shoulders when he's alone, becoming more fed up as the story progresses.
It helps that it's set firmly in the positive side of the S&H world. It deals with negative things, such as racial tension, the young misled, and the consequences of a split second decision, but it also shows more compassion, more truth and more justice than we generally get in any single episode, as well as dealing with respectable folks, and showing a better side to the city, with a courtroom, a supermarket, neat houses in a suburban area. The issue of black against white doesn't become the issue it at first seems, taking the story off in a different direction entirely. The most important pointer to this being an upbeat story is that Starsky is tested and not found wanting - his actions "proved commendable" in the eyes of authority and that's comforting to see in a TV series when so often truth is twisted in real life. You can't get more positive than right winning out.
Paul Michael Glaser's performance is powerful as he goes from regret at having to pull the trigger on an armed felon that turns out to be a sixteen year-old boy whose Mother weeps over the body, to holding his chin up with good-natured bravado in the face of opposition when it seems he may be found guilty of making the wrong move thanks to false testimony, to being justified in front of everyone, to sensitively approaching the boy's Mother, not for forgiveness, but to get every lead he can and catch the man that led Lonnie down the criminal path. He then has to deal with enmity from his fellow officers when Prudholm starts killing them at random, Dobey's refusal to allow him to hand in his badge, and frustration that he can't get his hands on the man that has chosen to destroy his life. He even shows professional restraint and the ability to refuse revenge, even when his enemy is there before him, continuing to taunt and goad him. We haven't seen Starsky put through so much in one episode before!
Even though he has his friends Hutch and Huggy keeping him sane, and Dobey's loyalty and belief, he's still more alone than ever before because he knows he did the right thing, yet the outcome of a teenager dying was wrong. When he's up against a twisted man he becomes even more alone. You'd think the police would show solidarity, but the fear gets to some and they take it out on Starsky. It's not until later in the episode that a kind fellow cop informs him that most of the boys are behind him. He still must wrestle with issues and feelings both personal and professional, and he's more than happy to accept Prudholm's challenge to meet him one on one, but he should have realised that he was never alone: Hutch would always be watching his back. At first he physically bars his way to prevent the dangerous showdown, but quickly realises his friend is going to do it and the only way to help is to let him think he's going to allow him to take Prudholm on alone. His intervention saves Starsky's life. Subtle moments are as important as big scenes, and they're very well handled, Hutch following his partner out to the car, but not getting in, though he wants to. Starsky gives him a nod that says it all, thanking him for not stopping him and for understanding that he needs to do it.
I got the impression Prudholm was ex-military as well as an ex-con, from the way he handled his rifle, his expertise with explosives and his tactics of taking the high ground at the Old Zoo. He's quite effective in putting Starsky in hot water by remaining anonymous and killing off innocent cops, it's only when his personal rage takes over and he can't quell the desire for revenge on Starsky's person that he loses his cool. Even then he thought he couldn't lose, and it was only due to Hutch's unexpected assistance that he did. It was a coup for them to bring him in alive, but I did feel that the ending was the only weakness of the episode, being unspectacular and anticlimactic: Starsky shoots Prudholm and knocks him down, and after all the build up it would have been better if there had been a more action-packed ending - perhaps booby traps to avoid. If it had been a physical fight Prudholm would have lost, being an older man, but the psychological battle of wits suits him just fine and gets Starsky's goat, giving us a much more compelling enmity than we usually see.
It could be said that Starsky turning up at the wake, (which I always thought was at a church, but was clearly the family home), was insensitive, but it was a very brave thing for him to do, as far from thumbing his nose at the afflicted people as can be - time was of the essence and he only did it to get any little lead he could to find the man that had led Lonnie on his path to destruction. It's a very rewarding scene and shows Starsky in a very good light with the tact and sensitivity in his approach. You just don't know how they're going to react, and then they do so in such a sensible, calm way and it's a relief. Maybe it was too easy, maybe they were more likely to hate him, but it's very satisfying to see and shows their nobler side. Tidings is the mouthpiece of hate early on when in the heat of the moment he shouts that Lonnie had put his hands up. The way he comes to his senses and tells it the way it really happened, pleading the case for the truth to Eunice Craig, Lonnie's Mother as he sits in the dock, even though it's not what she wants to hear, is a very touching moment. So when they both shake hands with Starsky it means so much.
There is the issue of propriety again, because although this time there is at least an investigation of the incident, Starsky isn't suspended and is allowed to carry on about his business. Equally, S&H are allowed, even encouraged to track Tramaine and we're shown how much Starsky has invested in it by the way he loses his temper, and not in the hard cop/hard cop game they sometimes play on a criminal. He shoves the man up against the wall which sets up how he reacts to Prudholm when he eventually captures him, and the restraint he shows there. It also seemed as though they had no warrant to search Prudholm's home and Starsky loses his cool and ends up kicking the place up - he'd surely be in trouble for that nowadays! Prudholm isn't above making mistakes, however. He could have been all wrong about Starsky's resignation because he doesn't check pages two and three of the newspaper, flipping straight on in his eagerness!
The episode is much more serious than some, so there's less time for the jokey nature of the series to come through, but it begins with one of the best intro's when Starsky is tricked into drinking some of Hutch's health drink. It works on multiple levels because it mixes in the running gags of S&H's names being confused, as well as Starsky eating bad food and Hutch eating healthy fare, while integrating them into an elaborate joke. They're certainly getting mileage out of Hutch's place. They make it clear this isn't a 'regular' girlfriend in the way that she's going to show up every episode, since she's dashing off when we meet her and she mentions coming round 'next trip'. They didn't like to tie too much down on the series by adding extra recurring characters and keeping S&H available, a common tactic in TV, although I wondered if Huggy's barmaid Diane was in the background at his place. One actor that was used again was Graham Jarvis who played Collins, the bald guy with glasses who takes Dobey to talk to the press. He appeared at least once more as a villain, Basil Monk, in Season 4's 'Photo Finish'. One of the cops who sat and took calls at reception looked like the same extra that had stared like a goldfish at S&H when they went to the blood donor in 'Texas Longhorn' - it was the eyes that did it.
It's odd that in the episode from which the clip of Starsky running with a gun is taken, it's not used in the credits, replaced again by the 'ape' running from 'Savage Sunday'. It makes sense if they didn't want to give anything away, but they'd shown it several times before. The Old Zoo was one set definitely used again, and several times, I think, and the reception desk at police HQ appeared to be a reuse of the hospital set from 'Death Ride'. There's another layer of interest to be had when we're told about S&H's history in connection with Prudholm, and how it ties into their first case out of uniform, two years before the episode. It's tantalising to hear such details, even though we know they're unlikely to be expanded upon, just as it was when we heard about Dobey's partner previously. The series was always going to be a fascinating record of 70s America, and that continues when they use locations such as the supermarket, showing us what they looked like back then - the episode has a lot more interest than the main story alone.
To recap, Dobey's used well, if sparingly, the casting is perfect, the action is great - Tramaine leaping through a glass window to escape (Starsky having the same trouble as in 'The Fix' where he's stuck in front of an oncoming vehicle at the most inopportune moment - I love the way both S&H just walk over car bonnets at every opportunity, even when it would take about the same time to walk round the car, as in Hutch's case when he borrows the Panda!). Everything came neatly together to show just what the series was and could be capable of. They rarely reached this level of sophistication and maturity. Perhaps the killing of the cops now seems a little neat and tidy, but it still has some degree of shock value. I was half expecting the restroom to blow up in the same shot as the cop going inside, but they did cut away to the mechanic's reaction. I think it could certainly be suggested that George Prudholm was the best villain the series ever had, and though this isn't the best episode of the series, it's an early example of what it looked like when things went right.
***
2001
DVD, Stargate SG-1 S5 (2001)
It started slowly, I must admit. I felt recognition for the ambassador. Gradually as time went on I began to feel a strong sense of déjà vu. Had I seen this episode more recently than nine years ago when I saw the other episodes from this season? Then I had the impression it was going to be a clips show, for some reason, perhaps because of Kinsey's name in the credits. Then the title began to make me think of '2010' more and more. Okay, it starts with a reminder of a time when O'Neill apparently sent a note back from the future. '2010' was the only future episode I recalled. Then the idea of the sterility, and thinking I'd seen the grey-clothed Mollem, who they deal with on the harvester before, and it took me quite a while to put the pieces together and realise that this was a direct sequel/prequel to '2010'. In that one the same Ambassador Faxon had fallen in love with Sam and married her, I think. All this technology was too good to be true and turned out to be a ploy by the aliens to wipe out Earth's population.
Okay, I'm slow, but really I'm just not that well versed in 'Stargate' mythology. So is this episode the same story as '2010', just showing it from the beginning instead of the end? It gets full marks for cleverness, and was an ingenious way of getting to the same storyline. There's even all the stuff about Kinsey feeling O'Neill's trying to stop him becoming President, something we saw him achieve in the future of '2010'. My admiration for what was a fairly dull episode went up a few notches when all these things came together, but it was severely lacking in the tension that made the preceding episode have a little more danger to it. It's unfortunate that two so similar stories were produced side by side. Both feature the team dealing with an alien race, trying to get technology only to find it's a trap. Both feature Carter and a male friend of hers who stays behind when she has to escape. Both were close shaves, only this one had a lot less investigation and a lot more scenes of people sitting around talking.
The end sequence where Carter has to drop into an open, horizontal Stargate, was what the episode should have tried to do more of. It isn't that a great story needs a lot of action, it's just that the talk that was going on didn't give the feeling of a rising threat. About the most terrifying thing is Kinsey hijacking O'Neill's planned visit to the President. Big whooh. It was also patently clear early on that this was not the episode to wrap up the team's mission, their standing orders to seek out new weapons and technologies, to boldly go where no team had been before. When the technology is too good to be true it immediately brings to mind the previous episode, another unfortunate parallel, and let's face it, you were supposed to recognise the Aschen as being evil. They only agree to the terms if all the governments of Earth agree. This means that the incredible realities of the Stargate would have to be broadcast to the world, then there would be uproar! How dare the USA (and Russia) keep this tech secret? How dare they treat the rest of us in this way? It would take months of negotiation just to talk other countries down!
On that note, how come we never hear about the UK end of things. Surely, if the Russians, America's greatest 'enemy' historically, know about the 'gate, they must have told good old England about it, their closest ally? Yet we never hear of that, and this episode is the one that begins to make you question how they can keep all this to themselves. It was absolutely right of the Aschen to have terms that all Earth's nations had to be included (though it was probably just a delaying tactic if all they were waiting for was to send a biological weapon through the 'gate).
The episode falls down on a few points like that. We, the audience know that something is going to prevent this perfect deal from happening because it would practically be the end of the series (and we should have remembered aspects of '2010'). Peace in our time - it would change the dynamics too much. But there were also smaller niggles such as why farmer Keel had never noticed the 'iron root' as he called it, sticking up in his field before today. According to Daniel the city had been below for a couple of centuries so why did it take so long for the farmer to notice? Instead he mentions it off-handedly, and Jackson just suggests he and Teal'c have a look at it, off the top of his head. Did he think it was just a large root to be blasted out? And it just so happens to be one of the struts that was at the centre of the Volian city right next to a collection of newspapers that have somehow not rotted away underground after all those years. Amazing. Not to mention that the Volians must be incredibly primitive not to have passed down a culture over the years that would have held stories of the atrocity brought about by the Aschen.
The real problem of the episode isn't the logic, it's the execution. It's too slow and uneventful. There are some nice shots of the harvester hovering over the land, but the story moves as fast as that vehicle: slowly. There were good shots looking down from the balcony aboard the harvester, but there was very little meat to get your teeth into. It's clever to tie into another episode in the way they did, but not when it consists of Teal'c and Daniel rummaging through old newspapers in a cave, Carter following an ambassador around, and Jack having a riveting conversation with Kinsey in the back of a limo. Even if the Senator did repeat the joke of 'Starsky & Hutch' that was used when last he was in it. And what about poor Ambassador Faxon, left alone on an enemy world? They all just stand around relieved at the end, or smirking at Kinsey's outrage, no one spares a word for the real hero of the story, not even Carter!
**
It started slowly, I must admit. I felt recognition for the ambassador. Gradually as time went on I began to feel a strong sense of déjà vu. Had I seen this episode more recently than nine years ago when I saw the other episodes from this season? Then I had the impression it was going to be a clips show, for some reason, perhaps because of Kinsey's name in the credits. Then the title began to make me think of '2010' more and more. Okay, it starts with a reminder of a time when O'Neill apparently sent a note back from the future. '2010' was the only future episode I recalled. Then the idea of the sterility, and thinking I'd seen the grey-clothed Mollem, who they deal with on the harvester before, and it took me quite a while to put the pieces together and realise that this was a direct sequel/prequel to '2010'. In that one the same Ambassador Faxon had fallen in love with Sam and married her, I think. All this technology was too good to be true and turned out to be a ploy by the aliens to wipe out Earth's population.
Okay, I'm slow, but really I'm just not that well versed in 'Stargate' mythology. So is this episode the same story as '2010', just showing it from the beginning instead of the end? It gets full marks for cleverness, and was an ingenious way of getting to the same storyline. There's even all the stuff about Kinsey feeling O'Neill's trying to stop him becoming President, something we saw him achieve in the future of '2010'. My admiration for what was a fairly dull episode went up a few notches when all these things came together, but it was severely lacking in the tension that made the preceding episode have a little more danger to it. It's unfortunate that two so similar stories were produced side by side. Both feature the team dealing with an alien race, trying to get technology only to find it's a trap. Both feature Carter and a male friend of hers who stays behind when she has to escape. Both were close shaves, only this one had a lot less investigation and a lot more scenes of people sitting around talking.
The end sequence where Carter has to drop into an open, horizontal Stargate, was what the episode should have tried to do more of. It isn't that a great story needs a lot of action, it's just that the talk that was going on didn't give the feeling of a rising threat. About the most terrifying thing is Kinsey hijacking O'Neill's planned visit to the President. Big whooh. It was also patently clear early on that this was not the episode to wrap up the team's mission, their standing orders to seek out new weapons and technologies, to boldly go where no team had been before. When the technology is too good to be true it immediately brings to mind the previous episode, another unfortunate parallel, and let's face it, you were supposed to recognise the Aschen as being evil. They only agree to the terms if all the governments of Earth agree. This means that the incredible realities of the Stargate would have to be broadcast to the world, then there would be uproar! How dare the USA (and Russia) keep this tech secret? How dare they treat the rest of us in this way? It would take months of negotiation just to talk other countries down!
On that note, how come we never hear about the UK end of things. Surely, if the Russians, America's greatest 'enemy' historically, know about the 'gate, they must have told good old England about it, their closest ally? Yet we never hear of that, and this episode is the one that begins to make you question how they can keep all this to themselves. It was absolutely right of the Aschen to have terms that all Earth's nations had to be included (though it was probably just a delaying tactic if all they were waiting for was to send a biological weapon through the 'gate).
The episode falls down on a few points like that. We, the audience know that something is going to prevent this perfect deal from happening because it would practically be the end of the series (and we should have remembered aspects of '2010'). Peace in our time - it would change the dynamics too much. But there were also smaller niggles such as why farmer Keel had never noticed the 'iron root' as he called it, sticking up in his field before today. According to Daniel the city had been below for a couple of centuries so why did it take so long for the farmer to notice? Instead he mentions it off-handedly, and Jackson just suggests he and Teal'c have a look at it, off the top of his head. Did he think it was just a large root to be blasted out? And it just so happens to be one of the struts that was at the centre of the Volian city right next to a collection of newspapers that have somehow not rotted away underground after all those years. Amazing. Not to mention that the Volians must be incredibly primitive not to have passed down a culture over the years that would have held stories of the atrocity brought about by the Aschen.
The real problem of the episode isn't the logic, it's the execution. It's too slow and uneventful. There are some nice shots of the harvester hovering over the land, but the story moves as fast as that vehicle: slowly. There were good shots looking down from the balcony aboard the harvester, but there was very little meat to get your teeth into. It's clever to tie into another episode in the way they did, but not when it consists of Teal'c and Daniel rummaging through old newspapers in a cave, Carter following an ambassador around, and Jack having a riveting conversation with Kinsey in the back of a limo. Even if the Senator did repeat the joke of 'Starsky & Hutch' that was used when last he was in it. And what about poor Ambassador Faxon, left alone on an enemy world? They all just stand around relieved at the end, or smirking at Kinsey's outrage, no one spares a word for the real hero of the story, not even Carter!
**
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Game Boy, Star Trek: The Next Generation (1993) game
I bought this having accidentally discovered on eBay that there were a couple of Trek games released on the Game Boy that I never knew about. Purchasing the other, 'Star Trek: The 25th Anniversary,' fell through when the cartridge didn't work, but I had much more success with this one. Having played (and completed), 'Star Trek: Generations - Beyond The Nexus' I was quickly familiar with the style of gameplay shown in this game as it was almost identical. Although the graphical detail isn't quite as good in this compared with 'Nexus,' this is a slightly more satisfying game in some ways. In the other game each 'mission' consisted of shooting alien ships, directing plasma flow in a 'pipe' game and a memory puzzle where you had to match signals. This game integrates all its mission variations giving the player much more of a sense of utilising the different crewmembers, changing to meet needs that arise, and juggling multiple problems at the same time.
The interface is the same as the later game's viewscreen used in ship battles, but this time it has options underneath for you to check in with five different key personnel: Worf controls shields and weapons, Data sets course for warp travel and orbiting planets, Geordi heads up engineering and repairs, O'Brien's in charge of Transporters, and Riker reminds you what the mission is and how long you have to complete it. The artwork on each of the faces is very good for the machine at that time, and they even blink! It's not at the same level as the later 'Nexus' game, but it looks as good as you would expect. That goes for much of the graphics in the game, the ships look good whether they're enemies (Talarian, Ferengi, Romulan, Klingon), friends (fellow starships and starbases), and other celestial bodies (planets and asteroids). Even Picard gets a look-in, appearing as your mission commander to send you off on each time with a brief description.
The missions are fairly varied, from rescuing people on an exploding ship, destroying enemy vessels threatening the space lanes, to shooting down asteroids on a collision course with inhabited worlds. They're also randomised so you never know which kind you'll get, something that adds to the feeling of unstructured space where anything can happen. Indeed, at one point it felt like anything could happen as I got a message I hadn't seen before, telling me to intercept an unknown vessel that had been spotted near several colonies that had been destroyed. I wondered if it could possibly be a Borg ship, but no, I didn't expect that in a little game like this. So I turned up at the coordinates and there it was, a large cube-shaped vessel. Aaagh! Even more exciting was when I was recalled to Earth for a computer virus and the Borg follow me there. It took several encounters for me to eventually defeat this unexpected menace, but it added a layer of surprise to a competent game and you can tell the makers cared about their work.
After a while, the missions can get very repetitive and if you have a string of transporting missions (beam people up from a planet, beam an ambassador down to a planet, beam people off a damaged ship…), and you just want to get to a confrontation with the tough Romulan or Klingon ships to practice your combat technique, it can be a little disheartening, especially when you arrive only to be destroyed and have to start the cycle again. On the other hand, if you've just succeeded in a tense battle you don't want to go right back into a tough fight right away. The game occasionally throws a surprise into the works in a similar vein to the Borg appearance, such as enemies (often the Ferengi) beaming their own operatives aboard to bring down your ship from the inside, or your ship suffering damage to life support which must immediately be repaired, or falling into a wormhole. It adds to the drama a bit.
The most amateurish part of the game is seeing little stick men dancing across the screen in the transporter section, but you soon get used to the graphical style and don't pay attention to what they look like since you're so busy trying to lock on your beam. There are shortcuts taken, such as the beam up animation that displays once you've locked onto all the people - whatever race they are, the same animation always plays at the end of one nondescript person beaming onto (or away from) the transporter pad. I'd have liked to see it correspond to the number of people being transported. The same niggle goes for the cargo transport which is always the same single drum appearing on the pad.
The music is fine, as are the sound effects, and are actually necessary to hear since you may need to know when you're being hit if during battle you're forced to concentrate on making repairs, meaning you have to leave the combat screen and make it so (a variation of the 'pipe' game, only this time you have switches that determine where bursts of power get distributed - simple once you get used to the pattern). My main concern with the game is that it doesn't appear to have a definite end. Every few missions you complete successfully you're awarded a new rank, from Ensign to Captain, but once you reach the lofty heights of Picard you can keep playing with harder tasks and no foreseeable end. I think my record was eleven missions in a row, and it's good to be able to keep playing (especially when 'Nexus' ends so quickly), but I'd have liked to have been notified that I'd reached Admiral status, for example, and had completed the game.
The impression of being in charge of a starship comes across well for such a small game on such a small screen, although you don't get the feeling of being in control of a vast vessel in space, you do get the multiple levels of control aboard it and you do get to have the main people under your command, including O'Brien - the closest I've got to playing a 'DS9' game so far! Once you get the hang of the different disciplines and work out strategies for different battles (I found coming at the Romulans from a distance and taking on one at a time, then warping back to Earth for a quick-fire repair session worked well), it can be quite an enjoyable experience, though controls are a little difficult to get the hang of at first. Persevere and be rewarded. It's not an incredible game, but it's not bad, and better than a lot of lazy, licenced games.
**
I bought this having accidentally discovered on eBay that there were a couple of Trek games released on the Game Boy that I never knew about. Purchasing the other, 'Star Trek: The 25th Anniversary,' fell through when the cartridge didn't work, but I had much more success with this one. Having played (and completed), 'Star Trek: Generations - Beyond The Nexus' I was quickly familiar with the style of gameplay shown in this game as it was almost identical. Although the graphical detail isn't quite as good in this compared with 'Nexus,' this is a slightly more satisfying game in some ways. In the other game each 'mission' consisted of shooting alien ships, directing plasma flow in a 'pipe' game and a memory puzzle where you had to match signals. This game integrates all its mission variations giving the player much more of a sense of utilising the different crewmembers, changing to meet needs that arise, and juggling multiple problems at the same time.
The interface is the same as the later game's viewscreen used in ship battles, but this time it has options underneath for you to check in with five different key personnel: Worf controls shields and weapons, Data sets course for warp travel and orbiting planets, Geordi heads up engineering and repairs, O'Brien's in charge of Transporters, and Riker reminds you what the mission is and how long you have to complete it. The artwork on each of the faces is very good for the machine at that time, and they even blink! It's not at the same level as the later 'Nexus' game, but it looks as good as you would expect. That goes for much of the graphics in the game, the ships look good whether they're enemies (Talarian, Ferengi, Romulan, Klingon), friends (fellow starships and starbases), and other celestial bodies (planets and asteroids). Even Picard gets a look-in, appearing as your mission commander to send you off on each time with a brief description.
The missions are fairly varied, from rescuing people on an exploding ship, destroying enemy vessels threatening the space lanes, to shooting down asteroids on a collision course with inhabited worlds. They're also randomised so you never know which kind you'll get, something that adds to the feeling of unstructured space where anything can happen. Indeed, at one point it felt like anything could happen as I got a message I hadn't seen before, telling me to intercept an unknown vessel that had been spotted near several colonies that had been destroyed. I wondered if it could possibly be a Borg ship, but no, I didn't expect that in a little game like this. So I turned up at the coordinates and there it was, a large cube-shaped vessel. Aaagh! Even more exciting was when I was recalled to Earth for a computer virus and the Borg follow me there. It took several encounters for me to eventually defeat this unexpected menace, but it added a layer of surprise to a competent game and you can tell the makers cared about their work.
After a while, the missions can get very repetitive and if you have a string of transporting missions (beam people up from a planet, beam an ambassador down to a planet, beam people off a damaged ship…), and you just want to get to a confrontation with the tough Romulan or Klingon ships to practice your combat technique, it can be a little disheartening, especially when you arrive only to be destroyed and have to start the cycle again. On the other hand, if you've just succeeded in a tense battle you don't want to go right back into a tough fight right away. The game occasionally throws a surprise into the works in a similar vein to the Borg appearance, such as enemies (often the Ferengi) beaming their own operatives aboard to bring down your ship from the inside, or your ship suffering damage to life support which must immediately be repaired, or falling into a wormhole. It adds to the drama a bit.
The most amateurish part of the game is seeing little stick men dancing across the screen in the transporter section, but you soon get used to the graphical style and don't pay attention to what they look like since you're so busy trying to lock on your beam. There are shortcuts taken, such as the beam up animation that displays once you've locked onto all the people - whatever race they are, the same animation always plays at the end of one nondescript person beaming onto (or away from) the transporter pad. I'd have liked to see it correspond to the number of people being transported. The same niggle goes for the cargo transport which is always the same single drum appearing on the pad.
The music is fine, as are the sound effects, and are actually necessary to hear since you may need to know when you're being hit if during battle you're forced to concentrate on making repairs, meaning you have to leave the combat screen and make it so (a variation of the 'pipe' game, only this time you have switches that determine where bursts of power get distributed - simple once you get used to the pattern). My main concern with the game is that it doesn't appear to have a definite end. Every few missions you complete successfully you're awarded a new rank, from Ensign to Captain, but once you reach the lofty heights of Picard you can keep playing with harder tasks and no foreseeable end. I think my record was eleven missions in a row, and it's good to be able to keep playing (especially when 'Nexus' ends so quickly), but I'd have liked to have been notified that I'd reached Admiral status, for example, and had completed the game.
The impression of being in charge of a starship comes across well for such a small game on such a small screen, although you don't get the feeling of being in control of a vast vessel in space, you do get the multiple levels of control aboard it and you do get to have the main people under your command, including O'Brien - the closest I've got to playing a 'DS9' game so far! Once you get the hang of the different disciplines and work out strategies for different battles (I found coming at the Romulans from a distance and taking on one at a time, then warping back to Earth for a quick-fire repair session worked well), it can be quite an enjoyable experience, though controls are a little difficult to get the hang of at first. Persevere and be rewarded. It's not an incredible game, but it's not bad, and better than a lot of lazy, licenced games.
**
Between Two Fires
DVD, Stargate SG-1 S5 (Between Two Fires)
The Tollan prepared to share their technology? Surely it's too good to be true? They've always been quite content to stand behind their Prime Directive-type law that prohibits sharing of advanced technology with prim– sorry, 'less advanced' species, such as humans. Of course it's too good to be true and it turns out that even their superior technology can no longer protect them from the Goa'uld. They stall for time and it shows in the episode. At first it's great to be back in the super-smooth walkways of Tollana for a sad memorial service for one of the Tollan we knew, Omoc. But when nice-guy Narim, who was always especially nice to Carter, gives them a warning of Earth's danger things begin to look fishy. So they of course agree to go along and meet with Chancellor Travell anyway and it's a good job they did or Earth would have been blown up by a nasty WMD (all the rage back in the early 2000s), using the Tollan ability to shift through matter so even the iris of the Stargate would be pregnable at last.
It's not the Tollan who want to destroy Earth, but their new masters, a mysterious Goa'uld whom we don't meet, we're not allowed to hear his name and his willing servant is none other than Tanith, the Goa'uld who inhabited the body of a Tok'ra then allied himself with Apophis until the destruction of that guy's fleet. Keep up! Actually they did deign to include a recap, at least on the Tollan side of the story, to remind us who Omoc was and some of the backstory, and it made a lot more sense to me seeing it now as opposed to a decade ago since I'm now up to date with the previous episodes. The most interesting part of this episode is the reveal of a new Goa'uld threat to Earth, spearheaded by this mysterious master of Tanith. Teal'c conveniently has no idea who it could be, not even reeling off a series of names, so could it be Mr. B?
One mistake there seemed to be with the workings out of the story was that if Earth is protected by the Asgard treaty why does it need these ion cannons? It must be that they would prefer to have control of their own defence rather than having to rely on aliens, no matter how benevolent and advanced, especially with Replicator matters taking up most of the Asgard's time. Apart from this nitpick it was a pleasure to watch, but it was an episode you could fall asleep to. In a good way, I mean. It was so relaxing and nice to look at and really unthreatening, as opposed to, say, the last episode, 'The Tomb.' It was like those old 'TNG' episodes where there's a lot of talking and you just bask in the characters and enjoy their interactions without ever getting excited about anything.
There was even time for a bit of action towards the end when the Tollan civilisation is torn apart by Goa'uld blasts from the heavens. There's something so sad about that shot of Narim standing forlornly in the foreground as explosions rend the well-formed buildings behind him. Even more so when we hear the last transmission from him describing Tollan escape craft being shot down, and then silence… I would have thought the SG-1 team would feel very guilty about leaving the Tollan to fight their own battle, although there was little they could do and technically it wasn't their fault, it was simply that the Goa'uld improved their ship's defensive capabilities and now the Tollan can't protect themselves. Although there wasn't a lot of excitement to be had, there was a sinister mood rising as the team slowly discover that things on the planet aren't as harmonious as they appear. That Chancellor Travell tricks them after seeming such a nice old lady, becomes clear that she had no other choice and is forced into her planet's devastation when things don't go according to the agreed plan.
Amid the slow burning build up there are some beautiful camera moves that show off the sets and the scope of the episode very strongly: the shot looking down on Travell's office which circles down to the doorway as the team enter; the slow glide across the pool when Carter and Teal'c wait for Narim, and the best one, which was a simple pan around two sides of a stone pillar where Jack and Daniel are discussing the Tollan's surprise agreement to provide Earth with as many ion cannons as they wish. I was surprised Daniel wasn't more opposed to the big honking guns - although there was a hint that he didn't entirely approve or that he was unsurprised that Jack was glad about it, perhaps even he realises the guns would be necessary. Until they discover they are now no use against enemy ships. There were also several comedy moments, my favourites being Daniel resuming the conversation after Terell reactivates the security inside her chamber, and he speaks in such a forced way. There's also the moment where Hammond basically says nothing of any use to O'Neill, and O'Neill lets him know it! And who could forget Narim using Carter's voice on his computer. It gives a whole new meaning to the term 'personal computer'!
The actual sets of the office and surroundings look very elegant, if spare, certainly indicative of a society of advanced technology. The effects of people leaping through walls was good, though they could have made a really good action sequence if they'd wanted to, preferring to keep the pace restrained. The effects of the final battle, augmented by loads of extras haring around, looked good, as did the pop up screens. Everything just looked lovely, like if you dropped your ice cream cone you'd happily scoop it off the floor and continue eating it. There was one thing I noticed about Narim's home, however: his carpet appeared to be hastily laid as there were creases visible and a nasty point where someone could trip at the edge! No doubt Tollans would have a sensor in their boots that would warn them when they might be about to trip. So let's see, we get a return visit to a previously-explored location and people, returning characters, a twist in the tale and plenty of little character moments to enjoy. It's hardly a revolutionary story, nor does it take the series into new and exciting territory, but it's a comfortable adventure and I quite enjoyed it.
***
The Tollan prepared to share their technology? Surely it's too good to be true? They've always been quite content to stand behind their Prime Directive-type law that prohibits sharing of advanced technology with prim– sorry, 'less advanced' species, such as humans. Of course it's too good to be true and it turns out that even their superior technology can no longer protect them from the Goa'uld. They stall for time and it shows in the episode. At first it's great to be back in the super-smooth walkways of Tollana for a sad memorial service for one of the Tollan we knew, Omoc. But when nice-guy Narim, who was always especially nice to Carter, gives them a warning of Earth's danger things begin to look fishy. So they of course agree to go along and meet with Chancellor Travell anyway and it's a good job they did or Earth would have been blown up by a nasty WMD (all the rage back in the early 2000s), using the Tollan ability to shift through matter so even the iris of the Stargate would be pregnable at last.
It's not the Tollan who want to destroy Earth, but their new masters, a mysterious Goa'uld whom we don't meet, we're not allowed to hear his name and his willing servant is none other than Tanith, the Goa'uld who inhabited the body of a Tok'ra then allied himself with Apophis until the destruction of that guy's fleet. Keep up! Actually they did deign to include a recap, at least on the Tollan side of the story, to remind us who Omoc was and some of the backstory, and it made a lot more sense to me seeing it now as opposed to a decade ago since I'm now up to date with the previous episodes. The most interesting part of this episode is the reveal of a new Goa'uld threat to Earth, spearheaded by this mysterious master of Tanith. Teal'c conveniently has no idea who it could be, not even reeling off a series of names, so could it be Mr. B?
One mistake there seemed to be with the workings out of the story was that if Earth is protected by the Asgard treaty why does it need these ion cannons? It must be that they would prefer to have control of their own defence rather than having to rely on aliens, no matter how benevolent and advanced, especially with Replicator matters taking up most of the Asgard's time. Apart from this nitpick it was a pleasure to watch, but it was an episode you could fall asleep to. In a good way, I mean. It was so relaxing and nice to look at and really unthreatening, as opposed to, say, the last episode, 'The Tomb.' It was like those old 'TNG' episodes where there's a lot of talking and you just bask in the characters and enjoy their interactions without ever getting excited about anything.
There was even time for a bit of action towards the end when the Tollan civilisation is torn apart by Goa'uld blasts from the heavens. There's something so sad about that shot of Narim standing forlornly in the foreground as explosions rend the well-formed buildings behind him. Even more so when we hear the last transmission from him describing Tollan escape craft being shot down, and then silence… I would have thought the SG-1 team would feel very guilty about leaving the Tollan to fight their own battle, although there was little they could do and technically it wasn't their fault, it was simply that the Goa'uld improved their ship's defensive capabilities and now the Tollan can't protect themselves. Although there wasn't a lot of excitement to be had, there was a sinister mood rising as the team slowly discover that things on the planet aren't as harmonious as they appear. That Chancellor Travell tricks them after seeming such a nice old lady, becomes clear that she had no other choice and is forced into her planet's devastation when things don't go according to the agreed plan.
Amid the slow burning build up there are some beautiful camera moves that show off the sets and the scope of the episode very strongly: the shot looking down on Travell's office which circles down to the doorway as the team enter; the slow glide across the pool when Carter and Teal'c wait for Narim, and the best one, which was a simple pan around two sides of a stone pillar where Jack and Daniel are discussing the Tollan's surprise agreement to provide Earth with as many ion cannons as they wish. I was surprised Daniel wasn't more opposed to the big honking guns - although there was a hint that he didn't entirely approve or that he was unsurprised that Jack was glad about it, perhaps even he realises the guns would be necessary. Until they discover they are now no use against enemy ships. There were also several comedy moments, my favourites being Daniel resuming the conversation after Terell reactivates the security inside her chamber, and he speaks in such a forced way. There's also the moment where Hammond basically says nothing of any use to O'Neill, and O'Neill lets him know it! And who could forget Narim using Carter's voice on his computer. It gives a whole new meaning to the term 'personal computer'!
The actual sets of the office and surroundings look very elegant, if spare, certainly indicative of a society of advanced technology. The effects of people leaping through walls was good, though they could have made a really good action sequence if they'd wanted to, preferring to keep the pace restrained. The effects of the final battle, augmented by loads of extras haring around, looked good, as did the pop up screens. Everything just looked lovely, like if you dropped your ice cream cone you'd happily scoop it off the floor and continue eating it. There was one thing I noticed about Narim's home, however: his carpet appeared to be hastily laid as there were creases visible and a nasty point where someone could trip at the edge! No doubt Tollans would have a sensor in their boots that would warn them when they might be about to trip. So let's see, we get a return visit to a previously-explored location and people, returning characters, a twist in the tale and plenty of little character moments to enjoy. It's hardly a revolutionary story, nor does it take the series into new and exciting territory, but it's a comfortable adventure and I quite enjoyed it.
***
Death Notice
DVD, Starsky & Hutch S1 (Death Notice)
The series wasn't shy of dealing with the seedy underbelly of the city, be that killing, hard drugs or, in this case, a strip club. Because of the opening to the episode it seems like it's going to be one of the stories that focuses on the negative aspects of S&H's job, the aforementioned underbelly of the city, rife with leering faces bathed in a hellish red glow as they watch the act, bringing the tone of the episode right down from the start. There are some brief comments in the episode about people 'like that' being human too and under the same protection of the law as more 'respectable' citizens, but that's about as deep as the episode goes and doesn't explore the issue. Actually it's just a 'dancing girl' type thing, which I expect is tame by today's TV standards, and the faces aren't really leering, just watching, but it's still the seediest start to an episode so far in the series, quite voyeuristic and gratuitous, clearly just there to get people watching the episode, although it turns into quite a different kind of story after a while.
The way Anton Rusz, the little old man who attends the Panama Club and leaves a message of death for one of the girls, is played up as this crazy, imbalanced character, the typical psychopath that we immediately think of, is cleverly done, if simply. He only needs to be half hidden in shadow, to leave his message scrawled on the tablecloth, and to be described by the none-too-bright Arnold as having 'scary eyes' and he's guilty. Since the series wasn't particularly in the habit of misdirection we assume it's a simple case, but for once things do get a bit twisty, in a slow kind of way. The loony image of the man is increased by further messages being left for other girls that are then murdered, and when he takes the trouble to hide in an alley to warn about the next death, he seems sure to be a crackpot, but there's no reason to assume he isn't the killer. It makes us wonder why he's apparently killing off the girls, but generally the villains in the series, so far at least, don't have a lot of motive so we probably don't expect there to be much of a reason at the end.
There's no doubt S&H won't catch him, and they do, but even early on if you were paying attention you might wonder how this little old man could have lifted Jim Lee, Ginger's boyfriend, off his feet and into the bushes! And if he was a psycho, he wouldn't be working with someone else, so the clues are there, and once we get to know the little old Hungarian he's a completely different person to whom we expected. If you know that he's not guilty there's a lot of enjoyment to be had when S&H arrest him and take him down the station because he thinks he's just helping the police with their enquiries, not realising their hostile tone is because they think they've caught a murderer!
It's probably about this time you realise this is actually straying more into the upbeat end of the S&H spectrum, with little of the downtrodden streets and negative images of episodes firmly in the depressing side of the series. We do see back alleys, deserted offices and of course the Panama Club itself, but the story turns towards expensive apartments such as Ginger's place with swimming pool (as usual, Starsky leaps in as soon as he sees it - I reckon he'd have done that even if there hadn't been a body in there!), Kathi and Jerry's roaring log fire, the industrious-looking meat plant of Superior Meats, and the big finale at Golf Land, about as opulent and showy as the series could get. It's also the tone of the episode with a higher class of criminal than gutter dwellers.
The biggest change is in the final scene where Huggy makes his shoehorned-in appearance at Hutch's house where the Panama Club's manager, Manny, Francine, and one of the other girls, join S&H for a singalong, Hutch playing the guitar and then them all sitting round for a Christmas dinner-type meal. It's about as far from the opening as you could get, especially when Anton gives his speech about the secret ingredient to the dish he's prepared being love and friendship and all things nice. It's like they thought they'd better raise the tone and make it all family friendly by the end, and it's not that I don't like the way it ends, I do, but it feels incongruous with the first half.
The party gave David Soul his first chance to bring in his previous persona as a singer and entertainer, to the series and it's a fun way to close out the episode, and could only have been bettered if Captain Dobey had been there jigging away, but while he could stretch to sharing a meal at Huggy's with S&H as in last the episode, I should think sharing one with disreputable people at his officer's home would be a step too far - I doubt he'd consider it appropriate and would have disapproved of the company. Huggy being at the party was fine, but I saw a more suitable way to involve him in the story when S&H test out Anton's story about hearing the pay phone line. Instead of playing a trick on Dobey as they both talk to him on different phones (and this gives us another play on the mix-up between the cop's names - Dobey gets annoyed because he can't work out who's talking to him!), I was expecting them to call Hug.
The story wasn't particularly good, even with the twists as it becomes much more about villains that have no personality, as some of the weaker episodes have had recently. Delano, the suit who owns Superior Meats had very little screen time for us to get to know him, and it may be that there were too many bad guys. Assisting him was his goon Lou Posey, and they were the real baddies of the story, though they were being blackmailed by Kathi, one of the Panama girls, and her boyfriend Jerry, an abusive partner, something else that wasn't explored. No wonder she was always crying. But even he seemed small fry, just this guy that worked at Golf Land and wanted money. Anton, though he wasn't a baddie, was far more interesting than any of these people. Delano's security men were particularly stupid thinking they could get away with knocking S&H about rather than let them see their boss. I wondered if the scene where the black guy of the pair gets chucked in a bin, was racist, but I don't think it really was as it just happened to be him that started on Starsky, while the other guy was forced to show them to Delano. Both of them were Superior Meatheads anyway!
The scene with Lou in the cold room didn't do him any favours. S&H pull their hard cop/hard cop routine on the heavy, but in a few seconds he's already complaining and shivering, while S&H don't seem to even notice the cold. That rather undermined him as a villain and is another example of why the episode is more on the positive side because it shows S&H are in control, whereas the negative ones are about them being trapped by an unforgiving city. There are occasional moments of heart, such as the boyfriend's sadness over Ginger's body, or Kathi losing it in front of S&H as they worm the truth out of her, and added to the humour that Anton brings it means there are some things to make it worth watching, but they are few and far between. The big finale at Golf Land couldn't disguise another 'cop out' of a halfhearted shootout against villains that don't mean anything or provide much threat, and altogether the episode is the weakest so far.
It's also deficient in the usual running gags and little quirks we expect from the series. There is some banter, as always, between S&H, but it often feels like filler material such as the little chat about Hutch not liking heights unless he can see down, or Starsky discussing the wonders of hot dogs, which at least comes under the category of his weird food likes. I didn't spot any references to anything else, but Starsky's stunt double makes a definite appearance, even clearly saying a line, though it comes out in Starsky's dubbed in voice - it's when he's tackled by Ginger's boyfriend, although it didn't look like a terribly demanding stunt so I'd have thought it could have been done by Paul Michael Glaser. In a long shot when they arrive at Ginger's place, you can tell it isn't them because of the way he walks, but the double in that shot looks too tall for the usual double… Hutch is harder to spot as a fake, but I imagine they would both be doubled in long shots, though Hutch has less 'unique' mannerisms or way of walking.
The clip from 'Pariah' is back under Starsky's credit in the title, replacing his running shot from 'Savage Sunday' for no apparent reason. I wondered if Manny's office was a redress of Dobey's since they were a similar shape, and also, the apartment with log fire was used again, I believe, in later episodes. I didn't spot any nitpicks for this one, although at first there seemed to be a major mistake when we hear that Kathi went home hysterical before S&H came to break the news about her friend's death, but this question was asked and answered satisfactorily. Arnold the waiter is the only other wacky character, alongside Anton, as the others seems fairly ordinary, despite the girls' out of the ordinary occupation. Arnold was quite fun, but pretty stupid, adding a bit of amusement with the 'right/left' routine.
Francine, one of the girls in a speaking role, was played by Roz Kelly who later appeared in 'The Las Vegas Strangler' two-parter and maybe another episode. Jim Lee, the boyfriend of Ginger went uncredited, but I recognised his face and I feel like he was in quite a few episodes, even appearing earlier this season. He might have been a stuntman and that would have made sense for him not to be credited if he was a regular extra or minor character in multiple episodes. And I couldn't help laughing at the inappropriate moment when Starsky jumps in the pool! If you thought Hutch was going to get away dry in the episode he jumps headfirst into a pool at Golf World - did they have a mutually exclusive contract that what one did the other had to?
**
The series wasn't shy of dealing with the seedy underbelly of the city, be that killing, hard drugs or, in this case, a strip club. Because of the opening to the episode it seems like it's going to be one of the stories that focuses on the negative aspects of S&H's job, the aforementioned underbelly of the city, rife with leering faces bathed in a hellish red glow as they watch the act, bringing the tone of the episode right down from the start. There are some brief comments in the episode about people 'like that' being human too and under the same protection of the law as more 'respectable' citizens, but that's about as deep as the episode goes and doesn't explore the issue. Actually it's just a 'dancing girl' type thing, which I expect is tame by today's TV standards, and the faces aren't really leering, just watching, but it's still the seediest start to an episode so far in the series, quite voyeuristic and gratuitous, clearly just there to get people watching the episode, although it turns into quite a different kind of story after a while.
The way Anton Rusz, the little old man who attends the Panama Club and leaves a message of death for one of the girls, is played up as this crazy, imbalanced character, the typical psychopath that we immediately think of, is cleverly done, if simply. He only needs to be half hidden in shadow, to leave his message scrawled on the tablecloth, and to be described by the none-too-bright Arnold as having 'scary eyes' and he's guilty. Since the series wasn't particularly in the habit of misdirection we assume it's a simple case, but for once things do get a bit twisty, in a slow kind of way. The loony image of the man is increased by further messages being left for other girls that are then murdered, and when he takes the trouble to hide in an alley to warn about the next death, he seems sure to be a crackpot, but there's no reason to assume he isn't the killer. It makes us wonder why he's apparently killing off the girls, but generally the villains in the series, so far at least, don't have a lot of motive so we probably don't expect there to be much of a reason at the end.
There's no doubt S&H won't catch him, and they do, but even early on if you were paying attention you might wonder how this little old man could have lifted Jim Lee, Ginger's boyfriend, off his feet and into the bushes! And if he was a psycho, he wouldn't be working with someone else, so the clues are there, and once we get to know the little old Hungarian he's a completely different person to whom we expected. If you know that he's not guilty there's a lot of enjoyment to be had when S&H arrest him and take him down the station because he thinks he's just helping the police with their enquiries, not realising their hostile tone is because they think they've caught a murderer!
It's probably about this time you realise this is actually straying more into the upbeat end of the S&H spectrum, with little of the downtrodden streets and negative images of episodes firmly in the depressing side of the series. We do see back alleys, deserted offices and of course the Panama Club itself, but the story turns towards expensive apartments such as Ginger's place with swimming pool (as usual, Starsky leaps in as soon as he sees it - I reckon he'd have done that even if there hadn't been a body in there!), Kathi and Jerry's roaring log fire, the industrious-looking meat plant of Superior Meats, and the big finale at Golf Land, about as opulent and showy as the series could get. It's also the tone of the episode with a higher class of criminal than gutter dwellers.
The biggest change is in the final scene where Huggy makes his shoehorned-in appearance at Hutch's house where the Panama Club's manager, Manny, Francine, and one of the other girls, join S&H for a singalong, Hutch playing the guitar and then them all sitting round for a Christmas dinner-type meal. It's about as far from the opening as you could get, especially when Anton gives his speech about the secret ingredient to the dish he's prepared being love and friendship and all things nice. It's like they thought they'd better raise the tone and make it all family friendly by the end, and it's not that I don't like the way it ends, I do, but it feels incongruous with the first half.
The party gave David Soul his first chance to bring in his previous persona as a singer and entertainer, to the series and it's a fun way to close out the episode, and could only have been bettered if Captain Dobey had been there jigging away, but while he could stretch to sharing a meal at Huggy's with S&H as in last the episode, I should think sharing one with disreputable people at his officer's home would be a step too far - I doubt he'd consider it appropriate and would have disapproved of the company. Huggy being at the party was fine, but I saw a more suitable way to involve him in the story when S&H test out Anton's story about hearing the pay phone line. Instead of playing a trick on Dobey as they both talk to him on different phones (and this gives us another play on the mix-up between the cop's names - Dobey gets annoyed because he can't work out who's talking to him!), I was expecting them to call Hug.
The story wasn't particularly good, even with the twists as it becomes much more about villains that have no personality, as some of the weaker episodes have had recently. Delano, the suit who owns Superior Meats had very little screen time for us to get to know him, and it may be that there were too many bad guys. Assisting him was his goon Lou Posey, and they were the real baddies of the story, though they were being blackmailed by Kathi, one of the Panama girls, and her boyfriend Jerry, an abusive partner, something else that wasn't explored. No wonder she was always crying. But even he seemed small fry, just this guy that worked at Golf Land and wanted money. Anton, though he wasn't a baddie, was far more interesting than any of these people. Delano's security men were particularly stupid thinking they could get away with knocking S&H about rather than let them see their boss. I wondered if the scene where the black guy of the pair gets chucked in a bin, was racist, but I don't think it really was as it just happened to be him that started on Starsky, while the other guy was forced to show them to Delano. Both of them were Superior Meatheads anyway!
The scene with Lou in the cold room didn't do him any favours. S&H pull their hard cop/hard cop routine on the heavy, but in a few seconds he's already complaining and shivering, while S&H don't seem to even notice the cold. That rather undermined him as a villain and is another example of why the episode is more on the positive side because it shows S&H are in control, whereas the negative ones are about them being trapped by an unforgiving city. There are occasional moments of heart, such as the boyfriend's sadness over Ginger's body, or Kathi losing it in front of S&H as they worm the truth out of her, and added to the humour that Anton brings it means there are some things to make it worth watching, but they are few and far between. The big finale at Golf Land couldn't disguise another 'cop out' of a halfhearted shootout against villains that don't mean anything or provide much threat, and altogether the episode is the weakest so far.
It's also deficient in the usual running gags and little quirks we expect from the series. There is some banter, as always, between S&H, but it often feels like filler material such as the little chat about Hutch not liking heights unless he can see down, or Starsky discussing the wonders of hot dogs, which at least comes under the category of his weird food likes. I didn't spot any references to anything else, but Starsky's stunt double makes a definite appearance, even clearly saying a line, though it comes out in Starsky's dubbed in voice - it's when he's tackled by Ginger's boyfriend, although it didn't look like a terribly demanding stunt so I'd have thought it could have been done by Paul Michael Glaser. In a long shot when they arrive at Ginger's place, you can tell it isn't them because of the way he walks, but the double in that shot looks too tall for the usual double… Hutch is harder to spot as a fake, but I imagine they would both be doubled in long shots, though Hutch has less 'unique' mannerisms or way of walking.
The clip from 'Pariah' is back under Starsky's credit in the title, replacing his running shot from 'Savage Sunday' for no apparent reason. I wondered if Manny's office was a redress of Dobey's since they were a similar shape, and also, the apartment with log fire was used again, I believe, in later episodes. I didn't spot any nitpicks for this one, although at first there seemed to be a major mistake when we hear that Kathi went home hysterical before S&H came to break the news about her friend's death, but this question was asked and answered satisfactorily. Arnold the waiter is the only other wacky character, alongside Anton, as the others seems fairly ordinary, despite the girls' out of the ordinary occupation. Arnold was quite fun, but pretty stupid, adding a bit of amusement with the 'right/left' routine.
Francine, one of the girls in a speaking role, was played by Roz Kelly who later appeared in 'The Las Vegas Strangler' two-parter and maybe another episode. Jim Lee, the boyfriend of Ginger went uncredited, but I recognised his face and I feel like he was in quite a few episodes, even appearing earlier this season. He might have been a stuntman and that would have made sense for him not to be credited if he was a regular extra or minor character in multiple episodes. And I couldn't help laughing at the inappropriate moment when Starsky jumps in the pool! If you thought Hutch was going to get away dry in the episode he jumps headfirst into a pool at Golf World - did they have a mutually exclusive contract that what one did the other had to?
**
Monday, 5 March 2012
The Tomb
DVD, Stargate SG-1 S5 (The Tomb)
Stargate was made for creeping around in alien tombs, so this should be a winner, but for certain reasons it didn't work for me as much as when I saw it a decade ago. Maybe it was the overdone cliches (even Daniel commenting on the fact that his Russian co-worker decided to head into a dark tunnel alone, while he stayed in a dark room alone, didn't save it), perhaps it was the Russian-baiting, but primarily it was that there were no real surprises to the story. There's all the one-upmanship and distrust we'd expect between a Russian and an American team, they have secret orders to recover some device or other, and all but one of them ends up biting the dust.
For that matter it wasn't necessary to kill off the Russian team - the guy with the moustache that stupidly stands in the doorway (was he bravely trying to hole the solid rock open?), gets crushed when it would have made more sense for him to keep running, escape the collapse and return to warn the SGC. The Russians were portrayed as cruel, ruthless, and untrustworthy, but also for the most part came across as caricatures rather than being invested with personality. I could say the same about the SG-1 team in this episode. Teal'c just wanders around looking tired, Carter's just there without any real input, leaving O'Neill's prejudice to carry the show, supported by Dr. Jackson, who was in his element and provided the strongest part of the story.
I was drawn in by his ancient tale of a Goa'uld imprisoned by its own priesthood in a sarcophagus with a flesh-eating monster, as punishment for its tyrannical behaviour. It captured the imagination and gave the creature a substance and an origin that was more believable than just some creature that had somehow lived in an empty pyramid (sorry, ziggurat), for centuries. The creature itself looked quite good scuttling up walls, and even retained reality when we see it up close, though by then it had lost its 'sting'. It worked best, however, in the sound department, with the eerie scratching very effective when listened to via headphones.
There felt like the opportunity to do something different with this story, to go into a bit more detail on the Russian side of the programme, maybe create a Russian character we can trust and see again, someone who had formed a bond with the SG team. I didn't feel the female officer was in it enough to develop that, so it became a standard story, and that was after dazzling us with continuity in the first few minutes (I couldn't remember the name of the character Marina Sirtis played in 'Watergate' last season so I assumed that was the 'mutual friend' the Colonel was talking about). It could have been much more complex, and even the get-out clause of the Ring Transporter, still active after all those years, seemed exactly that: a quick way to end the episode.
I have to remind myself that this isn't 'Star Trek' I'm watching and that the depth of characterisation, motivation and cooperation aren't going to be so pronounced. Saying that, I liked the way the Russian Colonel refused to capitulate when he could have allowed O'Neill to die, but I didn't sense an understanding had been reached, and there was no time after that because he was crushed under rubble. It could as easily have been interpreted that the Colonel was doing everything he could to keep the 'eye of whatever it was' rather than caring too much about O'Neill. I noticed inconsistency in Carter's protocol since she gives Jack the information on the Ring Transporter after previously holding back such things because she didn't know if he was a Goa'uld or not. Also, I didn't understand how the one who was taken over survived a grenade at point blank range. Maybe the whole ziggurat blowing wasn't enough to destroy him completely? And finally, I felt Carter took a huge risk by activating the C4 before they had 'Ringed' out. There'd have been egg on their faces if the Ring had malfunctioned - actually there'd have been bits of brick lodged in their faces.
I feel a little harsh not giving this a 3 star review, because it is quite atmospheric in places (and didn't turn out to be the return of Daniel's girlfriend I was expecting), and the alien POV is more alien than ever. It just didn't build the Russian characters up or do anything that was unexpected in their association with SG-1, and regrettably this took something away from the staging. Though the sets were very evocative of a tomb, dust falling down, every grain seeming to catch the light, it was almost too perfect and needed to be darker to complement the reality. You can't beat Russians running around shouting echoing words in their native tongue, though! They addressed the issue of how suspicious it looked that only one foreign soldier returned from the mission quite adequately, O'Neill pointing out that they didn't follow orders, which was something that stood out to me. I'm not sure whether I want to see more Russian collaboration or less now…
**
Stargate was made for creeping around in alien tombs, so this should be a winner, but for certain reasons it didn't work for me as much as when I saw it a decade ago. Maybe it was the overdone cliches (even Daniel commenting on the fact that his Russian co-worker decided to head into a dark tunnel alone, while he stayed in a dark room alone, didn't save it), perhaps it was the Russian-baiting, but primarily it was that there were no real surprises to the story. There's all the one-upmanship and distrust we'd expect between a Russian and an American team, they have secret orders to recover some device or other, and all but one of them ends up biting the dust.
For that matter it wasn't necessary to kill off the Russian team - the guy with the moustache that stupidly stands in the doorway (was he bravely trying to hole the solid rock open?), gets crushed when it would have made more sense for him to keep running, escape the collapse and return to warn the SGC. The Russians were portrayed as cruel, ruthless, and untrustworthy, but also for the most part came across as caricatures rather than being invested with personality. I could say the same about the SG-1 team in this episode. Teal'c just wanders around looking tired, Carter's just there without any real input, leaving O'Neill's prejudice to carry the show, supported by Dr. Jackson, who was in his element and provided the strongest part of the story.
I was drawn in by his ancient tale of a Goa'uld imprisoned by its own priesthood in a sarcophagus with a flesh-eating monster, as punishment for its tyrannical behaviour. It captured the imagination and gave the creature a substance and an origin that was more believable than just some creature that had somehow lived in an empty pyramid (sorry, ziggurat), for centuries. The creature itself looked quite good scuttling up walls, and even retained reality when we see it up close, though by then it had lost its 'sting'. It worked best, however, in the sound department, with the eerie scratching very effective when listened to via headphones.
There felt like the opportunity to do something different with this story, to go into a bit more detail on the Russian side of the programme, maybe create a Russian character we can trust and see again, someone who had formed a bond with the SG team. I didn't feel the female officer was in it enough to develop that, so it became a standard story, and that was after dazzling us with continuity in the first few minutes (I couldn't remember the name of the character Marina Sirtis played in 'Watergate' last season so I assumed that was the 'mutual friend' the Colonel was talking about). It could have been much more complex, and even the get-out clause of the Ring Transporter, still active after all those years, seemed exactly that: a quick way to end the episode.
I have to remind myself that this isn't 'Star Trek' I'm watching and that the depth of characterisation, motivation and cooperation aren't going to be so pronounced. Saying that, I liked the way the Russian Colonel refused to capitulate when he could have allowed O'Neill to die, but I didn't sense an understanding had been reached, and there was no time after that because he was crushed under rubble. It could as easily have been interpreted that the Colonel was doing everything he could to keep the 'eye of whatever it was' rather than caring too much about O'Neill. I noticed inconsistency in Carter's protocol since she gives Jack the information on the Ring Transporter after previously holding back such things because she didn't know if he was a Goa'uld or not. Also, I didn't understand how the one who was taken over survived a grenade at point blank range. Maybe the whole ziggurat blowing wasn't enough to destroy him completely? And finally, I felt Carter took a huge risk by activating the C4 before they had 'Ringed' out. There'd have been egg on their faces if the Ring had malfunctioned - actually there'd have been bits of brick lodged in their faces.
I feel a little harsh not giving this a 3 star review, because it is quite atmospheric in places (and didn't turn out to be the return of Daniel's girlfriend I was expecting), and the alien POV is more alien than ever. It just didn't build the Russian characters up or do anything that was unexpected in their association with SG-1, and regrettably this took something away from the staging. Though the sets were very evocative of a tomb, dust falling down, every grain seeming to catch the light, it was almost too perfect and needed to be darker to complement the reality. You can't beat Russians running around shouting echoing words in their native tongue, though! They addressed the issue of how suspicious it looked that only one foreign soldier returned from the mission quite adequately, O'Neill pointing out that they didn't follow orders, which was something that stood out to me. I'm not sure whether I want to see more Russian collaboration or less now…
**
Snowstorm
DVD, Starsky & Hutch S1 (Snowstorm)
"You just want me to drive around in a striped tomato like you got."
"My car is a striped what?"
And thus, a legend was born! One of the good things about watching the series in order, even the episodes that aren't that good, is that you uncover little moments like this, the first time we ever heard Starsky's red and white-striped Torino referred to as a striped tomato. I think it was something viewers or production staff were calling it very early on, so by this episode they had grasped the nettle and written it into an episode. It had now been said and the series could move on, people happy to suspend disbelief that two well-known detectives could speed around in such a bright, attention-grabbing vehicle and still successfully creep up on criminals.
Hutch's car was probably thought up to be the antithesis, right from the pilot episode. It's completely unremarkable, falling apart and probably wouldn't get a second look from anyone. The running joke of the poor quality of the car is played up again with it literally falling to pieces at the touch of Starsky, and his annoyance at an insistent squeak leading to Hutch suggesting he tows him on roller skates out the back which gives the episode a very amusing visual image. It gives me one, anyway. He mentions his Uncle, in one of many attempts in the series for Hutch to give up his pile of junk and get something better. Still on a car related subject, I noticed the dull green car that Stryker's men used looked similar to the one in 'Savage Sunday' that was sprayed to disguise it, and that also cropped up in another episode. Could it be that they use the same pool of cars all the time? I'll certainly be on the lookout for it again.
Other nods to the runnings gags of the series include Huggy Bear deliberately getting S&H's names mixed up to telegraph danger; Captain Dobey with a huge pile of food in the end tag - interestingly he seems quite happy to be seen in Huggy Bear's, treats the proprietor in a civil manner, and doesn't mind when the bill for the meal and the damage to Hug's upper rooms lands on him. I thought that was going to be the frozen picture they would cut out on: Dobey having read the price on the bill, Starsky and Hutch both exiting the table as fast as possible, but no, it ended with the mysterious Dalmatian getting all the attention when perhaps they shouldn't have drawn attention to it at all! It's the most perplexing part of the episode because you assume the dog is going to be integral to catching the criminals, or explained in a clever way as to why it should pop up several times, but instead it's just there. S&H tended to flit into mystical things that were completely outside the purview of a rational detective action series (the voodoo from the start of Season 3 immediately springs to mind), and this seems to be the first indication that they were willing to do things like that, that didn't make any sense.
The dog was just one of the loose ends this episode left hanging, in a script that felt like it was falling into the trap of laziness already. It certainly wasn't a tightly drawn story, and while it had its moments, the direction was again slow and drawn out in places: case in point is the moment S&H speed up in Starsky's car and the camera looks down the road. It takes seconds before we even see their car, then it has to get all the way up to the camera position to screech to a halt, and it just seems odd that such a moment had to take so long, as if they were filling up time. I felt the same drag when Dobey was talking in his office at one point and talks really slowly, pausing, the camera sitting there like it had fallen asleep. It's not like I want quick-cutting, but there's a happy medium which the better episodes reach.
It started out quite well with a good action sequence as the drugs bust takes place - I love Starsky's leap out from behind the truck, then lightning-fast return to cover before he can be shot. As soon as I saw the chubby Crandell I thought he was the informer, whether that was a memory or he looked like the informant type, I don't know. He certainly had some unease about him, which the others didn't. Crandell was another loose end of the story - he was set up as the guy working with them, which became more complex when we find out he's raped a seventeen year old girl, but instead of getting to know him, being disgusted by him, he's a very simply written character and soon ends up out of the picture. It also didn't ring true that he would go to a known S&H hotspot; Huggy's, where he could be easily found. It wasn't like he'd agreed to meet them there, he just went for a drink. As he said, if Stryker's people caught him with S&H he'd be dead, so them talking to him there made no sense.
A good bit of that scene was the play on S&H's good cop, bad cop routine. They usually both play bad cop, or hard cop, but this time they have a little joke about Starsky wanting to be the good cop for a change because he's tired, and then at the end Hutch says he never even had time to get into his own character. The episode also isn't served well with some of the indoor sets that are supposed to be outside, such as Crandell's shack which they have to break into which is so well lit and swept clean (yes, there's litter, but the corners seem nice and tidy), and some of the end sequence when they go to the holiday home to pick up the errant cops. Saying that, I'm not entirely sure the outside portions were on a set, but they didn't look right.
There are some well done scenes which remind us that things can get exciting, such as when the three cops who share suspicion with S&H over the missing drugs, speed alongside them, forcing them to a halt. S&H have just talked about how they want to help their fellow cops and suddenly they're getting shouted at and accused of making accusations against them! I think this was to surprise them or knock them off course a little, give the villains time to carry out their plans, but it's a moment of strong tension and surprise that the episode needed more of. It's also where another loose end shows up because the third man, (Callowitz?), was never anything to do with their nefarious plan, yet they've made him suspicious of S&H. Worse, he's clearly only in the story as a blind to give us someone else to suspect, but he never really features again as if they forgot all about him.
The crooked cops could have been made to seem more dimensional in very simple ways with a little more thought in the writing. We would have felt far more horror for them if we'd seen them at home with their families before going off to murder Crandell. All we get is a mention that they're family men, and that's it. Their motivation is apparently money, so maybe we could have felt some sympathy if they needed it for a life-saving operation for one of their children, something to make us care, but instead they are simple criminals. It could be that they didn't want us to sympathise with the baddies because that might make S&H seem harsh, but it usually works in a tragic way. About the most interesting thing about them was that they seemed not to like each other, but I can't work out whether this was a show to avert suspicion that they were working together, or true. They're like an amalgamation of the villains from the first two episodes of the season - bent cops and a 'salt and pepper' team, as it was described in 'Savage Sunday,' a black guy and a white guy working together.
The real heart of the story should have been Stryker. I had previously thought the crime lord had been in two episodes, this and the pilot, but checking the credits it's an obvious mistake to make. It was the same actor (Gilbert Green), playing both Tallman and Stryker, five episodes apart. I understand that TV in those days was pretty much a one time only watch and people were expected to forget what had happened previously, but five episodes apart? It's not even like he was playing different characters, they're both rich crime lords with a verbose and slightly eccentric manner (the way Stryker keeps asking his heavy, Freddie if he wants some cheese is a good example, or watering his plants as he orders a hit). It's just confusing. What's more, this is the first really strong missed opportunity to develop Captain Dobey. We learn that he has history with Stryker, his partner, Elmo Jackson, ended up on a meathook after tangling with the crime boss, which is why it's so satisfying for Dobey to be able to put the cuffs on Stryker.
This is another case of conflict of interests, since he's got the history, but it was one of those things of the time and is reflected in the series. Dobey also bends the rules when it comes to S&H being allowed out to continue working on a case even though they're under investigation, instead of being suspended, but far from being a problem, moments like these are nice to watch because they demonstrate Dobey's special trust in his men, the heroes of the series. It still missed a chance to delve into Dobey's backstory and explore his motivations and who he is through the connection with his partner. Elmo may have been mentioned again in the series, but Dobey rarely got out of the office as many times as he did in this one, which is a real shame. It's expecting too much to see flashbacks to the time Dobey and Jackson worked the streets, but I still longed for it and it would have raised the episode.
Aside from the confusion over his previous non-appearance, I liked Stryker and felt he made a better villain than some, especially the previous episode's. Putting the car headlamps on S&H to blind them as he gives his ultimatum may be a cliche, but it worked quite well. It was his goons that brought down the quality of the episode - none of them were dangerous enough for S&H to handle. Admittedly it was quite close for Starsky who uncharacteristically appears to freeze when he and Hutch are shot at by a rooftop sniper. That sequence didn't make them look too clever as they get to the roof long after the assassin has driven off into the distance. Another unnecessary to moment to show. Then Freddie says he'll deal with them, and the best he can come up with is trapping himself in Huggy's upper room! At least we get to see a bit more of the place, the landing and the stairs, to give it a bit more shape. It kind of worked that they dealt with everything else and then had to go and sort out Burke and Corman, the bad cops, but it felt a little weak as an episode overall.
The only time I noticed Starsky's stunt double this time was in the fight with Burke when he kicks the villain over a table and chases him out the door, but there weren't many stunts in the episode so it was unsurprising. And of course I continue to keep my ears open for pop culture references: this time I caught 'Santa,' Dumbo and Starsky saying, "I wish I may, I wish I might…" which I believe is a nursery rhyme of some kind. Oh, and Hutch asks if Stryker's offer is 'Let's Make A Deal' which I assume was a game show of the time.
**
"You just want me to drive around in a striped tomato like you got."
"My car is a striped what?"
And thus, a legend was born! One of the good things about watching the series in order, even the episodes that aren't that good, is that you uncover little moments like this, the first time we ever heard Starsky's red and white-striped Torino referred to as a striped tomato. I think it was something viewers or production staff were calling it very early on, so by this episode they had grasped the nettle and written it into an episode. It had now been said and the series could move on, people happy to suspend disbelief that two well-known detectives could speed around in such a bright, attention-grabbing vehicle and still successfully creep up on criminals.
Hutch's car was probably thought up to be the antithesis, right from the pilot episode. It's completely unremarkable, falling apart and probably wouldn't get a second look from anyone. The running joke of the poor quality of the car is played up again with it literally falling to pieces at the touch of Starsky, and his annoyance at an insistent squeak leading to Hutch suggesting he tows him on roller skates out the back which gives the episode a very amusing visual image. It gives me one, anyway. He mentions his Uncle, in one of many attempts in the series for Hutch to give up his pile of junk and get something better. Still on a car related subject, I noticed the dull green car that Stryker's men used looked similar to the one in 'Savage Sunday' that was sprayed to disguise it, and that also cropped up in another episode. Could it be that they use the same pool of cars all the time? I'll certainly be on the lookout for it again.
Other nods to the runnings gags of the series include Huggy Bear deliberately getting S&H's names mixed up to telegraph danger; Captain Dobey with a huge pile of food in the end tag - interestingly he seems quite happy to be seen in Huggy Bear's, treats the proprietor in a civil manner, and doesn't mind when the bill for the meal and the damage to Hug's upper rooms lands on him. I thought that was going to be the frozen picture they would cut out on: Dobey having read the price on the bill, Starsky and Hutch both exiting the table as fast as possible, but no, it ended with the mysterious Dalmatian getting all the attention when perhaps they shouldn't have drawn attention to it at all! It's the most perplexing part of the episode because you assume the dog is going to be integral to catching the criminals, or explained in a clever way as to why it should pop up several times, but instead it's just there. S&H tended to flit into mystical things that were completely outside the purview of a rational detective action series (the voodoo from the start of Season 3 immediately springs to mind), and this seems to be the first indication that they were willing to do things like that, that didn't make any sense.
The dog was just one of the loose ends this episode left hanging, in a script that felt like it was falling into the trap of laziness already. It certainly wasn't a tightly drawn story, and while it had its moments, the direction was again slow and drawn out in places: case in point is the moment S&H speed up in Starsky's car and the camera looks down the road. It takes seconds before we even see their car, then it has to get all the way up to the camera position to screech to a halt, and it just seems odd that such a moment had to take so long, as if they were filling up time. I felt the same drag when Dobey was talking in his office at one point and talks really slowly, pausing, the camera sitting there like it had fallen asleep. It's not like I want quick-cutting, but there's a happy medium which the better episodes reach.
It started out quite well with a good action sequence as the drugs bust takes place - I love Starsky's leap out from behind the truck, then lightning-fast return to cover before he can be shot. As soon as I saw the chubby Crandell I thought he was the informer, whether that was a memory or he looked like the informant type, I don't know. He certainly had some unease about him, which the others didn't. Crandell was another loose end of the story - he was set up as the guy working with them, which became more complex when we find out he's raped a seventeen year old girl, but instead of getting to know him, being disgusted by him, he's a very simply written character and soon ends up out of the picture. It also didn't ring true that he would go to a known S&H hotspot; Huggy's, where he could be easily found. It wasn't like he'd agreed to meet them there, he just went for a drink. As he said, if Stryker's people caught him with S&H he'd be dead, so them talking to him there made no sense.
A good bit of that scene was the play on S&H's good cop, bad cop routine. They usually both play bad cop, or hard cop, but this time they have a little joke about Starsky wanting to be the good cop for a change because he's tired, and then at the end Hutch says he never even had time to get into his own character. The episode also isn't served well with some of the indoor sets that are supposed to be outside, such as Crandell's shack which they have to break into which is so well lit and swept clean (yes, there's litter, but the corners seem nice and tidy), and some of the end sequence when they go to the holiday home to pick up the errant cops. Saying that, I'm not entirely sure the outside portions were on a set, but they didn't look right.
There are some well done scenes which remind us that things can get exciting, such as when the three cops who share suspicion with S&H over the missing drugs, speed alongside them, forcing them to a halt. S&H have just talked about how they want to help their fellow cops and suddenly they're getting shouted at and accused of making accusations against them! I think this was to surprise them or knock them off course a little, give the villains time to carry out their plans, but it's a moment of strong tension and surprise that the episode needed more of. It's also where another loose end shows up because the third man, (Callowitz?), was never anything to do with their nefarious plan, yet they've made him suspicious of S&H. Worse, he's clearly only in the story as a blind to give us someone else to suspect, but he never really features again as if they forgot all about him.
The crooked cops could have been made to seem more dimensional in very simple ways with a little more thought in the writing. We would have felt far more horror for them if we'd seen them at home with their families before going off to murder Crandell. All we get is a mention that they're family men, and that's it. Their motivation is apparently money, so maybe we could have felt some sympathy if they needed it for a life-saving operation for one of their children, something to make us care, but instead they are simple criminals. It could be that they didn't want us to sympathise with the baddies because that might make S&H seem harsh, but it usually works in a tragic way. About the most interesting thing about them was that they seemed not to like each other, but I can't work out whether this was a show to avert suspicion that they were working together, or true. They're like an amalgamation of the villains from the first two episodes of the season - bent cops and a 'salt and pepper' team, as it was described in 'Savage Sunday,' a black guy and a white guy working together.
The real heart of the story should have been Stryker. I had previously thought the crime lord had been in two episodes, this and the pilot, but checking the credits it's an obvious mistake to make. It was the same actor (Gilbert Green), playing both Tallman and Stryker, five episodes apart. I understand that TV in those days was pretty much a one time only watch and people were expected to forget what had happened previously, but five episodes apart? It's not even like he was playing different characters, they're both rich crime lords with a verbose and slightly eccentric manner (the way Stryker keeps asking his heavy, Freddie if he wants some cheese is a good example, or watering his plants as he orders a hit). It's just confusing. What's more, this is the first really strong missed opportunity to develop Captain Dobey. We learn that he has history with Stryker, his partner, Elmo Jackson, ended up on a meathook after tangling with the crime boss, which is why it's so satisfying for Dobey to be able to put the cuffs on Stryker.
This is another case of conflict of interests, since he's got the history, but it was one of those things of the time and is reflected in the series. Dobey also bends the rules when it comes to S&H being allowed out to continue working on a case even though they're under investigation, instead of being suspended, but far from being a problem, moments like these are nice to watch because they demonstrate Dobey's special trust in his men, the heroes of the series. It still missed a chance to delve into Dobey's backstory and explore his motivations and who he is through the connection with his partner. Elmo may have been mentioned again in the series, but Dobey rarely got out of the office as many times as he did in this one, which is a real shame. It's expecting too much to see flashbacks to the time Dobey and Jackson worked the streets, but I still longed for it and it would have raised the episode.
Aside from the confusion over his previous non-appearance, I liked Stryker and felt he made a better villain than some, especially the previous episode's. Putting the car headlamps on S&H to blind them as he gives his ultimatum may be a cliche, but it worked quite well. It was his goons that brought down the quality of the episode - none of them were dangerous enough for S&H to handle. Admittedly it was quite close for Starsky who uncharacteristically appears to freeze when he and Hutch are shot at by a rooftop sniper. That sequence didn't make them look too clever as they get to the roof long after the assassin has driven off into the distance. Another unnecessary to moment to show. Then Freddie says he'll deal with them, and the best he can come up with is trapping himself in Huggy's upper room! At least we get to see a bit more of the place, the landing and the stairs, to give it a bit more shape. It kind of worked that they dealt with everything else and then had to go and sort out Burke and Corman, the bad cops, but it felt a little weak as an episode overall.
The only time I noticed Starsky's stunt double this time was in the fight with Burke when he kicks the villain over a table and chases him out the door, but there weren't many stunts in the episode so it was unsurprising. And of course I continue to keep my ears open for pop culture references: this time I caught 'Santa,' Dumbo and Starsky saying, "I wish I may, I wish I might…" which I believe is a nursery rhyme of some kind. Oh, and Hutch asks if Stryker's offer is 'Let's Make A Deal' which I assume was a game show of the time.
**
Beast of Burden
DVD, Stargate SG-1 S5 (Beast of Burden)
This season's Unas episode, and it is the best of the season so far. I wasn't keen on them 'humanising' the fearsome Unas that had been so effective as monsters of myth, but it had already happened and I suppose I should have had more faith in the writing since the last Unas episode turned out to be so good. Initially I had the impression this was just another story of another human race on another alien planet as we've seen so many times before, even this season. They could become tiresome with their fat, evil leaders, intent on personal gain and power. For that matter it didn't make much sense for the leader, Burrock, to assume they weren't of his kind since they were all human, and apart from different clothing Daniel and Jack looked the same. The town set was expansive and impressive in its own way, although seeing the captive Unas, used as slaves and mishandled was sad and apparently confirmed what kind of story this was going to be. Burrock wasn't the most rational slave trader, killing his stock before it could escape. It would have made more sense to Zat the escaping Unas into unconsciousness rather than lose such a valuable item of stock as he's just been proclaiming it to be.
We soon learn, if we hadn't already guessed from the way he mercilessly gunned down Chaka on his home planet as the unsuspecting Unas offered him the food Daniel had left, that this Burrock is not a rational sort, only interested in what he can get, regardless of others. He makes a compelling case for his actions, citing the way his own ancestors were held in appalling captivity by the Unas and that he treats them better than they treated his people. That is until you realise that it's not revenge that drives him, but control, always control with these people, and as Daniel points out past equalling past wrongs doesn't make it right. The shocking thing is that he's brighter than his greed, it allows him to see further, and when his theory of the usefulness of the 'gate is proved true, unfortunately by the SG-1 team, he sees even greater potential for profit. That the team could be responsible for unleashing this bully upon the wider universe is a horrible thought, but how long would he have succeeded in enthralling other peoples? He may have eventually encountered the Goa'uld who would have put a stop to his plans, but in that time who knows how many planets he could have affected.
There was a moment in the episode when it went from being average to reaching a level of goodness that I always hope to see in episodes I watch. The visual quality was all there to back it up, but it was when Chaka first speaks to the other Unas, the servant who's previously cowered from his masters. He repeats the word and you realise this is a turning point for the captives. And that's the moment O'Neill and Jackson choose to enter on their mission of mercy to retrieve Chaka. If only they had waited, perhaps Chaka's strong and free spirit would have turned the Unas against their masters, but it merely takes longer to get to that point because of the human's intervention. It may have been that Chaka would have been shot down before his rebellion had formed so at least SG-1's presence gave him time to gain respect, though even some of the Unas are too far gone, as the guard of the young human boy, taking him to see the attacker of his Father, shows. He turns from Chaka's words, dismissively, but whether he's adapted to life as a slave or sees no alternative I'd love to know what happened to him.
I'd love to know what happened next to all the people, both human and Unas, because a war has basically broken out. It may only be two against a society, but Chaka's will was strong enough to turn others, so I'm sure a terrible time would have ensued. After I realised where things were going, and the horror of Burrok's plans, I realised just how good the episode was. It puts a different perspective on things in a very 'Star Trek' way, and this is one that franchise would have been proud to have under its belt. Daniel, usually so keen to stay passive, this time advocates the opposite, and its Jack who doesn't want to do anything. Early on he says he doesn't care about the Unas, later his views change, but he doesn't believe he can do anything. I loved the dynamic of having him and Jack as the ones trapped together, while Carter and Teal'c were the ones on the outside having to wait and hope.
As we learn more through the gradual realisation that these are truly intelligent beings (we knew it before, but now it's reinforced), there's a chill up the spine. The Unas in the barn are united in their captivity, to the detriment of one of them, gunned down by Burrock without compunction. The episode doesn't rest on its laurels and instead provides an exciting rescue by Carter and Teal'c, really well directed, as the whole episode was. The camera sweeps along as chaos reigns, people rushing to put out the fire in the town. It even has a tougher ending than might be expected: Chaka has learned to kill his enemies, and Daniel may have started a war of the species. It's a difficult position to be put in, but as he says it was Chaka's choice to fight for freedom, and they've meddled in the affairs of other worlds before. Chaka's killing of Burrock as he lay helpless on the ground doesn't bode well, but it demands to have a sequel. With Jackson leaving soon I have my doubts, but I enjoyed seeing Chaka for a second time, and it proves anyone can come back.
A word should be said for the fantastic alien prosthetics. The Unas have always looked great, and so very alien in the body language and voices. What started as a mythical creature stalking the depths of a dark cave, became a real culture that was understood through Dr. Jackson's work. I wasn't thrilled to see Unas of small stature, dressed in the American settlers style of clothing, but that can be explained away by their inbreeding and their exposure to humans, and the important thing was that they were once again used in an excellent way. Everything worked in this one - the directing, the action, the stunts (see that guy drop in the river!), the colour, the sets, the makeup and the conflict in the team and outside it. The humans could have been explored more thoroughly, their culture examined in more detail, but even there they had their moment with the young boy. If this is the shape of Unas things to come, I want more of it.
***
This season's Unas episode, and it is the best of the season so far. I wasn't keen on them 'humanising' the fearsome Unas that had been so effective as monsters of myth, but it had already happened and I suppose I should have had more faith in the writing since the last Unas episode turned out to be so good. Initially I had the impression this was just another story of another human race on another alien planet as we've seen so many times before, even this season. They could become tiresome with their fat, evil leaders, intent on personal gain and power. For that matter it didn't make much sense for the leader, Burrock, to assume they weren't of his kind since they were all human, and apart from different clothing Daniel and Jack looked the same. The town set was expansive and impressive in its own way, although seeing the captive Unas, used as slaves and mishandled was sad and apparently confirmed what kind of story this was going to be. Burrock wasn't the most rational slave trader, killing his stock before it could escape. It would have made more sense to Zat the escaping Unas into unconsciousness rather than lose such a valuable item of stock as he's just been proclaiming it to be.
We soon learn, if we hadn't already guessed from the way he mercilessly gunned down Chaka on his home planet as the unsuspecting Unas offered him the food Daniel had left, that this Burrock is not a rational sort, only interested in what he can get, regardless of others. He makes a compelling case for his actions, citing the way his own ancestors were held in appalling captivity by the Unas and that he treats them better than they treated his people. That is until you realise that it's not revenge that drives him, but control, always control with these people, and as Daniel points out past equalling past wrongs doesn't make it right. The shocking thing is that he's brighter than his greed, it allows him to see further, and when his theory of the usefulness of the 'gate is proved true, unfortunately by the SG-1 team, he sees even greater potential for profit. That the team could be responsible for unleashing this bully upon the wider universe is a horrible thought, but how long would he have succeeded in enthralling other peoples? He may have eventually encountered the Goa'uld who would have put a stop to his plans, but in that time who knows how many planets he could have affected.
There was a moment in the episode when it went from being average to reaching a level of goodness that I always hope to see in episodes I watch. The visual quality was all there to back it up, but it was when Chaka first speaks to the other Unas, the servant who's previously cowered from his masters. He repeats the word and you realise this is a turning point for the captives. And that's the moment O'Neill and Jackson choose to enter on their mission of mercy to retrieve Chaka. If only they had waited, perhaps Chaka's strong and free spirit would have turned the Unas against their masters, but it merely takes longer to get to that point because of the human's intervention. It may have been that Chaka would have been shot down before his rebellion had formed so at least SG-1's presence gave him time to gain respect, though even some of the Unas are too far gone, as the guard of the young human boy, taking him to see the attacker of his Father, shows. He turns from Chaka's words, dismissively, but whether he's adapted to life as a slave or sees no alternative I'd love to know what happened to him.
I'd love to know what happened next to all the people, both human and Unas, because a war has basically broken out. It may only be two against a society, but Chaka's will was strong enough to turn others, so I'm sure a terrible time would have ensued. After I realised where things were going, and the horror of Burrok's plans, I realised just how good the episode was. It puts a different perspective on things in a very 'Star Trek' way, and this is one that franchise would have been proud to have under its belt. Daniel, usually so keen to stay passive, this time advocates the opposite, and its Jack who doesn't want to do anything. Early on he says he doesn't care about the Unas, later his views change, but he doesn't believe he can do anything. I loved the dynamic of having him and Jack as the ones trapped together, while Carter and Teal'c were the ones on the outside having to wait and hope.
As we learn more through the gradual realisation that these are truly intelligent beings (we knew it before, but now it's reinforced), there's a chill up the spine. The Unas in the barn are united in their captivity, to the detriment of one of them, gunned down by Burrock without compunction. The episode doesn't rest on its laurels and instead provides an exciting rescue by Carter and Teal'c, really well directed, as the whole episode was. The camera sweeps along as chaos reigns, people rushing to put out the fire in the town. It even has a tougher ending than might be expected: Chaka has learned to kill his enemies, and Daniel may have started a war of the species. It's a difficult position to be put in, but as he says it was Chaka's choice to fight for freedom, and they've meddled in the affairs of other worlds before. Chaka's killing of Burrock as he lay helpless on the ground doesn't bode well, but it demands to have a sequel. With Jackson leaving soon I have my doubts, but I enjoyed seeing Chaka for a second time, and it proves anyone can come back.
A word should be said for the fantastic alien prosthetics. The Unas have always looked great, and so very alien in the body language and voices. What started as a mythical creature stalking the depths of a dark cave, became a real culture that was understood through Dr. Jackson's work. I wasn't thrilled to see Unas of small stature, dressed in the American settlers style of clothing, but that can be explained away by their inbreeding and their exposure to humans, and the important thing was that they were once again used in an excellent way. Everything worked in this one - the directing, the action, the stunts (see that guy drop in the river!), the colour, the sets, the makeup and the conflict in the team and outside it. The humans could have been explored more thoroughly, their culture examined in more detail, but even there they had their moment with the young boy. If this is the shape of Unas things to come, I want more of it.
***
The Fix
DVD, Starsky & Hutch S1 (The Fix)
The most important thing about this episode is that there's a swimming pool featured and S&H do not, repeat, do not jump into it. I'm joking of course, but not about their lack of wetness, about this being the most important thing. Incidentally, I'm sure they would have jumped in if they'd been within sight of the pool! This one is unashamedly in the 'dark underbelly' side of the series, almost as far from the lighthearted style as you can get. They may be a little depressing to watch sometimes, but they can also have the advantage of emphasising the bonds of friendship between the detective duo at their most potent. Like the pilot this is one in which the city itself is an enemy, and one which a weakened Hutch almost finds too much. Mickey, a grass of Starsky's, a pitiable figure as they often are, weakly agrees to help their enemies. Another shot shows the Torino speeding round the mean streets with the camera choosing to linger on a man asleep amongst rubbish. Hutch bounces from hedge to fence, ending up face down in the muddy concrete floor of a back alley. It all speaks of a stark and desolate city that can eat you up and spit you out if you're weak.
For once Hutch is weak, even though he proves stronger than most in his situation, kidnapped by men working for a Mr. Forest, his only motivation seemingly to get back the girl that has fled into Hutch's arms. A failing of the episode is that we don't get to know the villains and their motivation. Monk, the main henchman, shows concern over dealing with a cop, but Forest doesn't care. He seems to be a Mr. Big, but there's very little evidence except for his big house (and swimming pool!). He has these three guys doing his dirty work and there's a hint that he has other places of business when at the end he talks about Jeanie, the girl in question, as doing things in Las Vegas. The hint seems to be that she was a prostitute and that she was forced to work for him, or maybe he 'rescued' her from it. It's not clear, but there's no complicated backstory or evidence of his status that can make the bad guys three-dimensional.
I didn't buy Monk trying to persuade his boss from giving up the girl after all the trouble they've had kidnapping a cop and abusing him. I also felt he was wrong to say that Hutch hadn't seen any of their faces, because in the fight he turns round and wallops the first assailant. I suppose it could have been too fast to register. I also felt like I knew the actor that played Forest and the name Robert Loggia sounded famous, so I don't know whether I've seen him in something else or whether he played another character on the series. Similarly with Mickey the informant, but I can't imagine him coming back after the double-cross he pulled! Monk's face was also familiar, but it could be I'm simply recalling this episode. I also feel sure the back door into the delivery area of the diner where one of the henchmen drags Hutch was later used as the back of Huggy's.
You expect two-dimensional villains in the series, but in this one it made a difference and lessened Jeanie Waldon's dilemma. She's never seen to be hurt or distressed by Forest, he seems to take good care of her, it's Hutch that takes all the pain. It's not like he shows jealousy or rage at her care over Hutch, either. This is the first episode we get to see his house or bungalow, whatever its designation might be, down by the river, so at least they were beginning to have lives beyond their jobs by this point. On being snatched by the baddies: I wanted the fight to go on longer as it started promisingly enough. The episode's other flaw is that it's light on the action, so it's mainly Starsky's care of Hutch that provides the centre to the story, along with Huggy's assistance. Injecting a main character with drugs to get them addicted and helpless was a particularly terrible thing to do, and the way Forest is introduced, standing rigid and still in his dark suit and hat, back to the camera, then turning round slowly, his eyes glittering, giving him a powerful presence which went downhill from there.
Initially the episode echoes into later stories such as 'The Game' (another one where Hutch is struck down and Starsky has to find him to help him), 'Gillian' (another one where Hutch becomes involved with a woman only for it to go wrong because of her past, or even present), and perhaps a little of the series finale, 'Sweet Revenge' (this time Hutch has to do what he can to bring the villains to justice after his partner's attacked). I wonder if this was the inspiration for those other stories? The episode begins fairly lightly, Starsky once again giving out the wrong message by kicking the candy bar machine so he doesn't have to pay. Not only that, but it's a candy bar machine at the police station and he does it right in front of a criminal in cuffs whom he's dealing with. No wonder people think they can do as they please when they see the police act in that way! I guess the 70s was much looser and less moral than it is (or should be), today, but it's supposed to be a fun little scene in an episode which has a dearth of them, so it's easy to forgive.
Jeanie's fear is at first mysterious and begs the question. What's she afraid of and why is Hutch involved? But as I mentioned, once the tension of finding her is over thanks to Hutch pitifully spilling the beans, Forest walks in and takes her, without any menace or manhandling. After that she becomes a bit pointless although she's the first female-of-the-week who has to leave. It was what always happened with their girlfriends, either leaving or dying, so she was the template for the rest of the series. It makes sense, you wouldn't want women interfering with their lives for too long (except in rare cases such as 'Starsky's Lady'), as it could become a soap, but when a series lasts for several years such things do become repetitive (just like jumping into swimming pools).
The tension switches to Hutch's destiny to be killed, and my favourite scene, when he's being driven to a place of execution, still in a drugged stupor, yet aware enough that he understands what's going to happen and manages to kick his way out of the car, loping off haphazardly, almost being run over as he staggers across the road, crashes into a hedge, rebounds into a fence, then can go no further, falling to the wet and muddy concrete ground. I always remember the line from the policeman that finds him and he says Starsky's partner is a junkie, then Starsky grabs him and forcibly asks him not to tell anyone. That was something that could have been taken further as he has to deal with prejudice at the station, but episodes weren't written like that very often.
When given the opportunity in the episode David Soul does his craft proud, his awful look as the desperate, drug-addicted version begs for more giving him free rein to show what he can do. The same when he makes his weak, but essential getaway, and to some extent the cold turkey sequence. This didn't go far enough for me, I wanted to see him call Starsky names, to fight, struggle, weep, play all the emotions to get what he wants and needs, but it wasn't written or played to the maximum. It retains a lot of the internal struggle and Starsky is brilliant as the caring partner who does everything he can to get Hutch through the pain and anguish.
This is the first episode where the four main characters all pull together. We've seen them helping and protecting each other and being buddy-buddy, but the chips (or the drugs) are down in this one, allowing them to show the friendship that was at the heart of the series. Dobey gives his men great leeway and understanding, and while it might not have been sensible to allow a man with strong vested interests to go after the criminals who got his partner into such a state since he could become compromised, go too far, it shows he has some sensitivity when needed, and faith that Starsky will do all he needs to without going over the line (as broad a line as the series had in those days). He even speaks civilly to Huggy who he clearly doesn't like in many episodes, possibly unhappy with the necessary evil of dealing with people who are on the edge of the law and aren't above running a few scams, maybe even feeling Hug is a bad representative for black people. Huggy may be, but he's also charming and shows his attachment to his buddies strongly, allowing them to use his upper rooms (and us the first chance to see them), and dropping everything to help them, even, against his good sense allowing Hutch to leave. Deep-voiced barmaid Diane is spoken to and replies, but is never seen on camera for some reason. And Dobey's son is mentioned too.
Due to the serious nature of the episode there are no references to pop culture, few jokes, no appearance from the Starsky stunt guy and no running gags, although Hutch pretending to be Starsky when questioned was as close to the mistaken identity strand as there was going to be. The opening credits now feature a shot of Starsky running in his unique style from 'Savage Sunday,' but apart from that it's settled down a bit. Even the ending eschews the joke at the end for a minor snort (maybe that's not the best word to use in a drug-related episode!), from Hutch after Starsky offers to let him drive his car. Something light was needed after the bad experiences of the episode, and it resets them into their usual partnership ready for next week when something unrelated would be the story, but at least it was kept to a minimum.
The episode isn't terrible, it's not boring, but it is a little too slow, lingering on shots such as when Hutch is bundled out of the car and taken into the bad guy's house which is viewed from a distance and takes several seconds. With the lack of action and build up of the villains (one of whom looks like some 30s gangster with his hair slicked back and his sharp suit!), and the full working out of the drugs in Hutch's system not played to full strength, this was the first episode that didn't meet the standard of the others. They were careful not to show the needle going in, so there's little violence the episode could be accused of having, but at the same time there's less escalation because of it, all ending in a back alley with Starsky shooting Monk and saving Hutch. It was fine, but it wasn't that good and if only certain things had been pushed a little more it could have been more memorable.
**
The most important thing about this episode is that there's a swimming pool featured and S&H do not, repeat, do not jump into it. I'm joking of course, but not about their lack of wetness, about this being the most important thing. Incidentally, I'm sure they would have jumped in if they'd been within sight of the pool! This one is unashamedly in the 'dark underbelly' side of the series, almost as far from the lighthearted style as you can get. They may be a little depressing to watch sometimes, but they can also have the advantage of emphasising the bonds of friendship between the detective duo at their most potent. Like the pilot this is one in which the city itself is an enemy, and one which a weakened Hutch almost finds too much. Mickey, a grass of Starsky's, a pitiable figure as they often are, weakly agrees to help their enemies. Another shot shows the Torino speeding round the mean streets with the camera choosing to linger on a man asleep amongst rubbish. Hutch bounces from hedge to fence, ending up face down in the muddy concrete floor of a back alley. It all speaks of a stark and desolate city that can eat you up and spit you out if you're weak.
For once Hutch is weak, even though he proves stronger than most in his situation, kidnapped by men working for a Mr. Forest, his only motivation seemingly to get back the girl that has fled into Hutch's arms. A failing of the episode is that we don't get to know the villains and their motivation. Monk, the main henchman, shows concern over dealing with a cop, but Forest doesn't care. He seems to be a Mr. Big, but there's very little evidence except for his big house (and swimming pool!). He has these three guys doing his dirty work and there's a hint that he has other places of business when at the end he talks about Jeanie, the girl in question, as doing things in Las Vegas. The hint seems to be that she was a prostitute and that she was forced to work for him, or maybe he 'rescued' her from it. It's not clear, but there's no complicated backstory or evidence of his status that can make the bad guys three-dimensional.
I didn't buy Monk trying to persuade his boss from giving up the girl after all the trouble they've had kidnapping a cop and abusing him. I also felt he was wrong to say that Hutch hadn't seen any of their faces, because in the fight he turns round and wallops the first assailant. I suppose it could have been too fast to register. I also felt like I knew the actor that played Forest and the name Robert Loggia sounded famous, so I don't know whether I've seen him in something else or whether he played another character on the series. Similarly with Mickey the informant, but I can't imagine him coming back after the double-cross he pulled! Monk's face was also familiar, but it could be I'm simply recalling this episode. I also feel sure the back door into the delivery area of the diner where one of the henchmen drags Hutch was later used as the back of Huggy's.
You expect two-dimensional villains in the series, but in this one it made a difference and lessened Jeanie Waldon's dilemma. She's never seen to be hurt or distressed by Forest, he seems to take good care of her, it's Hutch that takes all the pain. It's not like he shows jealousy or rage at her care over Hutch, either. This is the first episode we get to see his house or bungalow, whatever its designation might be, down by the river, so at least they were beginning to have lives beyond their jobs by this point. On being snatched by the baddies: I wanted the fight to go on longer as it started promisingly enough. The episode's other flaw is that it's light on the action, so it's mainly Starsky's care of Hutch that provides the centre to the story, along with Huggy's assistance. Injecting a main character with drugs to get them addicted and helpless was a particularly terrible thing to do, and the way Forest is introduced, standing rigid and still in his dark suit and hat, back to the camera, then turning round slowly, his eyes glittering, giving him a powerful presence which went downhill from there.
Initially the episode echoes into later stories such as 'The Game' (another one where Hutch is struck down and Starsky has to find him to help him), 'Gillian' (another one where Hutch becomes involved with a woman only for it to go wrong because of her past, or even present), and perhaps a little of the series finale, 'Sweet Revenge' (this time Hutch has to do what he can to bring the villains to justice after his partner's attacked). I wonder if this was the inspiration for those other stories? The episode begins fairly lightly, Starsky once again giving out the wrong message by kicking the candy bar machine so he doesn't have to pay. Not only that, but it's a candy bar machine at the police station and he does it right in front of a criminal in cuffs whom he's dealing with. No wonder people think they can do as they please when they see the police act in that way! I guess the 70s was much looser and less moral than it is (or should be), today, but it's supposed to be a fun little scene in an episode which has a dearth of them, so it's easy to forgive.
Jeanie's fear is at first mysterious and begs the question. What's she afraid of and why is Hutch involved? But as I mentioned, once the tension of finding her is over thanks to Hutch pitifully spilling the beans, Forest walks in and takes her, without any menace or manhandling. After that she becomes a bit pointless although she's the first female-of-the-week who has to leave. It was what always happened with their girlfriends, either leaving or dying, so she was the template for the rest of the series. It makes sense, you wouldn't want women interfering with their lives for too long (except in rare cases such as 'Starsky's Lady'), as it could become a soap, but when a series lasts for several years such things do become repetitive (just like jumping into swimming pools).
The tension switches to Hutch's destiny to be killed, and my favourite scene, when he's being driven to a place of execution, still in a drugged stupor, yet aware enough that he understands what's going to happen and manages to kick his way out of the car, loping off haphazardly, almost being run over as he staggers across the road, crashes into a hedge, rebounds into a fence, then can go no further, falling to the wet and muddy concrete ground. I always remember the line from the policeman that finds him and he says Starsky's partner is a junkie, then Starsky grabs him and forcibly asks him not to tell anyone. That was something that could have been taken further as he has to deal with prejudice at the station, but episodes weren't written like that very often.
When given the opportunity in the episode David Soul does his craft proud, his awful look as the desperate, drug-addicted version begs for more giving him free rein to show what he can do. The same when he makes his weak, but essential getaway, and to some extent the cold turkey sequence. This didn't go far enough for me, I wanted to see him call Starsky names, to fight, struggle, weep, play all the emotions to get what he wants and needs, but it wasn't written or played to the maximum. It retains a lot of the internal struggle and Starsky is brilliant as the caring partner who does everything he can to get Hutch through the pain and anguish.
This is the first episode where the four main characters all pull together. We've seen them helping and protecting each other and being buddy-buddy, but the chips (or the drugs) are down in this one, allowing them to show the friendship that was at the heart of the series. Dobey gives his men great leeway and understanding, and while it might not have been sensible to allow a man with strong vested interests to go after the criminals who got his partner into such a state since he could become compromised, go too far, it shows he has some sensitivity when needed, and faith that Starsky will do all he needs to without going over the line (as broad a line as the series had in those days). He even speaks civilly to Huggy who he clearly doesn't like in many episodes, possibly unhappy with the necessary evil of dealing with people who are on the edge of the law and aren't above running a few scams, maybe even feeling Hug is a bad representative for black people. Huggy may be, but he's also charming and shows his attachment to his buddies strongly, allowing them to use his upper rooms (and us the first chance to see them), and dropping everything to help them, even, against his good sense allowing Hutch to leave. Deep-voiced barmaid Diane is spoken to and replies, but is never seen on camera for some reason. And Dobey's son is mentioned too.
Due to the serious nature of the episode there are no references to pop culture, few jokes, no appearance from the Starsky stunt guy and no running gags, although Hutch pretending to be Starsky when questioned was as close to the mistaken identity strand as there was going to be. The opening credits now feature a shot of Starsky running in his unique style from 'Savage Sunday,' but apart from that it's settled down a bit. Even the ending eschews the joke at the end for a minor snort (maybe that's not the best word to use in a drug-related episode!), from Hutch after Starsky offers to let him drive his car. Something light was needed after the bad experiences of the episode, and it resets them into their usual partnership ready for next week when something unrelated would be the story, but at least it was kept to a minimum.
The episode isn't terrible, it's not boring, but it is a little too slow, lingering on shots such as when Hutch is bundled out of the car and taken into the bad guy's house which is viewed from a distance and takes several seconds. With the lack of action and build up of the villains (one of whom looks like some 30s gangster with his hair slicked back and his sharp suit!), and the full working out of the drugs in Hutch's system not played to full strength, this was the first episode that didn't meet the standard of the others. They were careful not to show the needle going in, so there's little violence the episode could be accused of having, but at the same time there's less escalation because of it, all ending in a back alley with Starsky shooting Monk and saving Hutch. It was fine, but it wasn't that good and if only certain things had been pushed a little more it could have been more memorable.
**
The Expanse
DVD, Enterprise S2 (The Expanse)
I have very mixed feelings seeing this episode again. I haven't seen it since it was first shown in the early 2000s, and I know what happens next, the shape of the series to come. I'm sad that they had to turn their back on the simplicity of a new mission every week, and the possibilities that remaining within the realm of the familiar might have brought. It was shown to us in Season 4, but I wonder what stories involving the Klingons, the Vulcans, the Andorians and perhaps other known races might have been like. Instead they chose to do something drastic and give the series a sense of purpose which had been lacking. This was a bold move in that they were showing how willing they were to try something radical, yet it was also a safe move. They must have planned out how the story would unfold and Season 3 would turn out to be fairly straightforward, as I remember it. The positive side was that they would have licence to create new races and new situations as never before, but what they didn't realise is that they had that avenue open to them in normal space, but they got too bogged down in getting the next story done, keeping to continuity and trying to use characters that had become undeveloped, that the DNA of the series was beginning to unravel, as shown in the ratings.
At the same time as being sad about the change in direction, particularly in the ruthless way Trip and Archer resolve to do whatever it takes (which, ironically was also my favourite scene, the only time there some feeling crept into the story is when the pair drink together at a table, toasting Henry Archer, and the music, for once, reflects the weight of the mission, evoking a legendary quality), I was also glad that new urgency and motivation had been instigated. Too often in Season 2 episodes were little more than filler, with hardly any development of characters, a lack of enjoyable crew interaction and exciting or original stories and situations. The writers needed an injection of danger to play against because space had not truly been proved to be the difficult place it seemed in Season 1.
Taking Season 2 as a whole I've felt that it was the worst season in Trek history, the highest number of flops perhaps, the lowest feeling of tension and wonder for sure. Seeing it again has helped me reevaluate the season, and while I certainly haven't done a 180 on it, it reminded me that among the chaff is also the wheat, those solid, enjoyable episodes that make re-watching a series worthwhile, and even one episode which stood out as being a classic. That was 'Regeneration,' and to that list of my favourites I would add 'Marauders,' 'Canamar,' 'Future Tense,' 'Horizon' and 'The Catwalk.' A few episodes I enjoyed more this time, but still, there were too many that fell at the hurdles of story, concept and involvement. Too many consisted of stuff happening, and to some degree I'd put this episode into that category.
'The Expanse' is a mishmash. You have the Klingons, the Suliban, the mysterious Future Guy, the Xindi probe, Starfleet and some of its ships, and the Vulcans. None of them are part of a coherent plot that satisfyingly unfolds, but most are episodes; a series of happenings. Take the Suliban and their long-awaited return. I loved the race, but Season 2 only featured them in the season-opener and this, the ending. The Temporal Cold War seemed to have been pretty much dropped, where it should have been built upon. The concept was the best to come out of the series and could have provided a fantastic link to the 24th or even 23rd centuries, but it simply wasn't explored. So now that we come to it again it seems shallow and basic. Even the effects of the 'future' room that were so effective in the pilot, come across as flat here. The budget for the pilot notwithstanding, technology had moved on in the two years since then and they should have been able to match the visuals.
Instead we get a brightly lit room with Future Guy standing on his podium. Suliban ships come into play with barely a few seconds notice, and before we know it Archer's been kidnapped, unceremoniously and with ease. He's escorted in, told to go nearer so Future Guy can see him better, and promptly circles the podium so the guy can't see him at all! The effect of FG is weak, and in the harsh light his dark form looks wrong. It doesn't help that we never really know why he wanted Earth to beat the Xindi, although at least he had a plausible reason for waiting to tell humans until after the probe's attack: they wouldn't have believed him otherwise. If you can forgive the weak dramatic tension of the scene it does raise questions as to motive and the whole Cold War plot, but even getting to that point was problematic, and why doesn't FG want the timeline messed with when that's all he's been doing since the series began? The scenes should have been vibrant and energetic, mysterious and compelling, but they're too flat. Think back to 'Shockwave' and the excitement and action of the Suliban boarding, and that's what I wanted to see. It's not like they'd forgotten how to do it, as shown with the recent 'Regeneration.' They needed to top that, but they didn't even try. That sentiment stretched to the Klingons too.
Duras talks about boarding parties, but we never see them. I so wanted Enterprise crew to have to defend their ship internally, phaser battles, hand to hand throughout (think 'The Way of The Warrior'), but the size of the ship and the sets didn't lend themselves to such scenarios, a design flaw for the series, I think. Although they did find room for a briefing room instead of the little situation area at the back of the bridge. Was this an indication that they recognised a cramped ship wasn't such a good idea after all? If seeing Silik for his blink-and-miss-it cameo (and I can't imagine John Fleck was too thrilled to be called back to do such minor work - his lines could have come from anyone, there was no personal connection being developed), is a disappointment, the role the Klingons play is equally so - too fearful to enter the Expanse? These are Klingons! They were trying to make out that it was so bad even the warrior race won't go in, I get that, but it doesn't do much for their space-lane cred! I like that there was an attempt at an ongoing story this season with Archer their target, but Duras was the worst kind of a Klingon fool. He was not a villain in the same league as Archer so it shouldn't be a surprise that he's brushed off like an annoying fly - there's little doubt that he's one character that wouldn't be returning seeing a his ship gets blown up. Not that he was a good villain, but I feel they should have left a bit of uncertainty over his demise even if they never used him again.
I did like the battle at the edge of the Delphic Expanse, it showed how far CGI had come and made up for the lack of momentum in much of the episode, as well as the poor CGI that features in the same episode. The scenes at the end must have had a lot more work and a far more talented artist working on them than the scene on Earth when Reed and Trip survey the damage. I mean, this stuff is terrible - it looks like a very basic computer game, there's so little reality there. I can understand that creating naturalistic environments was harder than space effects, but even so, this looks like an end of season rush job. The way it was filmed wasn't ideal, either, with the actors viewed from below, and so obviously blue screen. What should have spoken of the terrible devastation was taken away by poor effects work. You don't get that when you see the old matte paintings, for example the devastation caused by the Borg in 'The Best of Both Worlds, Part I,' another season ender.
It's not fair to compare this with one of the best Trek episodes ever, but you'd think with technology at the state it was then that things could only have been more impressive in that department. I give credit to them for the actual attack on Earth, but again, there are no people so it's a terribly dispassionate incident, and like Trip it's hard to get past the anger of it to some actual emotion. The trouble with the episode is that it rarely takes the time to feel, preferring to brazen it out like a Vulcan, and unfortunately they seem to be the most emotional beings in the story, T'Pol almost getting upset over her orders to return to Vulcan, and Soval, as usual, free to allow his annoyance to creep into his voice. The scene with the Vulcan doctor was interesting and gave Phlox a chance to 'own' his sickbay, and he was quite well-served, what with that and the scene where he explains his loyalty to the ship for T'Pol's benefit. She really doesn't seem like the aged Vulcan we know her to be, clearly having little or no experience in divided loyalty, she comes across as the age of the actress. This would be fine, but we know she's had a previous career as a Vulcan operative thanks to 'The Seventh,' but how many times does that age wisdom and experience show through?
Mayweather is once again, basically a helm computer, and it struck me why he doesn't get the chance to be more involved in the stories: he doesn't have anyone to talk to, unlike 'TOS' where they had Sulu and Chekov, or 'TNG' where it was Data and Wesley (or Ro, or whoever). Okay, so 'Voyager' had Paris alone up front, but that bridge was massive in comparison so it was easier for Tom to banter with the other characters, whereas in this series the space is so small, Travis has the camera shoved right up his nose and has to stay stock still or he'll block the more 'important' characters for their moments.
It's sad, but Hoshi also barely featured, a symptom of one of the season's, and series', problems. Things were set to hot up for Reed. As security officer he'd be in the front line for whatever nastiness might ensue in the Expanse, as well as dealing with the military, who are mentioned, but not seen. I liked the new photonic torpedoes and their familiar oval coffin shape, and he seems almost ready to relish this new mission, but then his homeland hadn't been sliced up. It was a bit of a problem that it was only North America that had been attacked as it doesn't give us non-Americans as much personal investment in the attack, as terrible as it was. I wasn't sure if the scale was right and if it was likely that seven million would have been killed from such an attack.
The Vulcans were their usual annoying selves, mainly represented by Soval, and although his dire warnings about the Expanse were worrying, I didn't feel, as with much of the episode, that the recorded images from a Vulcan ship that returned from there caused a chill. There was too much cutting, and it had been done better in 'TNG' and 'DS9,' possibly even 'TOS.' It should have served as an intense primer for the dangers they might experience, but instead it was too indistinct, with no narrative and went on too long. Lack of sound didn't help. It was good to see a bit more of the impending future of Starfleet, with three smaller ships coming to the NX-01's rescue with an actual captain for Archer to talk to, a rare occurrence indeed. It was also lovely to get a short viewing of the NX-02 under construction. Even amid this bad news and negative mission of attack there was room for a bit of hope in the future. I'm not saying the episode was bad, I was very interested in the idea of a race from the 26th century sending a weapon back in time, or in this case, sending a message to build a weapon. How did that piece of future tech reach the Xindi if they can only communicate with the future, and not receive things? Will all be revealed or will we be left to wonder as was the case with the Temporal Cold War?
The series needed a shot in the arm, but it shouldn't have been necessary. It shows that the series had very little direction, even considering they were expecting it to last for seven years. They were coasting, and through this we learned (if we didn't know it already), Trek doesn't write itself after all. It needs all the guidance and energy it can get, it wasn't enough to take a 1960s TV model of individual episodes that have little relation and are an excuse to tell unrelated stories so they can be watched in any order, with the occasional addition of more contemporary arcs and character exploration. The TV landscape had changed. They should have taken a leaf out of 'DS9's book and worked in stronger continuing stories while seeing each episode as an opportunity to have fun with the characters. They tried to simplify what was already too simple for audiences who expected Trek to change with the times. So they did change (and took several leaves out of 'DS9's book; namely the Dominion).
I'm not going to judge Season 3 in this review, that's for me to watch and rediscover. But I will say that 'Enterprise' was a learning curve when perhaps they thought it was a done deal, not an excuse to gain more ratings by making the characters easier to write and less moral so they'd appeal to modern audiences, but a piece of work that needed all the skill and nurture the other series' were given. Season 2 ends without a 'To Be Continued…' For a while there it might have ended at that and we'd never have known what came next. It's fortunate the series was spared until it found its feet, cruel that it was cancelled once it had. But although this episode was a bit of a mess, it does leave the viewer wondering what will come next. And I did like Archer's last quote, "Let's see what's in there," an inverse of Captain Picard's famous words at the end of his pilot episode.
**
I have very mixed feelings seeing this episode again. I haven't seen it since it was first shown in the early 2000s, and I know what happens next, the shape of the series to come. I'm sad that they had to turn their back on the simplicity of a new mission every week, and the possibilities that remaining within the realm of the familiar might have brought. It was shown to us in Season 4, but I wonder what stories involving the Klingons, the Vulcans, the Andorians and perhaps other known races might have been like. Instead they chose to do something drastic and give the series a sense of purpose which had been lacking. This was a bold move in that they were showing how willing they were to try something radical, yet it was also a safe move. They must have planned out how the story would unfold and Season 3 would turn out to be fairly straightforward, as I remember it. The positive side was that they would have licence to create new races and new situations as never before, but what they didn't realise is that they had that avenue open to them in normal space, but they got too bogged down in getting the next story done, keeping to continuity and trying to use characters that had become undeveloped, that the DNA of the series was beginning to unravel, as shown in the ratings.
At the same time as being sad about the change in direction, particularly in the ruthless way Trip and Archer resolve to do whatever it takes (which, ironically was also my favourite scene, the only time there some feeling crept into the story is when the pair drink together at a table, toasting Henry Archer, and the music, for once, reflects the weight of the mission, evoking a legendary quality), I was also glad that new urgency and motivation had been instigated. Too often in Season 2 episodes were little more than filler, with hardly any development of characters, a lack of enjoyable crew interaction and exciting or original stories and situations. The writers needed an injection of danger to play against because space had not truly been proved to be the difficult place it seemed in Season 1.
Taking Season 2 as a whole I've felt that it was the worst season in Trek history, the highest number of flops perhaps, the lowest feeling of tension and wonder for sure. Seeing it again has helped me reevaluate the season, and while I certainly haven't done a 180 on it, it reminded me that among the chaff is also the wheat, those solid, enjoyable episodes that make re-watching a series worthwhile, and even one episode which stood out as being a classic. That was 'Regeneration,' and to that list of my favourites I would add 'Marauders,' 'Canamar,' 'Future Tense,' 'Horizon' and 'The Catwalk.' A few episodes I enjoyed more this time, but still, there were too many that fell at the hurdles of story, concept and involvement. Too many consisted of stuff happening, and to some degree I'd put this episode into that category.
'The Expanse' is a mishmash. You have the Klingons, the Suliban, the mysterious Future Guy, the Xindi probe, Starfleet and some of its ships, and the Vulcans. None of them are part of a coherent plot that satisfyingly unfolds, but most are episodes; a series of happenings. Take the Suliban and their long-awaited return. I loved the race, but Season 2 only featured them in the season-opener and this, the ending. The Temporal Cold War seemed to have been pretty much dropped, where it should have been built upon. The concept was the best to come out of the series and could have provided a fantastic link to the 24th or even 23rd centuries, but it simply wasn't explored. So now that we come to it again it seems shallow and basic. Even the effects of the 'future' room that were so effective in the pilot, come across as flat here. The budget for the pilot notwithstanding, technology had moved on in the two years since then and they should have been able to match the visuals.
Instead we get a brightly lit room with Future Guy standing on his podium. Suliban ships come into play with barely a few seconds notice, and before we know it Archer's been kidnapped, unceremoniously and with ease. He's escorted in, told to go nearer so Future Guy can see him better, and promptly circles the podium so the guy can't see him at all! The effect of FG is weak, and in the harsh light his dark form looks wrong. It doesn't help that we never really know why he wanted Earth to beat the Xindi, although at least he had a plausible reason for waiting to tell humans until after the probe's attack: they wouldn't have believed him otherwise. If you can forgive the weak dramatic tension of the scene it does raise questions as to motive and the whole Cold War plot, but even getting to that point was problematic, and why doesn't FG want the timeline messed with when that's all he's been doing since the series began? The scenes should have been vibrant and energetic, mysterious and compelling, but they're too flat. Think back to 'Shockwave' and the excitement and action of the Suliban boarding, and that's what I wanted to see. It's not like they'd forgotten how to do it, as shown with the recent 'Regeneration.' They needed to top that, but they didn't even try. That sentiment stretched to the Klingons too.
Duras talks about boarding parties, but we never see them. I so wanted Enterprise crew to have to defend their ship internally, phaser battles, hand to hand throughout (think 'The Way of The Warrior'), but the size of the ship and the sets didn't lend themselves to such scenarios, a design flaw for the series, I think. Although they did find room for a briefing room instead of the little situation area at the back of the bridge. Was this an indication that they recognised a cramped ship wasn't such a good idea after all? If seeing Silik for his blink-and-miss-it cameo (and I can't imagine John Fleck was too thrilled to be called back to do such minor work - his lines could have come from anyone, there was no personal connection being developed), is a disappointment, the role the Klingons play is equally so - too fearful to enter the Expanse? These are Klingons! They were trying to make out that it was so bad even the warrior race won't go in, I get that, but it doesn't do much for their space-lane cred! I like that there was an attempt at an ongoing story this season with Archer their target, but Duras was the worst kind of a Klingon fool. He was not a villain in the same league as Archer so it shouldn't be a surprise that he's brushed off like an annoying fly - there's little doubt that he's one character that wouldn't be returning seeing a his ship gets blown up. Not that he was a good villain, but I feel they should have left a bit of uncertainty over his demise even if they never used him again.
I did like the battle at the edge of the Delphic Expanse, it showed how far CGI had come and made up for the lack of momentum in much of the episode, as well as the poor CGI that features in the same episode. The scenes at the end must have had a lot more work and a far more talented artist working on them than the scene on Earth when Reed and Trip survey the damage. I mean, this stuff is terrible - it looks like a very basic computer game, there's so little reality there. I can understand that creating naturalistic environments was harder than space effects, but even so, this looks like an end of season rush job. The way it was filmed wasn't ideal, either, with the actors viewed from below, and so obviously blue screen. What should have spoken of the terrible devastation was taken away by poor effects work. You don't get that when you see the old matte paintings, for example the devastation caused by the Borg in 'The Best of Both Worlds, Part I,' another season ender.
It's not fair to compare this with one of the best Trek episodes ever, but you'd think with technology at the state it was then that things could only have been more impressive in that department. I give credit to them for the actual attack on Earth, but again, there are no people so it's a terribly dispassionate incident, and like Trip it's hard to get past the anger of it to some actual emotion. The trouble with the episode is that it rarely takes the time to feel, preferring to brazen it out like a Vulcan, and unfortunately they seem to be the most emotional beings in the story, T'Pol almost getting upset over her orders to return to Vulcan, and Soval, as usual, free to allow his annoyance to creep into his voice. The scene with the Vulcan doctor was interesting and gave Phlox a chance to 'own' his sickbay, and he was quite well-served, what with that and the scene where he explains his loyalty to the ship for T'Pol's benefit. She really doesn't seem like the aged Vulcan we know her to be, clearly having little or no experience in divided loyalty, she comes across as the age of the actress. This would be fine, but we know she's had a previous career as a Vulcan operative thanks to 'The Seventh,' but how many times does that age wisdom and experience show through?
Mayweather is once again, basically a helm computer, and it struck me why he doesn't get the chance to be more involved in the stories: he doesn't have anyone to talk to, unlike 'TOS' where they had Sulu and Chekov, or 'TNG' where it was Data and Wesley (or Ro, or whoever). Okay, so 'Voyager' had Paris alone up front, but that bridge was massive in comparison so it was easier for Tom to banter with the other characters, whereas in this series the space is so small, Travis has the camera shoved right up his nose and has to stay stock still or he'll block the more 'important' characters for their moments.
It's sad, but Hoshi also barely featured, a symptom of one of the season's, and series', problems. Things were set to hot up for Reed. As security officer he'd be in the front line for whatever nastiness might ensue in the Expanse, as well as dealing with the military, who are mentioned, but not seen. I liked the new photonic torpedoes and their familiar oval coffin shape, and he seems almost ready to relish this new mission, but then his homeland hadn't been sliced up. It was a bit of a problem that it was only North America that had been attacked as it doesn't give us non-Americans as much personal investment in the attack, as terrible as it was. I wasn't sure if the scale was right and if it was likely that seven million would have been killed from such an attack.
The Vulcans were their usual annoying selves, mainly represented by Soval, and although his dire warnings about the Expanse were worrying, I didn't feel, as with much of the episode, that the recorded images from a Vulcan ship that returned from there caused a chill. There was too much cutting, and it had been done better in 'TNG' and 'DS9,' possibly even 'TOS.' It should have served as an intense primer for the dangers they might experience, but instead it was too indistinct, with no narrative and went on too long. Lack of sound didn't help. It was good to see a bit more of the impending future of Starfleet, with three smaller ships coming to the NX-01's rescue with an actual captain for Archer to talk to, a rare occurrence indeed. It was also lovely to get a short viewing of the NX-02 under construction. Even amid this bad news and negative mission of attack there was room for a bit of hope in the future. I'm not saying the episode was bad, I was very interested in the idea of a race from the 26th century sending a weapon back in time, or in this case, sending a message to build a weapon. How did that piece of future tech reach the Xindi if they can only communicate with the future, and not receive things? Will all be revealed or will we be left to wonder as was the case with the Temporal Cold War?
The series needed a shot in the arm, but it shouldn't have been necessary. It shows that the series had very little direction, even considering they were expecting it to last for seven years. They were coasting, and through this we learned (if we didn't know it already), Trek doesn't write itself after all. It needs all the guidance and energy it can get, it wasn't enough to take a 1960s TV model of individual episodes that have little relation and are an excuse to tell unrelated stories so they can be watched in any order, with the occasional addition of more contemporary arcs and character exploration. The TV landscape had changed. They should have taken a leaf out of 'DS9's book and worked in stronger continuing stories while seeing each episode as an opportunity to have fun with the characters. They tried to simplify what was already too simple for audiences who expected Trek to change with the times. So they did change (and took several leaves out of 'DS9's book; namely the Dominion).
I'm not going to judge Season 3 in this review, that's for me to watch and rediscover. But I will say that 'Enterprise' was a learning curve when perhaps they thought it was a done deal, not an excuse to gain more ratings by making the characters easier to write and less moral so they'd appeal to modern audiences, but a piece of work that needed all the skill and nurture the other series' were given. Season 2 ends without a 'To Be Continued…' For a while there it might have ended at that and we'd never have known what came next. It's fortunate the series was spared until it found its feet, cruel that it was cancelled once it had. But although this episode was a bit of a mess, it does leave the viewer wondering what will come next. And I did like Archer's last quote, "Let's see what's in there," an inverse of Captain Picard's famous words at the end of his pilot episode.
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