Wii, Red Steel (2006) game
The debut Wii game I played to completion was this First Person Shooter/Sword-slasher. It had always stuck in my mind from the days of NGamer Magazine as something of interest should I ever get a Wii, and since it was incredibly cheap, was one of the first couple of titles I purchased. I'd like to say it did not disappoint, but I didn't have any expectations for it, it was a complete learning experience. Despite this, I would have to give it a thumbs down for too many irritations, the most heinous crime of which was realising how much of a step backward playing traditional games was with a movement-sensing control method. This was in fact the main reason I never got on the Wii bandwagon back when it came out: my cousin brought her console round and my fears were confirmed as she beat me at every game we tried - I was basically flailing around, unable to get used to the novel control interface that was so different from all my experiences dating back to when I first picked up a 'Joystick' with the Commodore 64! So my first impressions weren't good, and actually playing the Wii I realised it wasn't for me, but in recent years, now that so much time had passed and the console was cheap I was open to giving it another go, though my real motivation was to replace my kaput GameCube, and why not open up a new avenue of games at the same time? 'Red Steel' didn't do anything to make me think I was wrong not to buy a Wii back in the day as it was cumbersome or over-precise to aim and like being back in the Dark Ages of childhood's lack of coordination.
It may have been my equipment, perhaps the cheap Asian sensor bar I got off ebay was too unreliable, but sometimes I would find the input failing and sending the signal wrong so that I wound up turning around in circles unable to do anything to escape, which was extremely frustrating in the middle of a firefight! It felt like juggling eggs, so tricky was it to handle, the controls woeful compared to the precise, accurate and responsiveness of traditional control pads, that you're dropping an egg every few moments and eventually you have to make the trudging, inconvenient journey outside to the hen coop to get more eggs and start over again. In other words, sometimes the flaw would get so bad with the sight jiggling around and movement almost impossible that I'd have to quit out of the game (losing my progress in the level), to return to the Wii menu to change the sensitivity of the sensor bar and get those two white dots to be stable again. It happened far too many times for it to be an acceptable outcome. Having said that I did, with practice as is inevitable, improve my control, but even at the end of the game with hours of play time I could still not be as accurate, quick and precise as with a standard control stick. It was disappointing to find that there was no backup option to use a 'Cube Controller as some games had, such as 'Mario Kart,' as I could imagine the game being a little more enjoyable if you felt in control.
However, that would have negated the best element of the game: the sword-fighting. This was essentially the unique aspect of both this game and the Wii itself: to be able to move your remote around and have it respond on screen as a weapon. The game was careful not to overwhelm the player with multiple moves and by the end I felt quite competent in swordplay, feeling the rhythm of the combat, knowing when to strike, when to parry, when to sidestep to defeat the increasingly tough opponents you faced. It wasn't as responsive or realistic as actually responding to your exact movements like the baseball bat in 'Wii Sports,' but it did a good enough job of giving you a feeling of wielding a blade in combat. This was the one major success of the game, but it couldn't cover a multitude of flaws that multiplied the frustration levels of playing the game as a whole. While it was fun waving the arms around to slash and parry, these moments were more of a gimmick with only the occasional duel to interrupt the shooting, and even in this part of the gameplay there could be annoyances - the way the battle would pause if you or your opponent came too close to the edge of the 'arena' within which this fight took place, the CPU edging back towards the centre and ruining the rhythm of the fight, as well as stopping you from backing him into a corner. This wasn't as noticeable in earlier levels, but was a real pain in the cramped confines later on, although it may have been designed to be trickier in close quarters to match the increased learning curve.
As a whole, the game reminded me of the N64 Bond game 'The World Is Not Enough,' due to its linearity. That game had the occasional level that had more of a freeform approach, but 'Red Steel' was heavily structured and you didn't often have the choice to approach areas from any way except along the rigidly defined path. A major irritation was being unable to skip the cutscenes, and it became a twisted motivation to get to the next checkpoint just so I didn't have to sit through repetitions of all the talking. Not that they were badly designed - they had a comic book style to them, which although it didn't show off the graphical capabilities of the Wii, told the story functionally. But as I said, once viewed I had no need to see them again… and again. Impatience it may have been, but it added to the already longer loading times of these DVD-sized discs. In the past, Nintendo had cited loading times as one of the reasons for sticking with cartridges, and then the tiny optical discs of the 'Cube, so I'm not quite sure why they chose to go with the larger kind for the Wii. I only know that the loading times were very apparent, especially when you're itching to retry a level and you're not used to waiting so long. The limitations of the Wii were quite apparent throughout this game, though it'd be unfair not to praise things like the occasionally destructible scenery you could shoot up, like statues or wooden pillars hiding the enemy, though there were also so many of the usual gaming conventions that you can do 'this' but not 'that,' when it would be logical to have continuity.
There were also unforgivable technical flaws: on one mission I got almost to the end where I had to escape a factory before it blows up and I hit the checkpoint just as I died and so it saved me there, kept restarting me there and promptly killing me there! So I had to go back to an earlier part of the level to get out of it. Awful game design that would allow such a thing to happen, though this was one of the earliest titles on the system so no doubt it was going to have more issues than a game made when the console was bedded in. This still doesn't explain why they didn't include the option to skip dialogue - you'd fight through a room of enemies where they get shot and just run away or duck into cover, seemingly unaffected by bullets, then you'd eventually clear the painstakingly annoying room only to find yourself in a sword fight where you had to watch them go through the same dialogue every time - it really was a tension to desperately want to get to the next checkpoint so you don't have to sit through the same stuff again. And maybe it's only ten seconds, but it's still adding to the pent-up rage you're feeling with the inadequacies of control.
It became a wrathful experience that made me want to dash my remote through a window in anguish due to all those times when the signal went awry. I just wanted to get through the game so it'd be over and I could move onto something fun, but the percentage of game completion would creep up so slowly and the game was so irritating in making you replay bits that it seemed to take forever to get anywhere. If the controls had been perfect, like with a control pad, then it could have been a serviceable FPS, with an interesting side of sword fighting, but because of the linearity and frustrations it was dragged right down. The difficulty level certainly ramped up as it went on and my initial feeling of this being too easy was changed to the opposite, and the challenge, with the addition of a fair control scheme might have been a satisfying one, but if I don't have complete control over movement and where I'm shooting how can I rate my performance or feel I've achieved something? Rather than achievement at each new level's completion I didn't feel elated, just angry that I hadn't got even further and had done with it all! Even given the fairly varied locations with highlights being the weird 'haunted house' TV studio sequence and the castle levels at the end.
It was certainly a trying experience, and the excess of characters in the story didn't make it easy to follow and be invested in them. Interestingly, in contravention of usual gaming laws, the final level (sneaking into the villain's castle in the forest), was rather easy, as was the final sword fight with him. I'm assuming you can't beat your mentor Otori and thereby prevent him from killing the villain and with him the antidote that could have saved Otori's life from the poisoned blade he'd encountered a little earlier - a warning against taking revenge. Then again, I apparently only finished 76% of the game, which is always disappointing to see, so I don't know what you're supposed to do to increase it - get better ratings in missions? Learn all the training missions? Who knows, it doesn't tell you and it's not the sort of game I'd love to spend hours with eking out all its secrets. But I did find myself enjoying it more once the game was officially over and I went back to play a level to see if I could improve my rating and possibly push up the completion percentage. The final ignominy was the game didn't save my improved stats for that level! If there was one thing that might have clawed back some favour it would have been that, but no, they even failed to make the game work properly and I have no idea why it didn't record the improved performance. While each mission was available to select there was no way to return to the training missions - they really should have given that as one of the options, and a sword training facility or the shooting range would have worked well as something to go back to, aside from the main missions.
I could complain about a lack of sword fighting for two players and the ability to face all the opponents in the game as an extra to hone your skills with the blade, but that wasn't included and it felt like a sorry end to a game that showed flashes of potential, was atmospheric, not badly done visually or aurally, the sword-fighting pretty good when you got the hang of it, but just failed in so many ways, ultimately a mainly frustrating experience that shows the limitations of movement control for this type of game, as clever as it was to be able to point at the screen to shoot. It could be infuriating and even the sense of accomplishment when you became proficient at wearing down a sword opponent, less of an arcade and more of a tactical game, wasn't enough to stop the majority of it being too annoying, slow and frustrating - and I was surprised by the amount of swearing in a Nintendo sanctioned game. Although my final time was a little over eleven hours it was more like double or triple that as I found myself playing and replaying levels. Looking at the credits I didn't recognise any of the voice talent except for Keone Young who I knew from his Trek roles on 'DS9' and 'Enterprise,' which was a nice surprise. As an introduction to the ways of the Wii it didn't do much to inspire confidence and I have yet to find the game that makes me see it as anything more than a glorified 'Cube, though I'm sure other genres, represented by the likes of 'Super Mario Galaxy' and 'Wario Ware' will prove its worth eventually.
**
Tuesday, 26 March 2019
The Intruder
DVD, Stargate Atlantis S2 (The Intruder)
More of a stopgap episode, a cleaning house, taking stock and stepping off the city for a little. It was different, I'll give it that, as in not what I was expecting - from the title I imagined a rogue Wraith might be loose on Atlantis somehow and causing them problems, but in fact almost the entire episode takes place on the Daedalus en route from Earth after a visit to sort everything out. On the downside it's not the happy reunion we could have hoped for, and as we flash back we see such depressing moments as Dr. Weir's man friend, Dr. Wallace, not availing himself of the opportunity to head back to Atlantis with her, eventually admitting he's 'met someone else.' She's understandably upset, but more upsetting, in a way, is the pressure put on her by the military, including Beau Bridges showing up to suggest she needs a new military leader, since Major Sheppard only took the position until a replacement could be found. Her solution is to impress upon his superior how invaluable he was to her, the result being he gets a promotion to Lieutenant Colonel - it's not what you know, it's who you know… It's well deserved, of course, and it was nice of Weir to stick up for him during the time she has to stick up for herself as overall authority on the project: as she says, she has the favour of the President himself and the governing nations, so she's in a strong position. It was good to see her in the SGC again after she briefly became SG-1's boss at the beginning of Season 8 (I think), taking over from General Hammond. While it was nice to see General Landry, it would have been even better if we got SG-1, even in passing.
Turns out Atlantis isn't quite as far out as it used to seem, and the Pegasus Galaxy is only a mere eighteen days journey for the Daedalus with Asgard Hermiod still along to provide technological support. I hope Daedalus continues to play a role on the series, especially intriguing as it is to have an Asgard stationed seemingly on a permanent basis on the ship - maybe 'Universe' should have gone the whole hog and introduced an Asgard character as one of the main cast? Returning to Earth should have been a bigger deal, but it is a bit negative, what with Weir having to navigate both personal and professional problems, the politics between civilian and military rearing their head again, something that dates right back to the beginning when Dr. Jackson and O'Neill used to have it out on a regular basis. It's just sad to see sometimes. It's also a bit of an unhappy time for Sheppard, for despite his promotion he also has the unenviable task of visiting Lieutenant Ford's cousin, the closest relative as he didn't have any siblings. It brings up the guilt of being unable to stop him as well as the usual frustration that she can't be told the truth about what happened, so Earth is far from the relieving comfort that might have been expected and it's quite realistic in that this is an important military mission so there are stakes and obviously those in command have expectations and their piece to say. All it should do is bring the Atlantis team together even more and make them feel it's home for them.
If it's a bit of a downer for Sheppard and Weir, it's another starring moment for Dr. McKay who singlehandedly has to save the Daedalus from a cunning Wraith virus that keeps escalating the ship's danger in the same manner as the 'DS9' episode 'Civil Defence' - in fact he even references an 'SG-1' episode where a similar thing happened, so it's a well-worn concept, though one that has legs. Not literally, as it's an artificial intelligence, and from the title I expected an actual physical foe to fight against, so the impersonal nature of the AI took things down a notch or two - prior to that you're wondering if it's a spy, perhaps a Lucian Alliance member, someone from another faction of the past, or alien interference, but no. People die and things keep getting worse until it comes down to Rodney and John in a fighter shooting another fighter - I liked that Sheppard keeps thinking of the analogue solution, like switching the system off or blasting the hidey-hole for the virus that is the other fighter, but it doesn't match up to the excitement and drama of the season opener, nor does it delve deeply enough into the personal consequences of revisiting Earth. It sets the series up somewhat neatly to carry on its mission, it reaffirms Weir's faith in Sheppard specifically and the rest of the team in general, and sets up Colonel Caldwell as a potential thorn if he chooses to be (he wanted to be the new military leader of Atlantis instead of remaining Commander of Daedalus). He was quite right about discipline and not questioning his orders in front of others, but then Weir isn't military so she needs to know protocol. He didn't exactly give her a dressing down, just took her to task in private so I don't feel he's a bad man, just ambitious. I look forward to seeing more Atlantis again as we still don't know where the series is going and Rainbow Sun Francks is still in the credits so they haven't given up on him yet.
**
More of a stopgap episode, a cleaning house, taking stock and stepping off the city for a little. It was different, I'll give it that, as in not what I was expecting - from the title I imagined a rogue Wraith might be loose on Atlantis somehow and causing them problems, but in fact almost the entire episode takes place on the Daedalus en route from Earth after a visit to sort everything out. On the downside it's not the happy reunion we could have hoped for, and as we flash back we see such depressing moments as Dr. Weir's man friend, Dr. Wallace, not availing himself of the opportunity to head back to Atlantis with her, eventually admitting he's 'met someone else.' She's understandably upset, but more upsetting, in a way, is the pressure put on her by the military, including Beau Bridges showing up to suggest she needs a new military leader, since Major Sheppard only took the position until a replacement could be found. Her solution is to impress upon his superior how invaluable he was to her, the result being he gets a promotion to Lieutenant Colonel - it's not what you know, it's who you know… It's well deserved, of course, and it was nice of Weir to stick up for him during the time she has to stick up for herself as overall authority on the project: as she says, she has the favour of the President himself and the governing nations, so she's in a strong position. It was good to see her in the SGC again after she briefly became SG-1's boss at the beginning of Season 8 (I think), taking over from General Hammond. While it was nice to see General Landry, it would have been even better if we got SG-1, even in passing.
Turns out Atlantis isn't quite as far out as it used to seem, and the Pegasus Galaxy is only a mere eighteen days journey for the Daedalus with Asgard Hermiod still along to provide technological support. I hope Daedalus continues to play a role on the series, especially intriguing as it is to have an Asgard stationed seemingly on a permanent basis on the ship - maybe 'Universe' should have gone the whole hog and introduced an Asgard character as one of the main cast? Returning to Earth should have been a bigger deal, but it is a bit negative, what with Weir having to navigate both personal and professional problems, the politics between civilian and military rearing their head again, something that dates right back to the beginning when Dr. Jackson and O'Neill used to have it out on a regular basis. It's just sad to see sometimes. It's also a bit of an unhappy time for Sheppard, for despite his promotion he also has the unenviable task of visiting Lieutenant Ford's cousin, the closest relative as he didn't have any siblings. It brings up the guilt of being unable to stop him as well as the usual frustration that she can't be told the truth about what happened, so Earth is far from the relieving comfort that might have been expected and it's quite realistic in that this is an important military mission so there are stakes and obviously those in command have expectations and their piece to say. All it should do is bring the Atlantis team together even more and make them feel it's home for them.
If it's a bit of a downer for Sheppard and Weir, it's another starring moment for Dr. McKay who singlehandedly has to save the Daedalus from a cunning Wraith virus that keeps escalating the ship's danger in the same manner as the 'DS9' episode 'Civil Defence' - in fact he even references an 'SG-1' episode where a similar thing happened, so it's a well-worn concept, though one that has legs. Not literally, as it's an artificial intelligence, and from the title I expected an actual physical foe to fight against, so the impersonal nature of the AI took things down a notch or two - prior to that you're wondering if it's a spy, perhaps a Lucian Alliance member, someone from another faction of the past, or alien interference, but no. People die and things keep getting worse until it comes down to Rodney and John in a fighter shooting another fighter - I liked that Sheppard keeps thinking of the analogue solution, like switching the system off or blasting the hidey-hole for the virus that is the other fighter, but it doesn't match up to the excitement and drama of the season opener, nor does it delve deeply enough into the personal consequences of revisiting Earth. It sets the series up somewhat neatly to carry on its mission, it reaffirms Weir's faith in Sheppard specifically and the rest of the team in general, and sets up Colonel Caldwell as a potential thorn if he chooses to be (he wanted to be the new military leader of Atlantis instead of remaining Commander of Daedalus). He was quite right about discipline and not questioning his orders in front of others, but then Weir isn't military so she needs to know protocol. He didn't exactly give her a dressing down, just took her to task in private so I don't feel he's a bad man, just ambitious. I look forward to seeing more Atlantis again as we still don't know where the series is going and Rainbow Sun Francks is still in the credits so they haven't given up on him yet.
**
Tuesday, 19 March 2019
The Siege Part III
DVD, Stargate Atlantis S2 (The Siege Part III)
I'd be impressed if they were able to maintain the level of intensity of this opening into the rest of the season, but however it progresses it can't be ignored that this was a rip-roaring return for the series with major bluffs, character twists and heroic people giving their all to the survival of Atlantis. It's the perfect antidote to all the 'Star Trek: Discovery' I've been watching which is largely negative, depressing, and not true to its source material, while at least this first episode was a glorious concoction of what a 'Stargate' series can be. With 'DSC' I'm constantly dismayed by the cavalier attitude to canon and sense, but with this franchise I don't have those concerns, free to enjoy it as surface-level sci-fi fun, and with that in mind this delivered in spades. I couldn't believe it had been almost two years since I finished watching Season 1, so it was no surprise that I didn't recall much about the characters or their position at the end of the season, barring the all-out attack on Atlantis. But it didn't matter, I was soon through the 'gate as it were, and right back aboard the city of The Ancients among people I recognised and liked. The episode was surprisingly short, only forty-two minutes, but it felt even shorter from the pace of the thing - they go from the midst of attack by The Wraith to fending them off, then to an internal threat, and finally to a seemingly unending potential attack as reinforcements upon reinforcements are set to continue the siege.
If I was to cite anything wrong with the story it would be that everything is dealt with quite simply and easily, not just in the technological solutions suggested by Doctors McKay and Zelenka, but in the successful implementation of them - so the attacking Hive ship is beaten off thanks to the Daedalus from Earth, an SGC vessel that features an Asgard called Hermiod as its USP and enables them to have the upper hand, at least for a while, by overriding the Asgard beaming technology to get a nuke to be beamed aboard the enemy ship, neatly taking it out with one massive blast. Or when they search for Ford and it's as simple as using the sensors to check the water around the city. The earlier nuke tactic works again when Sheppard rallies them to make an offensive strike against the approaching reinforcement Hive ships, but after two are destroyed the others cotton on and activate countermeasures that drop their ace in the hole flat. It was a good trick while it lasted, but they weren't going to be able to take out the entire fleet or there wouldn't be a story any more, would there? I'm not sure quite how the Daedalus could make it to Atlantis from another galaxy, but I'm fully prepared to accept that I'm still in the mindset of 'SG-1' with its fight against The Ori, whom required a supergate to be able to reach our galaxy, so maybe Pegasus isn't as far away as all that, but it's been some time so I can't remember all the lore of this series. Hopefully it'll get more explanation as the season progresses.
If things were a little too pat, then there were other things that gave me a warm glow - I really wanted Weir to give Sheppard a non-regulation hug when she met him returned from the 'dead,' and likewise, when the Wraith-drained Colonel Everett summons Sheppard to his medical bed to apologise for his anger over Sheppard killing his friend, before dismissing him, I really wanted Sheppard to salute him, and he did. So it did a lot of things that worked, and the most surprising was how they dealt with Lieutenant Ford. As I said in earlier reviews I never felt he caught on as a character, but he became suddenly fascinating in this episode - he's not the only one to have a unique link with The Wraith, as Teyla reminded us with her mental contact with them, she can communicate, but Ford has been turned part-Wraith physically, altering his demeanour, body chemistry, and his mind, and turning him into a danger to his fellow crew. He was a bit quick to assume everyone was afraid of him and wanted to stop him from fully changing, and I'd have preferred a bit more subtlety in how they handled this transformation, at least mentally, like when Tom Paris mutated in that 'Voyager' episode, 'Threshold' - I needed to see him become more delusional and felt it could have played out over several episodes instead of shoved right in amongst everything else that was happening. It makes me wonder if he'll no longer be a main cast member, despite being in the opening titles, as he's gone off on his own to who knows where.
If they were writing Ford out of the series I feel it was a reasonable decision to make as I don't remember him really having a great buddy friendship with Sheppard or anyone else, and do we need another soldier like Sheppard, and one that's lower in rank? It's not that he wasn't likeable, he just didn't have much going on, or that's how I remember his contribution to Season 1, and if this transformation is also a new way they're going to write him, then it could be good for the character. I'd love to have a half-mad SGC soldier roaming the galaxy and upsetting their plans. I suspect, however, they will track him down and he'll end up dying with a remorse scene and Sheppard cradling his head, because that's what usually happens. But I'm prepared to be wrong. I feel the same way about how they dealt with The Wraith, the bold gambit of simulating the city's auto-destruct and activating a nuke just above the shield. I'm sure The Wraith won't be fooled for long, and they won't be able to pull that trick again in the future, but it was a good way to take the heat off, otherwise, as Weir said, they'd just keep sending wave after wave, and the series would become about a siege, they wouldn't be able to do much of anything outside of sitting around trying to come up with a plan. Instead they've bought some time, The Wraith aren't an immediate threat and the only thing hanging is Ford's departure, so I have no idea where this season might go in its arc. Bravo to the series so far, I'm eager to see more!
The characters all got their moments, especially McKay, who gets to be brave, stupid and clever in a whirlwind of reactions or brainwaves, along with his fellow scientist, Dr. Zelenka, and it was good to see quirky Dr. Novak again, though I couldn't remember if she was from 'SG-1' or Season 1 of this series, and I wish she'd had the opportunity to be more quirky. The sets looked great, the effects shone, and the excitement level was never less than buzzing. It felt big and bold with the Daedalus there to give them more oomph in the same way as the USS Defiant being added to Season 3 of 'DS9' superceded the little Runabouts, or the Puddle-Jumpers as the 'Atlantis' version is called. I'd love it if the ship stayed on in the series, but I think this season corresponds with 'SG-1' Season 9, which I've just watched, and I think they were involved with other stuff. Maybe they could leave Novak on Atlantis and have some personnel transfer over? Whatever happens, it was feeling more 'Star Trek' than 'Star Trek' feels these days, which is both a disappointment when I think of it, and a balm to soothe my Trek woes. I should temper my expectations in that regard, however, as the series is its own thing and I don't want to set it up for comparisons that would likely be unfavourable in the long run. Oh, and I still love the theme music: epic and mysterious, just how I like it!
***
I'd be impressed if they were able to maintain the level of intensity of this opening into the rest of the season, but however it progresses it can't be ignored that this was a rip-roaring return for the series with major bluffs, character twists and heroic people giving their all to the survival of Atlantis. It's the perfect antidote to all the 'Star Trek: Discovery' I've been watching which is largely negative, depressing, and not true to its source material, while at least this first episode was a glorious concoction of what a 'Stargate' series can be. With 'DSC' I'm constantly dismayed by the cavalier attitude to canon and sense, but with this franchise I don't have those concerns, free to enjoy it as surface-level sci-fi fun, and with that in mind this delivered in spades. I couldn't believe it had been almost two years since I finished watching Season 1, so it was no surprise that I didn't recall much about the characters or their position at the end of the season, barring the all-out attack on Atlantis. But it didn't matter, I was soon through the 'gate as it were, and right back aboard the city of The Ancients among people I recognised and liked. The episode was surprisingly short, only forty-two minutes, but it felt even shorter from the pace of the thing - they go from the midst of attack by The Wraith to fending them off, then to an internal threat, and finally to a seemingly unending potential attack as reinforcements upon reinforcements are set to continue the siege.
If I was to cite anything wrong with the story it would be that everything is dealt with quite simply and easily, not just in the technological solutions suggested by Doctors McKay and Zelenka, but in the successful implementation of them - so the attacking Hive ship is beaten off thanks to the Daedalus from Earth, an SGC vessel that features an Asgard called Hermiod as its USP and enables them to have the upper hand, at least for a while, by overriding the Asgard beaming technology to get a nuke to be beamed aboard the enemy ship, neatly taking it out with one massive blast. Or when they search for Ford and it's as simple as using the sensors to check the water around the city. The earlier nuke tactic works again when Sheppard rallies them to make an offensive strike against the approaching reinforcement Hive ships, but after two are destroyed the others cotton on and activate countermeasures that drop their ace in the hole flat. It was a good trick while it lasted, but they weren't going to be able to take out the entire fleet or there wouldn't be a story any more, would there? I'm not sure quite how the Daedalus could make it to Atlantis from another galaxy, but I'm fully prepared to accept that I'm still in the mindset of 'SG-1' with its fight against The Ori, whom required a supergate to be able to reach our galaxy, so maybe Pegasus isn't as far away as all that, but it's been some time so I can't remember all the lore of this series. Hopefully it'll get more explanation as the season progresses.
If things were a little too pat, then there were other things that gave me a warm glow - I really wanted Weir to give Sheppard a non-regulation hug when she met him returned from the 'dead,' and likewise, when the Wraith-drained Colonel Everett summons Sheppard to his medical bed to apologise for his anger over Sheppard killing his friend, before dismissing him, I really wanted Sheppard to salute him, and he did. So it did a lot of things that worked, and the most surprising was how they dealt with Lieutenant Ford. As I said in earlier reviews I never felt he caught on as a character, but he became suddenly fascinating in this episode - he's not the only one to have a unique link with The Wraith, as Teyla reminded us with her mental contact with them, she can communicate, but Ford has been turned part-Wraith physically, altering his demeanour, body chemistry, and his mind, and turning him into a danger to his fellow crew. He was a bit quick to assume everyone was afraid of him and wanted to stop him from fully changing, and I'd have preferred a bit more subtlety in how they handled this transformation, at least mentally, like when Tom Paris mutated in that 'Voyager' episode, 'Threshold' - I needed to see him become more delusional and felt it could have played out over several episodes instead of shoved right in amongst everything else that was happening. It makes me wonder if he'll no longer be a main cast member, despite being in the opening titles, as he's gone off on his own to who knows where.
If they were writing Ford out of the series I feel it was a reasonable decision to make as I don't remember him really having a great buddy friendship with Sheppard or anyone else, and do we need another soldier like Sheppard, and one that's lower in rank? It's not that he wasn't likeable, he just didn't have much going on, or that's how I remember his contribution to Season 1, and if this transformation is also a new way they're going to write him, then it could be good for the character. I'd love to have a half-mad SGC soldier roaming the galaxy and upsetting their plans. I suspect, however, they will track him down and he'll end up dying with a remorse scene and Sheppard cradling his head, because that's what usually happens. But I'm prepared to be wrong. I feel the same way about how they dealt with The Wraith, the bold gambit of simulating the city's auto-destruct and activating a nuke just above the shield. I'm sure The Wraith won't be fooled for long, and they won't be able to pull that trick again in the future, but it was a good way to take the heat off, otherwise, as Weir said, they'd just keep sending wave after wave, and the series would become about a siege, they wouldn't be able to do much of anything outside of sitting around trying to come up with a plan. Instead they've bought some time, The Wraith aren't an immediate threat and the only thing hanging is Ford's departure, so I have no idea where this season might go in its arc. Bravo to the series so far, I'm eager to see more!
The characters all got their moments, especially McKay, who gets to be brave, stupid and clever in a whirlwind of reactions or brainwaves, along with his fellow scientist, Dr. Zelenka, and it was good to see quirky Dr. Novak again, though I couldn't remember if she was from 'SG-1' or Season 1 of this series, and I wish she'd had the opportunity to be more quirky. The sets looked great, the effects shone, and the excitement level was never less than buzzing. It felt big and bold with the Daedalus there to give them more oomph in the same way as the USS Defiant being added to Season 3 of 'DS9' superceded the little Runabouts, or the Puddle-Jumpers as the 'Atlantis' version is called. I'd love it if the ship stayed on in the series, but I think this season corresponds with 'SG-1' Season 9, which I've just watched, and I think they were involved with other stuff. Maybe they could leave Novak on Atlantis and have some personnel transfer over? Whatever happens, it was feeling more 'Star Trek' than 'Star Trek' feels these days, which is both a disappointment when I think of it, and a balm to soothe my Trek woes. I should temper my expectations in that regard, however, as the series is its own thing and I don't want to set it up for comparisons that would likely be unfavourable in the long run. Oh, and I still love the theme music: epic and mysterious, just how I like it!
***
The Gun-Runners
DVD, The Champions (The Gun-Runners) (2)
The penultimate episode on the original DVD release was also the second episode to be filmed, marking the longest difference between filming and its position in the viewing order, though I have no idea how close the DVD is to the original order and the series may have been shown in just about any order in different parts of the country on original broadcast, so apart from 'The Beginning' needing to be at the beginning, and 'The Interrogation' working better after the episodes from which the flashback clips were taken, there isn't a definitive viewing order (indeed, the Special Edition DVD release that came later had a mostly different listing), because like most TV series' of the time it was designed to be viewed as a one-off on a week to week basis. But it meant that I was scrutinising the performances of the main cast to see if they came across differently than in later stories when they'd had a chance to become used to whom they were playing. I have to say that they seem to have slipped quite easily into the roles - while 'The Dark Island,' the first episode shot, may show some nerves in evidence from slight over-acting, I don't think I'd have picked this one out in the same way. Partly this is down to the characters not really changing over the course of the series and so they were right there on the page. If anything, they're a little lighter around each other, sharing knowing grins, and the humorous attitude is slightly exaggerated perhaps compared with other episodes. But mainly they seem to be having a good time.
One thing that could mark the episode out as an early production is in how they spare nothing in telling the story. On viewing it this time I felt it was a little untidy with them splitting up, then meeting up, with Sharron arriving late to Tremayne's briefing, and when the mission's not over, finding them hanging around waiting to hear in his office later on, combined with a multitude of characters of good, bad, and indifferent qualities. It may just have been an episode that wasn't good for keeping track of everything in order to write a review. I've sometimes found that: occasionally an episode of something will be more interesting than previous viewings simply because I'm paying more attention and have more to discuss, and on the other side, a good episode might not be as satisfying from the perspective of writing about it, which can colour my perception. I used to feel this episode one of the better ones, but although it has its points, it also was quite up and down. Something that did work are the characterisations, not just of the main cast, but of the guests - the Burmese Police Captain, for example, is very realistic in his proud attitude to Craig when the Nemesis agent arrives to investigate the murder of a police detachment and the thieving of a Second World War Japanese arms cache that had been located. It seems much more true to how a foreign authority would look on Nemesis butting in as if the domestic powers couldn't handle it themselves.
In this case, they couldn't, which is why it's essential that Nemesis be tied to no particular country or power, but is an international organisation. We've never really been given that detailed an explanation of it, but it's obvious from the headquarters being situated in Geneva, Switzerland, the home of neutrality, that it was designed to be just that: a neutral force that has the experience and training to neutralise any threat. The Captain came across as a real man, partly thanks to his show of dissatisfaction with Craig (who isn't really the most diplomatic, but manages to exude a calm and authoritative air that brooks no argument - he's there to do a job and he's going to do it), but also in the subtlety of his ways. He puts up with Craig's request to use his office for a private questioning of Nadkarni (who I at first thought was called 'Ned Carney'!), and though proud, doesn't stand on his position as a corrupt official might. At the same time you can see that corruption is portrayed as a part of Burmese life at this time - the Captain wryly suggests it would have made their job easier if Kunyaka's orphaned girl had succeeded in her assassination attempt on arms dealer Hartington's life, though Craig reminds him that they need to find the weapons, not just deal with Hartington. The man ends up dealing with himself anyway.
I'm not saying the Captain would really prefer murder to be committed, even if it made his job easier, but there was an element of truth in what he said, even though it was spoken lightly and the actor played it as if he was joking, while also making a point. The real corruption comes from the clerk at the exports and licensing office, who allows Hartington's contact, Schroeder, and his representative, Guido Selvameni, to pass through their export licence for 'machine parts' without any hassle when Guido drops him a bribe. So there's crooked stuff going on. That may be because this is one of those stories that features a lot of villains: Hartington is the main one, the Mr. Big at the top, then he has his personal muscle, Filmer, largely the strong and silent type; Guido, a man he doesn't entirely approve of, and the kind to kill in cold blood without a care (as we see when he takes out Schroeder); Schroeder himself, of Rangoon Chemicals, who is on the outskirts, and signs his own death warrant as soon as he agrees to go into business with them. And in the Central African country of Ngano (which I assume is a fabrication, unless it had changed its name since the 1960s, which is also possible), where the weapons are destined, a rebel leader called Bandani is the source of civil war to which Hartington sells his merchandise. That's not to mention Nadkarni, who was on the inside at the police station, but was in the pay of Hartington, so he was the most corrupt of the lot.
As I said, the episode had everything thrown into it while they still had the budget and we get a globe-trotting adventure that takes in Geneva, Brussels, Rangoon and Ngano, features location shooting such as Craig walking off a plane (Pan American yet again!), and the Belgian police at the Belgique Swallows Aero Club, an actual airfield with planes and everything! You've got back projection used for Craig being tailed in Rangoon, continual use of their powers in various ways (sometimes the best being the casual showing off between the trio!), a number of sets, including the return of the plane, though only the cockpit is used, and the trio getting their moments, both independently and together. They use greens sets to simulate the jungle, and even have some outside shooting as you can see the wind blowing the plants about in some scenes, and they even had a real chimpanzee at one point, as well as stock footage of giraffes back projected on the champions, to their delight. They even make the explosion of the weapons cache back projection behind the champions and the jungle set. Like 'The Dark Island' there's a good mix. I suppose I just found the strange way of putting them together and moving them apart a few times to be distracting - for example, they all go to Burma, but Craig is the only official face, while Richard and Sharron check out Hartington's club as tourists. I felt Kunyaka's daughter could have played a bigger role rather than just one murder attempt, but once we hear who she is and see Nadkarni interviewing her she's out of it.
The sheer amount of their abilities they use in the mission was more than some other collections of episodes. There's a lot of their 'silent' communication power where they can talk to each other over distance or not allow anyone else to hear: Craig summons Sharron to the balcony outside her room when he knows he's being followed as he doesn't want to alert anyone to the fact he's got contacts; he also warns Sharron when they're in Africa and she's inside the only tent, what the plan is and to be ready. A little later, Richard lets her know it's time to act in the same way, and she creates a diversion to lead the soldiers away from the arms cache, her main starring role. She gets a much better one in the post credits sequence, exclusively devoted to her this time: she's on a night out and comes into the street to find her small car's been tightly boxed in. A couple of drunken Frenchmen offer their assistance in pushing the vehicle out sideways, but make no progress, so she walks round the other side and drags it out with one hand, the helpers falling into a puddle in the gutter! It's simple, but very effective, and what makes it even better is that unlike many of these scenes which were completely unconnected from the actual episode, it carries on directly from this - she walks into Tremayne's office in the same evening dress and apologises for the delay. The most fun example of their skill is when they're sitting around in Tremayne's office and Richard chucks his empty cup into the dead centre of the waste bin, then like Robin Hood splitting the arrow in the bullseye, Sharron throws hers to land inside his, and just to show off, Craig flicks his from a reclining position to get it on top of both!
Their advanced hearing is something else that proves fruitful on several occasions. Richard hears Nadkarni approach his and Sharron's table at Hartington's so he's able to stand up and jostle him at exactly the right moment, removing his wallet so Sharron can find out who this lackey is, before Richard gives it back to him. In the same scene, Sharron hears the cock of Kunyaka's daughter's Beretta and is able to fling a tray with incredible precision, accuracy and speed so it ruins her aim and prevents Hartington's murder, and it all happens to fast that no one knows quite what happened - that's my favourite display of ability in the episode. Craig uses his hearing to be drawn to the tearful Kunyaka daughter in a closed room in the police station, filling in more of the puzzle. It's not done with twinkly music, so I don't know if the champions could hear Bandani's rebel soldiers in the jungle from their powers or because of them making too much noise, but that's certainly a contender, just as Craig is well aware of the tail he's picked up in Rangoon. Richard's photographic recall is used to remember the details of Schroeder's export licence when he went there pretending to be looking up the address of an old friend, after he's been alerted to Schroeder's death in the paper. But they aren't invulnerable, as we know, and all Craig's abilities can't prevent him from falling prey to a trap with Filmer dropping a heavy crate on him at the warehouse where Hartington agrees to meet him. This activates both Sharron and Richard's special sense and they know their colleague is in pain.
So one of the champions was captured, there's an original idea. It would have made more sense to note which episodes someone didn't get captured, but it wouldn't quite be a complete episode without it! I like the little touch of the cards left on the table as Richard and Sharron rush from their room: two Kings and a Queen, a visual reminder of the trio's greatness and necessity of being in a pack, maybe? In 'The Dark Island' Richard had to hang from a rafter to kick a door in, and this time Craig does the same, only it's a trapdoor in the ceiling (perhaps the same set later used in 'The Mission' where Craig's hand breaks through the plaster ceiling of a cell Richard's been locked into?). Sadly we don't get to see he and Richard jointly smashing in a door, but in a funny moment, Richard comes crashing through the door of his prison mere seconds after Craig's got himself out! In Africa Richard moves super fast to take out the guard on watch after they've all been captured again by Hartington's allies, Bandani's soldiers, so he and Craig can break into the wooden outbuilding containing the arms (probably the exact same set Richard broke out of in 'The Dark Island' considering that was the previous one filmed and they liked to reuse sets). Craig is able to pull out the grate blocking the window in the time it takes Richard to find a stick for leverage. After they've done all that, Craig kicks the shed door down to get out, and that marks the end of their powers for the episode.
They make a comment about the revolution having to be fought with bows and arrows now, before making their way off into the jungle, their mission complete. I tend to prefer the chance for Tremayne to have a few words at the end, but there weren't any hanging threads, it was all done and dusted - he got in a funny moment at the beginning when he tells Sharron Richard will fill her in, she asks questions and then he realises to his irritation he's started to give the briefing again! He also had another scene later when the champions are waiting to hear on developments (I felt the Burmese Captain took on his role somewhat as he asks questions of Sharron and Richard in his office, but they just hurry out the door without giving him a straight answer!). It wasn't like they were there to actually stop the revolution, just prevent the arms being used. They would have wanted to bring in Hartington to face the music, but he takes care of himself, stupidly attempting to rush in and arrest the progress of the gunpowder that was rapidly burning towards the cache, before it all goes up and takes him with it. As the Police Captain might have said, it saved them a job of having to take him back! I thought Bandani's soldiers could have simply gone into the hut and stamped out the gunpowder when they confront Craig and Richard, and it would have made for a tense fight if they'd had to go through a load of soldiers before they could get out of the blast area, the camera flicking back to the fizzling gunpowder every so often, then a last second dash into the jungle. Instead, the cowardly soldiers see what's happening, fly into a panic and scarper, suggesting Bandani's revolution wasn't going to be very successful.
A few sets looked familiar - I mentioned the plane cockpit, and there's also Sharron's hotel room in Rangoon with its shuttered window that had been used a few times before. The warehouse where Schroeder was shot could have been the same place used to store the machines in 'The Invisible Man,' and certainly the dock area had been seen before. The remains of the crashed plane would most likely have been reused for the champions' own plane crash in 'The Beginning.' There's a different angle on Tremayne's office as we're looking over towards his agents and the main entrance, then we see him enter through the door to the right of that, which I think housed his bedroom as we saw in 'The Gilded Cage.' They certainly reused the footage of Craig exiting the Pan Am plane before in 'The Interrogation,' or more precisely, used it again, as this episode was filmed first. It helped the scale of the episode to see actual scenes filmed at an airfield, which was where the Brussels police noticed the fake markings that were washed off by the downpour to reveal the Central Asian Airways identification that had been painted over with European markings. I'm not quite sure what the police car thought it could do when it set its siren blaring and drove off at top speed as if it was going to intercept the taxiing plane!
Another episode that had a large cast, meaning a number of speaking roles went uncredited. The biggest one was Anthony Chinn - just as 'The Dark Island' featured a connection to my favourite TV series, 'DS9,' by having an uncredited Nick Tate in a small role (he was also in 'TNG'), Chinn played an important role in the British series, 'BUGS,' a 1990s heir to the kind of ITC dramas that 'The Champions' was part of. He played Kunyaka in the teaser, along with his police detachment, at least one other of whom had lines. He was also uncredited in 'The Beginning' so he didn't have much joy with this series, it seems! Another actor who had more success was Eric Young (nothing to do with the American wrestler!), this time as the Police Captain, but was also in 'The Beginning' and credited on both episodes. A third actor to appear in another episode was David Lodge who went on to be recalled for 'The Night People,' playing the heavy, Filmer, in this one. Hartington was the main villain and he got the distinction of being among a select few to share his end credit on the same page as the main cast. The only credit with a bit of mystery to it was the 'Ministry Clerk' - I would assume it was the exports licence guy as he had the most screen time, but it could almost have been the African official in Ngano. Along with Chinn and his men going uncredited, Guido's accomplices are also uncredited, though they didn't have lines, nor are the Frenchmen from the post credits, Kunyaka's daughter, the official checking off the plane in Rangoon, who may have been Indian, the two Belgian policemen and Bandani, though he never spoke.
If I wasn't as enamoured with the episode on this occasion, it was still a step in the right direction compared with the previous few episodes. I hope the finale lives up to my impressions of it as being a high to end on, but whatever the case, it's been a joy to revisit this series again after so many years, and really get to know it in detail, which is one of the benefits writing reviews, or more specifically, commentary.
**
The penultimate episode on the original DVD release was also the second episode to be filmed, marking the longest difference between filming and its position in the viewing order, though I have no idea how close the DVD is to the original order and the series may have been shown in just about any order in different parts of the country on original broadcast, so apart from 'The Beginning' needing to be at the beginning, and 'The Interrogation' working better after the episodes from which the flashback clips were taken, there isn't a definitive viewing order (indeed, the Special Edition DVD release that came later had a mostly different listing), because like most TV series' of the time it was designed to be viewed as a one-off on a week to week basis. But it meant that I was scrutinising the performances of the main cast to see if they came across differently than in later stories when they'd had a chance to become used to whom they were playing. I have to say that they seem to have slipped quite easily into the roles - while 'The Dark Island,' the first episode shot, may show some nerves in evidence from slight over-acting, I don't think I'd have picked this one out in the same way. Partly this is down to the characters not really changing over the course of the series and so they were right there on the page. If anything, they're a little lighter around each other, sharing knowing grins, and the humorous attitude is slightly exaggerated perhaps compared with other episodes. But mainly they seem to be having a good time.
One thing that could mark the episode out as an early production is in how they spare nothing in telling the story. On viewing it this time I felt it was a little untidy with them splitting up, then meeting up, with Sharron arriving late to Tremayne's briefing, and when the mission's not over, finding them hanging around waiting to hear in his office later on, combined with a multitude of characters of good, bad, and indifferent qualities. It may just have been an episode that wasn't good for keeping track of everything in order to write a review. I've sometimes found that: occasionally an episode of something will be more interesting than previous viewings simply because I'm paying more attention and have more to discuss, and on the other side, a good episode might not be as satisfying from the perspective of writing about it, which can colour my perception. I used to feel this episode one of the better ones, but although it has its points, it also was quite up and down. Something that did work are the characterisations, not just of the main cast, but of the guests - the Burmese Police Captain, for example, is very realistic in his proud attitude to Craig when the Nemesis agent arrives to investigate the murder of a police detachment and the thieving of a Second World War Japanese arms cache that had been located. It seems much more true to how a foreign authority would look on Nemesis butting in as if the domestic powers couldn't handle it themselves.
In this case, they couldn't, which is why it's essential that Nemesis be tied to no particular country or power, but is an international organisation. We've never really been given that detailed an explanation of it, but it's obvious from the headquarters being situated in Geneva, Switzerland, the home of neutrality, that it was designed to be just that: a neutral force that has the experience and training to neutralise any threat. The Captain came across as a real man, partly thanks to his show of dissatisfaction with Craig (who isn't really the most diplomatic, but manages to exude a calm and authoritative air that brooks no argument - he's there to do a job and he's going to do it), but also in the subtlety of his ways. He puts up with Craig's request to use his office for a private questioning of Nadkarni (who I at first thought was called 'Ned Carney'!), and though proud, doesn't stand on his position as a corrupt official might. At the same time you can see that corruption is portrayed as a part of Burmese life at this time - the Captain wryly suggests it would have made their job easier if Kunyaka's orphaned girl had succeeded in her assassination attempt on arms dealer Hartington's life, though Craig reminds him that they need to find the weapons, not just deal with Hartington. The man ends up dealing with himself anyway.
I'm not saying the Captain would really prefer murder to be committed, even if it made his job easier, but there was an element of truth in what he said, even though it was spoken lightly and the actor played it as if he was joking, while also making a point. The real corruption comes from the clerk at the exports and licensing office, who allows Hartington's contact, Schroeder, and his representative, Guido Selvameni, to pass through their export licence for 'machine parts' without any hassle when Guido drops him a bribe. So there's crooked stuff going on. That may be because this is one of those stories that features a lot of villains: Hartington is the main one, the Mr. Big at the top, then he has his personal muscle, Filmer, largely the strong and silent type; Guido, a man he doesn't entirely approve of, and the kind to kill in cold blood without a care (as we see when he takes out Schroeder); Schroeder himself, of Rangoon Chemicals, who is on the outskirts, and signs his own death warrant as soon as he agrees to go into business with them. And in the Central African country of Ngano (which I assume is a fabrication, unless it had changed its name since the 1960s, which is also possible), where the weapons are destined, a rebel leader called Bandani is the source of civil war to which Hartington sells his merchandise. That's not to mention Nadkarni, who was on the inside at the police station, but was in the pay of Hartington, so he was the most corrupt of the lot.
As I said, the episode had everything thrown into it while they still had the budget and we get a globe-trotting adventure that takes in Geneva, Brussels, Rangoon and Ngano, features location shooting such as Craig walking off a plane (Pan American yet again!), and the Belgian police at the Belgique Swallows Aero Club, an actual airfield with planes and everything! You've got back projection used for Craig being tailed in Rangoon, continual use of their powers in various ways (sometimes the best being the casual showing off between the trio!), a number of sets, including the return of the plane, though only the cockpit is used, and the trio getting their moments, both independently and together. They use greens sets to simulate the jungle, and even have some outside shooting as you can see the wind blowing the plants about in some scenes, and they even had a real chimpanzee at one point, as well as stock footage of giraffes back projected on the champions, to their delight. They even make the explosion of the weapons cache back projection behind the champions and the jungle set. Like 'The Dark Island' there's a good mix. I suppose I just found the strange way of putting them together and moving them apart a few times to be distracting - for example, they all go to Burma, but Craig is the only official face, while Richard and Sharron check out Hartington's club as tourists. I felt Kunyaka's daughter could have played a bigger role rather than just one murder attempt, but once we hear who she is and see Nadkarni interviewing her she's out of it.
The sheer amount of their abilities they use in the mission was more than some other collections of episodes. There's a lot of their 'silent' communication power where they can talk to each other over distance or not allow anyone else to hear: Craig summons Sharron to the balcony outside her room when he knows he's being followed as he doesn't want to alert anyone to the fact he's got contacts; he also warns Sharron when they're in Africa and she's inside the only tent, what the plan is and to be ready. A little later, Richard lets her know it's time to act in the same way, and she creates a diversion to lead the soldiers away from the arms cache, her main starring role. She gets a much better one in the post credits sequence, exclusively devoted to her this time: she's on a night out and comes into the street to find her small car's been tightly boxed in. A couple of drunken Frenchmen offer their assistance in pushing the vehicle out sideways, but make no progress, so she walks round the other side and drags it out with one hand, the helpers falling into a puddle in the gutter! It's simple, but very effective, and what makes it even better is that unlike many of these scenes which were completely unconnected from the actual episode, it carries on directly from this - she walks into Tremayne's office in the same evening dress and apologises for the delay. The most fun example of their skill is when they're sitting around in Tremayne's office and Richard chucks his empty cup into the dead centre of the waste bin, then like Robin Hood splitting the arrow in the bullseye, Sharron throws hers to land inside his, and just to show off, Craig flicks his from a reclining position to get it on top of both!
Their advanced hearing is something else that proves fruitful on several occasions. Richard hears Nadkarni approach his and Sharron's table at Hartington's so he's able to stand up and jostle him at exactly the right moment, removing his wallet so Sharron can find out who this lackey is, before Richard gives it back to him. In the same scene, Sharron hears the cock of Kunyaka's daughter's Beretta and is able to fling a tray with incredible precision, accuracy and speed so it ruins her aim and prevents Hartington's murder, and it all happens to fast that no one knows quite what happened - that's my favourite display of ability in the episode. Craig uses his hearing to be drawn to the tearful Kunyaka daughter in a closed room in the police station, filling in more of the puzzle. It's not done with twinkly music, so I don't know if the champions could hear Bandani's rebel soldiers in the jungle from their powers or because of them making too much noise, but that's certainly a contender, just as Craig is well aware of the tail he's picked up in Rangoon. Richard's photographic recall is used to remember the details of Schroeder's export licence when he went there pretending to be looking up the address of an old friend, after he's been alerted to Schroeder's death in the paper. But they aren't invulnerable, as we know, and all Craig's abilities can't prevent him from falling prey to a trap with Filmer dropping a heavy crate on him at the warehouse where Hartington agrees to meet him. This activates both Sharron and Richard's special sense and they know their colleague is in pain.
So one of the champions was captured, there's an original idea. It would have made more sense to note which episodes someone didn't get captured, but it wouldn't quite be a complete episode without it! I like the little touch of the cards left on the table as Richard and Sharron rush from their room: two Kings and a Queen, a visual reminder of the trio's greatness and necessity of being in a pack, maybe? In 'The Dark Island' Richard had to hang from a rafter to kick a door in, and this time Craig does the same, only it's a trapdoor in the ceiling (perhaps the same set later used in 'The Mission' where Craig's hand breaks through the plaster ceiling of a cell Richard's been locked into?). Sadly we don't get to see he and Richard jointly smashing in a door, but in a funny moment, Richard comes crashing through the door of his prison mere seconds after Craig's got himself out! In Africa Richard moves super fast to take out the guard on watch after they've all been captured again by Hartington's allies, Bandani's soldiers, so he and Craig can break into the wooden outbuilding containing the arms (probably the exact same set Richard broke out of in 'The Dark Island' considering that was the previous one filmed and they liked to reuse sets). Craig is able to pull out the grate blocking the window in the time it takes Richard to find a stick for leverage. After they've done all that, Craig kicks the shed door down to get out, and that marks the end of their powers for the episode.
They make a comment about the revolution having to be fought with bows and arrows now, before making their way off into the jungle, their mission complete. I tend to prefer the chance for Tremayne to have a few words at the end, but there weren't any hanging threads, it was all done and dusted - he got in a funny moment at the beginning when he tells Sharron Richard will fill her in, she asks questions and then he realises to his irritation he's started to give the briefing again! He also had another scene later when the champions are waiting to hear on developments (I felt the Burmese Captain took on his role somewhat as he asks questions of Sharron and Richard in his office, but they just hurry out the door without giving him a straight answer!). It wasn't like they were there to actually stop the revolution, just prevent the arms being used. They would have wanted to bring in Hartington to face the music, but he takes care of himself, stupidly attempting to rush in and arrest the progress of the gunpowder that was rapidly burning towards the cache, before it all goes up and takes him with it. As the Police Captain might have said, it saved them a job of having to take him back! I thought Bandani's soldiers could have simply gone into the hut and stamped out the gunpowder when they confront Craig and Richard, and it would have made for a tense fight if they'd had to go through a load of soldiers before they could get out of the blast area, the camera flicking back to the fizzling gunpowder every so often, then a last second dash into the jungle. Instead, the cowardly soldiers see what's happening, fly into a panic and scarper, suggesting Bandani's revolution wasn't going to be very successful.
A few sets looked familiar - I mentioned the plane cockpit, and there's also Sharron's hotel room in Rangoon with its shuttered window that had been used a few times before. The warehouse where Schroeder was shot could have been the same place used to store the machines in 'The Invisible Man,' and certainly the dock area had been seen before. The remains of the crashed plane would most likely have been reused for the champions' own plane crash in 'The Beginning.' There's a different angle on Tremayne's office as we're looking over towards his agents and the main entrance, then we see him enter through the door to the right of that, which I think housed his bedroom as we saw in 'The Gilded Cage.' They certainly reused the footage of Craig exiting the Pan Am plane before in 'The Interrogation,' or more precisely, used it again, as this episode was filmed first. It helped the scale of the episode to see actual scenes filmed at an airfield, which was where the Brussels police noticed the fake markings that were washed off by the downpour to reveal the Central Asian Airways identification that had been painted over with European markings. I'm not quite sure what the police car thought it could do when it set its siren blaring and drove off at top speed as if it was going to intercept the taxiing plane!
Another episode that had a large cast, meaning a number of speaking roles went uncredited. The biggest one was Anthony Chinn - just as 'The Dark Island' featured a connection to my favourite TV series, 'DS9,' by having an uncredited Nick Tate in a small role (he was also in 'TNG'), Chinn played an important role in the British series, 'BUGS,' a 1990s heir to the kind of ITC dramas that 'The Champions' was part of. He played Kunyaka in the teaser, along with his police detachment, at least one other of whom had lines. He was also uncredited in 'The Beginning' so he didn't have much joy with this series, it seems! Another actor who had more success was Eric Young (nothing to do with the American wrestler!), this time as the Police Captain, but was also in 'The Beginning' and credited on both episodes. A third actor to appear in another episode was David Lodge who went on to be recalled for 'The Night People,' playing the heavy, Filmer, in this one. Hartington was the main villain and he got the distinction of being among a select few to share his end credit on the same page as the main cast. The only credit with a bit of mystery to it was the 'Ministry Clerk' - I would assume it was the exports licence guy as he had the most screen time, but it could almost have been the African official in Ngano. Along with Chinn and his men going uncredited, Guido's accomplices are also uncredited, though they didn't have lines, nor are the Frenchmen from the post credits, Kunyaka's daughter, the official checking off the plane in Rangoon, who may have been Indian, the two Belgian policemen and Bandani, though he never spoke.
If I wasn't as enamoured with the episode on this occasion, it was still a step in the right direction compared with the previous few episodes. I hope the finale lives up to my impressions of it as being a high to end on, but whatever the case, it's been a joy to revisit this series again after so many years, and really get to know it in detail, which is one of the benefits writing reviews, or more specifically, commentary.
**
Tuesday, 12 March 2019
Camelot
DVD, Stargate SG-1 S9 (Camelot)
It's got to end looking dismal for the goodies, but I wasn't even sure what I was seeing this time - were the Earth ships all destroyed by The Ori super ships? We see Carter looking on shocked and powerless from her position at the edge of the Supergate, and Vala doing the same from onboard one of The Ori vessels, but there's no indication of whether the Odyssey or the Korolev, or even the Asgard ship, survived, which might suggest that time itself may have to be undone to set things right again. It wouldn't be the first time. It certainly had its moments, this long awaited confrontation in space between the forces of The Ori and the allies arrayed against them. I liked how even the Lucian Alliance were brought in on the action, because nothing messes up your plans for galactic domination like a bigger fish jumping into the pond and swallowing up everything. It was a bit Han Solo the way their ships come zipping in from 'above' (if there were orientation in space), and Teal'c was the typically forceful personality to bring them. Even so, it was only a small fleet, with, I think three ships from Earth, one captained by Colonel Chekov for the Russians, and Colonel Emerson in charge of the other. One Asgard ship with Kvasir in control, and a small handful of Tok'Ra and free Jaffa ships, but pitiful when you consider it was for the fate of the galaxy. They shouldn't have spent so much time waiting to dial the Supergate out as that was the obvious solution to prevent The Ori forces pouring in, but they waited for Daniel and Mitchell to find the necessary weapon of Merlin rather than dialling.
I preferred the planet story where SG-1 begin visiting a 'Medieval' village led by Meurik, John Noble himself - who better to be the leader of a Medieval village than the Steward of Gondor himself? Actually not many could be worse and I'm only glad he didn't start trying to burn himself on a pyre in crazed madness. It was quite 'The Lord of The Rings' in tone (and people die in slow motion in the later battle), and I knew that mud had to be so muddy for a reason: Mitchell gets properly muddied in his fight with the black knight security program guarding Merlin's library. I couldn't help feel that if it was as easy to enter Merlin's sealed library as putting a key in the lock, they'd have done so long ago, but Noble's character says they know what the black knight is like, suggesting in his lifetime some have been foolish enough to trespass (though it couldn't have been for quite some time considering the size of the cobwebs down there!). It was cleverly designed to send the knight out to kill in the village rather than the actual trespasser, turning all the people against anyone that dared enter this forbidden area. I also really liked the way both intelligence and skill was required to nullify the threat and solve the puzzle: Daniel has to get it right or Mitchell's in trouble and the whole sequence was very well put together, even down to the irony that Valencia, the girl who helps them, gets all the credit since she pulled the sword in the stone out of the stone, while Mitchell lies tired and covered in fresh mud on the ground! I didn't even much mind the boneheaded solution of shooting the control crystals to stop the knight, something more McNeill than Jackson in kind!
It also felt good to hear Emerson say the Russians would pick up Mitchell and Jackson on their way to the Supergate as it gives a great sense of the new situation where the Russians now have their own ship and are itching to get in on the action. It'll be very interesting to see what happens with that as I could imagine the Russians and Americans butting heads over other planets at some point! That is, assuming they survived, though I think there's a very good chance for the Russian Colonel considering he had two main cast members aboard with him - always a wise move on a series like this… While it's good that Vala has made it safely back to our galaxy ready to join the cast properly next season (or so I believe), it's not good for anyone else as the onslaught has been unstoppable. In a way, it's quite a downbeat season finale as they go - at least they had the luxury of knowing they were coming back for one last season, I assume they did anyway, or it probably wouldn't have ended on a cliffhanger and would have been more like Season 8's finale which wrapped things up effectively, allowing them to start something fresh this season.
I'd say it was a fairly successful season, introducing many new aspects, but also reverting back to more tried and tested 'SG-1' stories that we expect, and while I could have wished sometimes that some of the characters had been allowed more personal development (Teal'c and Carter in particular), their personal lives aren't going to be as much of a focus when the fate of our galaxy hangs in the balance. I can't remember if I ever mentioned the new title sequence, but I didn't like the CGI Stargate, and felt the real thing was so much better, but I did love the rippling transparency effects across the rest of the sequence. The series probably never looked better than this season, as you'd expect, and there have been plenty of familiar faces cropping up over the course of it, so no complaints with the new direction and I do wonder what they'll do both in their final season and in connecting with 'Atlantis' which I look forward to getting back to.
**
It's got to end looking dismal for the goodies, but I wasn't even sure what I was seeing this time - were the Earth ships all destroyed by The Ori super ships? We see Carter looking on shocked and powerless from her position at the edge of the Supergate, and Vala doing the same from onboard one of The Ori vessels, but there's no indication of whether the Odyssey or the Korolev, or even the Asgard ship, survived, which might suggest that time itself may have to be undone to set things right again. It wouldn't be the first time. It certainly had its moments, this long awaited confrontation in space between the forces of The Ori and the allies arrayed against them. I liked how even the Lucian Alliance were brought in on the action, because nothing messes up your plans for galactic domination like a bigger fish jumping into the pond and swallowing up everything. It was a bit Han Solo the way their ships come zipping in from 'above' (if there were orientation in space), and Teal'c was the typically forceful personality to bring them. Even so, it was only a small fleet, with, I think three ships from Earth, one captained by Colonel Chekov for the Russians, and Colonel Emerson in charge of the other. One Asgard ship with Kvasir in control, and a small handful of Tok'Ra and free Jaffa ships, but pitiful when you consider it was for the fate of the galaxy. They shouldn't have spent so much time waiting to dial the Supergate out as that was the obvious solution to prevent The Ori forces pouring in, but they waited for Daniel and Mitchell to find the necessary weapon of Merlin rather than dialling.
I preferred the planet story where SG-1 begin visiting a 'Medieval' village led by Meurik, John Noble himself - who better to be the leader of a Medieval village than the Steward of Gondor himself? Actually not many could be worse and I'm only glad he didn't start trying to burn himself on a pyre in crazed madness. It was quite 'The Lord of The Rings' in tone (and people die in slow motion in the later battle), and I knew that mud had to be so muddy for a reason: Mitchell gets properly muddied in his fight with the black knight security program guarding Merlin's library. I couldn't help feel that if it was as easy to enter Merlin's sealed library as putting a key in the lock, they'd have done so long ago, but Noble's character says they know what the black knight is like, suggesting in his lifetime some have been foolish enough to trespass (though it couldn't have been for quite some time considering the size of the cobwebs down there!). It was cleverly designed to send the knight out to kill in the village rather than the actual trespasser, turning all the people against anyone that dared enter this forbidden area. I also really liked the way both intelligence and skill was required to nullify the threat and solve the puzzle: Daniel has to get it right or Mitchell's in trouble and the whole sequence was very well put together, even down to the irony that Valencia, the girl who helps them, gets all the credit since she pulled the sword in the stone out of the stone, while Mitchell lies tired and covered in fresh mud on the ground! I didn't even much mind the boneheaded solution of shooting the control crystals to stop the knight, something more McNeill than Jackson in kind!
It also felt good to hear Emerson say the Russians would pick up Mitchell and Jackson on their way to the Supergate as it gives a great sense of the new situation where the Russians now have their own ship and are itching to get in on the action. It'll be very interesting to see what happens with that as I could imagine the Russians and Americans butting heads over other planets at some point! That is, assuming they survived, though I think there's a very good chance for the Russian Colonel considering he had two main cast members aboard with him - always a wise move on a series like this… While it's good that Vala has made it safely back to our galaxy ready to join the cast properly next season (or so I believe), it's not good for anyone else as the onslaught has been unstoppable. In a way, it's quite a downbeat season finale as they go - at least they had the luxury of knowing they were coming back for one last season, I assume they did anyway, or it probably wouldn't have ended on a cliffhanger and would have been more like Season 8's finale which wrapped things up effectively, allowing them to start something fresh this season.
I'd say it was a fairly successful season, introducing many new aspects, but also reverting back to more tried and tested 'SG-1' stories that we expect, and while I could have wished sometimes that some of the characters had been allowed more personal development (Teal'c and Carter in particular), their personal lives aren't going to be as much of a focus when the fate of our galaxy hangs in the balance. I can't remember if I ever mentioned the new title sequence, but I didn't like the CGI Stargate, and felt the real thing was so much better, but I did love the rippling transparency effects across the rest of the sequence. The series probably never looked better than this season, as you'd expect, and there have been plenty of familiar faces cropping up over the course of it, so no complaints with the new direction and I do wonder what they'll do both in their final season and in connecting with 'Atlantis' which I look forward to getting back to.
**
Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad
DVD, Discovery S1 (Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad)
I suppose this is the first actual sci-fi story the series has attempted, and also the first relatively standalone episode, too. Like 'DS9' it connects to what is going on 'outside' of the episode, with characters or the general arc of the season there, but it's what is going on here that is of immediate consequence. In that regard it was, with the possible exception of the opening episode, the one to feel most Trekky so far, which is a point in its favour. On the downside, any time they use Harry Mudd negates the positives so it was both step forward and step backward, but I can't deny that it was much more like a familiar Trek outing than has been demonstrated so far. That's largely due to it being more than familiar: it's a story that was done way back in 'TNG,' right down to the short time loop always ending in the destruction of the ship! If you're going to steal, steal from the best, isn't that the rule? And 'Cause and Effect' is certainly one of the best time travel stories Trek has done in its many stabs at this peculiarly fascinating sub-genre in the Trek oeuvre. It doesn't pull it off as effectively, of course, but I suspect viewers new to Trek's storytelling would have been impressed with it no end, though as an inferior copy of the earlier title it's water under the bridge for veteran Trekkers. As ever with time travel there are always little nitpicks (or big nitpicks, depending on your point of view), but I came away from the episode feeling like I had actually watched a Trek episode from beginning to end, something that had resolution and completeness, which is not the experience I've had on the series to this point, and for that it was a refreshing change.
However… It had to come: my issues with it. I don't have issues with the story, but the problem is that if you don't care for the characters on a series then it doesn't matter how good a story or ingenious a plot device, you aren't going to really like it, and that's how I felt. It didn't upset me (well, not much), but I don't care if these people die in whatever manner Mudd sees fit to inflict upon them, because I haven't bonded with them as I did with the other series' crews. It's still early days and it sounds like Season 2's trying to redress the balance of Trekkiness that has been missing, but it's the people, and the age group demographic that is definitely skewed to the teens, which serves to put me off from embracing things, as much as the canon ignorance (or blatant disregard), that's been evident throughout. I don't like them using Harry, the actor doesn't have the size of both personality and girth that marked out the conman as worthy of a second visit to the Enterprise in 'TOS,' and at this stage of his life he just comes across as a cruel murderer, which I never saw in him before. Perhaps his enforced time with Stella 'cures' him of this depth of depravity so that by the time he was encountered by Kirk's crew he'd reformed into 'merely' a conniving, if charming, boor rather than a merciless killer. I'm hoping this will be the last we see of him as that would be a fine way to leave the character for 'TOS,' having achieved the return of a famous character with a 'DSC' makeover, but temperate doesn't strike me as the way of this series or its writers, so I expect any good feeling at the end to be undone by another appearance at some point.
My faith in the writers is clearly very low, but I will give them the satisfaction of admitting they did get a key part of his character right: when he was talking about his loss of Stella and how that was his motivation, I was thinking how wrong that was compared with the man we later knew whose greatest punishment was eventually to be trapped on a planet with innumerable android replicas of his fussy, scolding wife, forever to be at the mercy of her wagging finger, furrowed brow and shrieking voice! So where, I wondered, did this young 'love' come from, and the baser instincts of revenge for wrongs committed that it apparently engendered. The truth is that Harry's a sham, and what he says isn't to be trusted, and I had an inkling of that, so it was a fitting end that Stella and her heretofore unseen Father show up (eccentrically attired in a way that synchs with the manner of dress later Mudd would enjoy), at the end to reclaim the escapee, making it very much in the vein of a 'TOS' ending - all that was left was for Lorca and the others to sit around on the Bridge bursting into laughter at Saru's inability to understand a joke the Captain had made, and it would have almost fit perfectly! Not that I can imagine Lorca encouraging levity on his Bridge, nor do the crew seem the kind that would spontaneously break out in group expression of amusement (the minor characters still remain but faces with barely a name between them), but I felt the actual ending where Burnham reflects on something positive to close out the final scene, was as true of later, 24th Century Trek that had a feel-good outro of some kind to leave you optimistic and happy.
What kept the episode down was, as I said, an inability to so far really bond with the characters, in the same way that Burnham finds herself apparently accepted as part of the crew, but isn't yet comfortable with the social side of it. It could be argued, on a smaller scale, that as people complained the Maquis in 'Voyager' too quickly integrated, then her acceptance as more than just The Mutineer Michael Burnham hasn't been properly explored and she's gotten through things a little too easily thanks to Lorca's hand over things, quite differently to how her integration looked like it would proceed in the first couple of episodes aboard Discovery. That's where things become a bit sci-fi soap opera, and I half believed I was watching 'Smallville' when that pumping music signified the party she reluctantly attends. It's a statement, the kind of music and attitudes that are on display, and where we used to see an older demographic of high-minded classical music to show that the things that most likely stood the test of time down through the centuries were the purist forms of entertainment, they've specifically chosen to aim younger for their audience and make them feel at home. It's all feeling very 'Battlestar Galactica' reboot to me in both its soldierly impression and its off-duty touches. If the party was weirdly contemporary (and uncomfortably alike to a similar scene in 'Star Trek XI'), they then make the connection that the old, balding villain of the piece is the one to force classical music into the ears of the crew he's torturing, so we've gone full circle from the high-minded pursuits being considered unsuitable for our characters, to actively portraying it with negative connotations, an inverse snobbishness and inability to connect to nobler emotion!
That's an incredibly modern approach for Trek to take, and while every Trek is a product of its time, it managed to also exist outside of it and be real as a future era by the choices it made to hold onto the classier things. They do throw in a little ballroom dancing between Stamets and Burnham, but it's more of an off the wall moment than the seriously fun, letting the hair down, guzzling what we assume is alcohol, mood of the party. Burnham and Tyler's deepening friendship comes into things significantly, and while we've seen such things before, it serves ever more to remind me that Trek is aimed at the teenagers, just as most TV shows and films are, and that I'm increasingly distant from such an age group and its mores, especially in the world today. So it's another aspect that pushes me further out of the picture when Trek was more multi-generational in previous series' and I grew up with an understanding of the need for all these periods in a person's life. So it's strange to find myself in a time when I'm more interested in seeing those middle-aged characters that tended to populate Trek, than the younger ones, something that has set Trek apart in this century as opposed to the approach and style seen in 20th Century produced Trek, beginning with 'Enterprise,' moving to the younger versions of famous characters in the Kelvin Timeline films, and now to 'Discovery.' It suggests that while I may find the occasional episode or scene to my taste or requirements, I'm not going to find what used to appeal to me, even though the ages have inverted - when I was young it didn't occur to me the demographic or age of characters, only that they were older than me and were uniquely qualified to do what they did. It's certainly a strange place to be in, in life when you see what you most enjoy alter so perceptibly.
I digress from the episode, however. If I was to point out the vagaries of time travel then I might suggest that Mudd's 'time crystal' sounded more like something out of 'Dr. Who' than the serious business of Trek, but then 'magic' or a non-consistent approach to storytelling and internal logic, the desire to show off flashy effects work rather than explore ideas intellectually, a much more visceral approach which is more likely to attract the young audience for which this is primarily aimed, would encourage all manner of 'magic' solutions. It's the tone and style, and the presentation of them that decide how easy it is to suspend disbelief, which is why I could accept much of what older Trek ran with, and one reason I have a hard time buying superhero films these days, or most genre fare for that matter. It's made for the mentally lazy generation of the short attention span, and a world of options that mean even the most expensive proposition can be cast off at a moment's notice should it not be deemed a success in the marketplace, and I'm not going to go into railing on social media, mobile phones and all manner of the changes to our social structure that have been affected by instant expression, but I do wonder if Trek even has a place in today's world when there is no censorship, pretty much, and only in terms of what is against the flow and the norm do people censor each other rather than bodies making decisions of content for TV or film, or whatever, where Trek's ability was to address issues hidden within a sci-fi veneer. I can't help but go off at these tangents, such is the thoughts this series brings me to, quite apart from its own intentions, but through comparison and contrast with the giants whose shoulders it lounges atop.
I might also say that Stamets' concern over no more people dying so that he reveals the key component missing from Mudd's gambit, was missing the point of the time loop. As long as he kept Mudd on the merry-go-round no one died because everything could be reset, but if he allowed his own emotional attrition to form his judgement, as he did, that meant those people would stay dead because Mudd would get what he wanted. But Stamets was under a lot of stress and for all his callousness and lack of social grace, a directness borne out of who knows where, he was affected, just as he was already affected by the tardigrade DNA that was part of him, a good use of a piece of previous plotting, for a change, to place him outside of the time loop. I wonder if he's eventually going to become one of those giant pig amoebas, or something? While I'm hovering in the vicinity of issues with the episode I could also bring up the ridiculousness of postponing a mission in wartime to make an effort to save what was essentially a space whale. It's nice to see a space-borne creature, another element of Trek's back catalogue that you'd expect to crop up (just like time travel), for the Trek name to truly bear its fruit, although I wonder if they were throwing in as many traditional Trek elements into this one episode so they could get back to Klingon-bashing in the next. It was ludicrous that they'd have to save something like that during a war, albeit they weren't in immediate peril. At the same time, it's only ludicrous because of the statements of the series to be so much more militaristic - it would fit into 'Voyager,' for example, though there might be more thoughtful discussion of whether they really could fulfil such a directive over a current mission.
You don't get those scenes of the Captain gathering his crew together to work things through, one reason why the 23rd Century seems particularly of interest to those in charge of Trek this century - lest we forget, even Kirk used to have briefings with the command staff around a desk, so it's wrong to suggest 'TOS' was all fistfights and Phaser battles! I suppose there's a cursory nod to such input when Burnham and Tyler are repeatedly summoned to the Bridge in the loops when the Gormagander is discovered, but Lorca is a man of action, not a man of talk. I will say this for him, he didn't show fear in Mudd's offbeat, but dangerous presence, but he's a hard man. He admirably (considering his real status under the pretence he's carrying off), goes about his job of being a Starfleet Captain, even if he deals with the necessary diversion in the most offhand way, having no interest - again, that could be strange since he's amassed such a collection in his menagerie stash which we visit once again, complete with that intriguing Gorn skeleton hanging in its alcove like the Salt Vampire in Trelane's castle on Gothos. They were quite light on references this time, perhaps feeling that Harry Mudd was enough to cover that side of Trek connections they like to play. But I did wonder if the environmental suit he first uses to come aboard was of Andorian design, perhaps a visual clue that those blue skins were going to be featuring soon (I do hope so). At first I thought the helmet was horned, but then the blueness and the impression of antennae arose in my mind…
Another, less obvious influence upon the episode may have been the being known as Q on 'TNG' (and others). Mudd, on leaving Lorca on the Bridge says: "Adieu, mon Capitan!" Just the sort of thing Q used to say to Picard, and I'm sure it was intentional - they've been very careful to throw in these many references wherever possible in what I can only assume is designed to placate the older viewers like me who get it. Well I did, so thank you for that. Now can you just make things a bit more Trek-like in tone as this episode proved was possible by the working together of the crew to solve a problem? I'd still much rather it was a new character rather than Harry, perhaps an associate of Mudd's rather than the man himself, allowing plenty of mentions of the rotund con artiste, just as 'Star Trek Into Darkness' would have been easier to swallow in at least that one aspect if it was a follower of Khan rather than Khan himself. But that's the thing, now that the barriers have been broken down, and they no longer expect to keep the visual continuity clean and consistent, extending also to anyone being allowed to play a previously seen character rather than keeping to the idea that the actor was the character, they don't fail to take the opportunity to get more publicity by playing with the toys that couldn't be played with before for fear of upending the sandbox. That's something major (as seen so potently with Sarek). I don't know why they didn't do 'spinoffs' of characters, or, say, make Tyler a relation of Jose Tyler as was my first leap of logic when the character was announced. But they don't believe in subtlety, it's a different generation, as we saw with the party scene, and so many other scenes in this season.
I even found it mildly disconcerting that the episode doesn't have a teaser, but a few short scenes of recap to remind us of important details, then goes straight into the opening credits. And it remains galling when the Enterprise's fanfare is appropriated for this 'other' ship. And I still find it more than mildly disconcerting that they abandoned the conceit of always showing the episode title, and it means that having such an interesting combination as this one does, is almost a waste not to show it on screen. No doubt if you view it on a streaming service then you pick the episode from its title and thus get it that way, but they could have included it with no trouble or issue. It's tradition, and Trek has always (used to always), be very traditional, that's one of the reasons it's survived so long: by becoming a tradition and leading the pack. These days (these last ten years), it's been a follower, a trend-aper not a setter. It's really only once the dust has settled that you can judge a series objectively. I'm not going to give up, I'll keep watching. Of course I will, how else can I applaud or condemn the latest entry in my favourite franchise? Commenting on it is a way to get it out of the system. I don't see myself accepting it, or even really enjoying it this season, but like Burnham I live in hope that a few episodes and films can't fully strip. I've always said that whatever 'thing' is revived, be it film or TV, if it goes on long enough, will revert back towards it centre point and become more recognisable over time. Look at 'Enterprise' Season 4, that was well worth waiting for. By the time we get a fourth season of 'DSC' maybe I'll be on board for that, too.
**
I suppose this is the first actual sci-fi story the series has attempted, and also the first relatively standalone episode, too. Like 'DS9' it connects to what is going on 'outside' of the episode, with characters or the general arc of the season there, but it's what is going on here that is of immediate consequence. In that regard it was, with the possible exception of the opening episode, the one to feel most Trekky so far, which is a point in its favour. On the downside, any time they use Harry Mudd negates the positives so it was both step forward and step backward, but I can't deny that it was much more like a familiar Trek outing than has been demonstrated so far. That's largely due to it being more than familiar: it's a story that was done way back in 'TNG,' right down to the short time loop always ending in the destruction of the ship! If you're going to steal, steal from the best, isn't that the rule? And 'Cause and Effect' is certainly one of the best time travel stories Trek has done in its many stabs at this peculiarly fascinating sub-genre in the Trek oeuvre. It doesn't pull it off as effectively, of course, but I suspect viewers new to Trek's storytelling would have been impressed with it no end, though as an inferior copy of the earlier title it's water under the bridge for veteran Trekkers. As ever with time travel there are always little nitpicks (or big nitpicks, depending on your point of view), but I came away from the episode feeling like I had actually watched a Trek episode from beginning to end, something that had resolution and completeness, which is not the experience I've had on the series to this point, and for that it was a refreshing change.
However… It had to come: my issues with it. I don't have issues with the story, but the problem is that if you don't care for the characters on a series then it doesn't matter how good a story or ingenious a plot device, you aren't going to really like it, and that's how I felt. It didn't upset me (well, not much), but I don't care if these people die in whatever manner Mudd sees fit to inflict upon them, because I haven't bonded with them as I did with the other series' crews. It's still early days and it sounds like Season 2's trying to redress the balance of Trekkiness that has been missing, but it's the people, and the age group demographic that is definitely skewed to the teens, which serves to put me off from embracing things, as much as the canon ignorance (or blatant disregard), that's been evident throughout. I don't like them using Harry, the actor doesn't have the size of both personality and girth that marked out the conman as worthy of a second visit to the Enterprise in 'TOS,' and at this stage of his life he just comes across as a cruel murderer, which I never saw in him before. Perhaps his enforced time with Stella 'cures' him of this depth of depravity so that by the time he was encountered by Kirk's crew he'd reformed into 'merely' a conniving, if charming, boor rather than a merciless killer. I'm hoping this will be the last we see of him as that would be a fine way to leave the character for 'TOS,' having achieved the return of a famous character with a 'DSC' makeover, but temperate doesn't strike me as the way of this series or its writers, so I expect any good feeling at the end to be undone by another appearance at some point.
My faith in the writers is clearly very low, but I will give them the satisfaction of admitting they did get a key part of his character right: when he was talking about his loss of Stella and how that was his motivation, I was thinking how wrong that was compared with the man we later knew whose greatest punishment was eventually to be trapped on a planet with innumerable android replicas of his fussy, scolding wife, forever to be at the mercy of her wagging finger, furrowed brow and shrieking voice! So where, I wondered, did this young 'love' come from, and the baser instincts of revenge for wrongs committed that it apparently engendered. The truth is that Harry's a sham, and what he says isn't to be trusted, and I had an inkling of that, so it was a fitting end that Stella and her heretofore unseen Father show up (eccentrically attired in a way that synchs with the manner of dress later Mudd would enjoy), at the end to reclaim the escapee, making it very much in the vein of a 'TOS' ending - all that was left was for Lorca and the others to sit around on the Bridge bursting into laughter at Saru's inability to understand a joke the Captain had made, and it would have almost fit perfectly! Not that I can imagine Lorca encouraging levity on his Bridge, nor do the crew seem the kind that would spontaneously break out in group expression of amusement (the minor characters still remain but faces with barely a name between them), but I felt the actual ending where Burnham reflects on something positive to close out the final scene, was as true of later, 24th Century Trek that had a feel-good outro of some kind to leave you optimistic and happy.
What kept the episode down was, as I said, an inability to so far really bond with the characters, in the same way that Burnham finds herself apparently accepted as part of the crew, but isn't yet comfortable with the social side of it. It could be argued, on a smaller scale, that as people complained the Maquis in 'Voyager' too quickly integrated, then her acceptance as more than just The Mutineer Michael Burnham hasn't been properly explored and she's gotten through things a little too easily thanks to Lorca's hand over things, quite differently to how her integration looked like it would proceed in the first couple of episodes aboard Discovery. That's where things become a bit sci-fi soap opera, and I half believed I was watching 'Smallville' when that pumping music signified the party she reluctantly attends. It's a statement, the kind of music and attitudes that are on display, and where we used to see an older demographic of high-minded classical music to show that the things that most likely stood the test of time down through the centuries were the purist forms of entertainment, they've specifically chosen to aim younger for their audience and make them feel at home. It's all feeling very 'Battlestar Galactica' reboot to me in both its soldierly impression and its off-duty touches. If the party was weirdly contemporary (and uncomfortably alike to a similar scene in 'Star Trek XI'), they then make the connection that the old, balding villain of the piece is the one to force classical music into the ears of the crew he's torturing, so we've gone full circle from the high-minded pursuits being considered unsuitable for our characters, to actively portraying it with negative connotations, an inverse snobbishness and inability to connect to nobler emotion!
That's an incredibly modern approach for Trek to take, and while every Trek is a product of its time, it managed to also exist outside of it and be real as a future era by the choices it made to hold onto the classier things. They do throw in a little ballroom dancing between Stamets and Burnham, but it's more of an off the wall moment than the seriously fun, letting the hair down, guzzling what we assume is alcohol, mood of the party. Burnham and Tyler's deepening friendship comes into things significantly, and while we've seen such things before, it serves ever more to remind me that Trek is aimed at the teenagers, just as most TV shows and films are, and that I'm increasingly distant from such an age group and its mores, especially in the world today. So it's another aspect that pushes me further out of the picture when Trek was more multi-generational in previous series' and I grew up with an understanding of the need for all these periods in a person's life. So it's strange to find myself in a time when I'm more interested in seeing those middle-aged characters that tended to populate Trek, than the younger ones, something that has set Trek apart in this century as opposed to the approach and style seen in 20th Century produced Trek, beginning with 'Enterprise,' moving to the younger versions of famous characters in the Kelvin Timeline films, and now to 'Discovery.' It suggests that while I may find the occasional episode or scene to my taste or requirements, I'm not going to find what used to appeal to me, even though the ages have inverted - when I was young it didn't occur to me the demographic or age of characters, only that they were older than me and were uniquely qualified to do what they did. It's certainly a strange place to be in, in life when you see what you most enjoy alter so perceptibly.
I digress from the episode, however. If I was to point out the vagaries of time travel then I might suggest that Mudd's 'time crystal' sounded more like something out of 'Dr. Who' than the serious business of Trek, but then 'magic' or a non-consistent approach to storytelling and internal logic, the desire to show off flashy effects work rather than explore ideas intellectually, a much more visceral approach which is more likely to attract the young audience for which this is primarily aimed, would encourage all manner of 'magic' solutions. It's the tone and style, and the presentation of them that decide how easy it is to suspend disbelief, which is why I could accept much of what older Trek ran with, and one reason I have a hard time buying superhero films these days, or most genre fare for that matter. It's made for the mentally lazy generation of the short attention span, and a world of options that mean even the most expensive proposition can be cast off at a moment's notice should it not be deemed a success in the marketplace, and I'm not going to go into railing on social media, mobile phones and all manner of the changes to our social structure that have been affected by instant expression, but I do wonder if Trek even has a place in today's world when there is no censorship, pretty much, and only in terms of what is against the flow and the norm do people censor each other rather than bodies making decisions of content for TV or film, or whatever, where Trek's ability was to address issues hidden within a sci-fi veneer. I can't help but go off at these tangents, such is the thoughts this series brings me to, quite apart from its own intentions, but through comparison and contrast with the giants whose shoulders it lounges atop.
I might also say that Stamets' concern over no more people dying so that he reveals the key component missing from Mudd's gambit, was missing the point of the time loop. As long as he kept Mudd on the merry-go-round no one died because everything could be reset, but if he allowed his own emotional attrition to form his judgement, as he did, that meant those people would stay dead because Mudd would get what he wanted. But Stamets was under a lot of stress and for all his callousness and lack of social grace, a directness borne out of who knows where, he was affected, just as he was already affected by the tardigrade DNA that was part of him, a good use of a piece of previous plotting, for a change, to place him outside of the time loop. I wonder if he's eventually going to become one of those giant pig amoebas, or something? While I'm hovering in the vicinity of issues with the episode I could also bring up the ridiculousness of postponing a mission in wartime to make an effort to save what was essentially a space whale. It's nice to see a space-borne creature, another element of Trek's back catalogue that you'd expect to crop up (just like time travel), for the Trek name to truly bear its fruit, although I wonder if they were throwing in as many traditional Trek elements into this one episode so they could get back to Klingon-bashing in the next. It was ludicrous that they'd have to save something like that during a war, albeit they weren't in immediate peril. At the same time, it's only ludicrous because of the statements of the series to be so much more militaristic - it would fit into 'Voyager,' for example, though there might be more thoughtful discussion of whether they really could fulfil such a directive over a current mission.
You don't get those scenes of the Captain gathering his crew together to work things through, one reason why the 23rd Century seems particularly of interest to those in charge of Trek this century - lest we forget, even Kirk used to have briefings with the command staff around a desk, so it's wrong to suggest 'TOS' was all fistfights and Phaser battles! I suppose there's a cursory nod to such input when Burnham and Tyler are repeatedly summoned to the Bridge in the loops when the Gormagander is discovered, but Lorca is a man of action, not a man of talk. I will say this for him, he didn't show fear in Mudd's offbeat, but dangerous presence, but he's a hard man. He admirably (considering his real status under the pretence he's carrying off), goes about his job of being a Starfleet Captain, even if he deals with the necessary diversion in the most offhand way, having no interest - again, that could be strange since he's amassed such a collection in his menagerie stash which we visit once again, complete with that intriguing Gorn skeleton hanging in its alcove like the Salt Vampire in Trelane's castle on Gothos. They were quite light on references this time, perhaps feeling that Harry Mudd was enough to cover that side of Trek connections they like to play. But I did wonder if the environmental suit he first uses to come aboard was of Andorian design, perhaps a visual clue that those blue skins were going to be featuring soon (I do hope so). At first I thought the helmet was horned, but then the blueness and the impression of antennae arose in my mind…
Another, less obvious influence upon the episode may have been the being known as Q on 'TNG' (and others). Mudd, on leaving Lorca on the Bridge says: "Adieu, mon Capitan!" Just the sort of thing Q used to say to Picard, and I'm sure it was intentional - they've been very careful to throw in these many references wherever possible in what I can only assume is designed to placate the older viewers like me who get it. Well I did, so thank you for that. Now can you just make things a bit more Trek-like in tone as this episode proved was possible by the working together of the crew to solve a problem? I'd still much rather it was a new character rather than Harry, perhaps an associate of Mudd's rather than the man himself, allowing plenty of mentions of the rotund con artiste, just as 'Star Trek Into Darkness' would have been easier to swallow in at least that one aspect if it was a follower of Khan rather than Khan himself. But that's the thing, now that the barriers have been broken down, and they no longer expect to keep the visual continuity clean and consistent, extending also to anyone being allowed to play a previously seen character rather than keeping to the idea that the actor was the character, they don't fail to take the opportunity to get more publicity by playing with the toys that couldn't be played with before for fear of upending the sandbox. That's something major (as seen so potently with Sarek). I don't know why they didn't do 'spinoffs' of characters, or, say, make Tyler a relation of Jose Tyler as was my first leap of logic when the character was announced. But they don't believe in subtlety, it's a different generation, as we saw with the party scene, and so many other scenes in this season.
I even found it mildly disconcerting that the episode doesn't have a teaser, but a few short scenes of recap to remind us of important details, then goes straight into the opening credits. And it remains galling when the Enterprise's fanfare is appropriated for this 'other' ship. And I still find it more than mildly disconcerting that they abandoned the conceit of always showing the episode title, and it means that having such an interesting combination as this one does, is almost a waste not to show it on screen. No doubt if you view it on a streaming service then you pick the episode from its title and thus get it that way, but they could have included it with no trouble or issue. It's tradition, and Trek has always (used to always), be very traditional, that's one of the reasons it's survived so long: by becoming a tradition and leading the pack. These days (these last ten years), it's been a follower, a trend-aper not a setter. It's really only once the dust has settled that you can judge a series objectively. I'm not going to give up, I'll keep watching. Of course I will, how else can I applaud or condemn the latest entry in my favourite franchise? Commenting on it is a way to get it out of the system. I don't see myself accepting it, or even really enjoying it this season, but like Burnham I live in hope that a few episodes and films can't fully strip. I've always said that whatever 'thing' is revived, be it film or TV, if it goes on long enough, will revert back towards it centre point and become more recognisable over time. Look at 'Enterprise' Season 4, that was well worth waiting for. By the time we get a fourth season of 'DSC' maybe I'll be on board for that, too.
**
Tuesday, 5 March 2019
Crusade
DVD, Stargate SG-1 S9 (Crusade)
Very different to how I expected this episode to play out, and for a while I wasn't sure if it was working for me, but it went to some interesting places and was quite accomplished as a forewarning before what should be a spectacular season finale. I really thought, despite its position as penultimate story of the season, that this was going to be some kind of comedic body-swap story from the way it opened: Vala's back, she's pregnant, and… Siler and everyone else at SGC don't seem surprised to see her wandering the halls. That is until you realise that the communication stones so beloved of 'Stargate Universe' are working their magic again and Vala found a way to switch consciousness with Jackson, which makes it pretty funny to begin with as we see him prancing around like a woman. Things become a whole lot more serious and a different direction, there's no Daniel trying to behave like Vala on her side of the stones, and much of the episode is her telling the tale of what happened to her after she was sucked through the Stargate or whatever device it was that zipped her into The Ori galaxy way back near the beginning of the season.
It's not surprising that she should have landed on her feet, becoming known as the lady that fell from the sky and picked up by a crippled follower of The Ori, Tomin, who nurses her back to health and then marries her. So she's got a fairly comfortable situation going as she tries to find a way back, or to communicate with our galaxy, while at the same time being 'blessed' with the equivalent of a virgin birth (if she weren't already a promiscuous type), rather than a pregnancy from her new husband. Whether it was marital bliss or the concern for her situation, she does seem to take to her new role, right up until the nasty village leader brands her a dangerous evil and chains her up in the monument we saw people burn to death upon at the beginning of the season. Michael Ironside (he's in everything), plays Seevis (he almost always plays bad guys), the village leader and man to lay judgement down on her, but things are more complicated than we first suspect. The episode impressed me with Seevis' reveal as not only a staunch member of the resistance, but its leader! It was so easy to believe the cover Seevis had cultivated for himself as this villainous, surly brute, just because of the casting of the role, and I never once questioned it. They really got me when he approaches Vala at the cliff edge where we can see the many starships being built for the followers of The Ori in readiness to strike at our galaxy through force of numbers.
It takes on a disturbing hue as not only is the episode titled 'Crusade,' but that is how The Ori are portraying their evil mission, to convert or die. Although this is all couched in Medieval style of dress, speech and attitude, it still struck me more than ever that they're making a commentary on Islamic extremism, covering themselves by hiding it in what could be seen as 'Christian' overtones of monks and priors and these little European-like villages. That way they can get away with doing such things, it seems. However The Ori are read into, that they are the gravest threat to life in our galaxy is indisputable, and no amount of healing or rhetoric can hide that. At the same time the series is playing with the notion of King Arthur and Camelot, notions quite opposed to the Islamic extremism in our contemporary world, and while I doubt they were going for Arthur and his knights being the British mythological answer to the cries of terrorism, nor the English as the brave defenders of liberty in the world, you can't help but get some of that and it's refreshing that it's not American mythology - except that the nation is too young to have its own mythology, the closest being the Wild West. I'm sure fascinating essays could be written into all this, but I'm just here to judge this episode, and I think it worked well. It shows Vala as doing more than her usual selfish ambitions dictate, and while she performs in order to survive, she also bites her tongue, bides her time, and is surprisingly sensitive and sensible.
Her brave facing of three days without food and water is a testament to there being more than just a space pirate in her makeup, and whether it was survival or not, she never gave up her friend. She jumps right back into the old Vala's ways by lying most convincingly to her husband when he comes to kill Seevis and the other woman, destroying the all-important communications device in the process. Rather than her husband being conveniently killed in the expected sabotage attempt by the resistance that would have taken out all the willing followers that were to leave on the ships, he lives still thinking she's important to the Priors' plans, and giving her a way back to our galaxy as she's decided to go with him. And for all she knows she is important, thanks to this mysterious pregnancy: so good when she asks SG-1 for examples they've ever heard of this happening and Teal'c mentions Darth Vader! - 'Revenge of The Sith' would have been in cinemas around this time, I believe, so it was a timely reference, and great fun!
There's almost as much interest coming from the political machinations of our old 'friend' the Russian General, who basically gives Landry the ultimatum that the Stargate must be returned to Russian hands. It's a great reminder that the current 'gate the SGC uses isn't even their own, and with the real world politics the way they are you really can imagine that the Chinese would back the Russians to run their own programme of operations, with the US condescendingly invited to join as guests, of course! It was a major blow to everything that such a thing came at such a tense moment just before everything's about to go up, but as ever with the Russians it's not as simple as that, Landry able to fathom that what they really want is something else: the 304, as it turns out - they want to be able to boldly go into space, like their American allies, I suppose. It was a real wrench to go into something like this because the consequences could have been enormous! A part of me wishes this had been drawn out a little more as it was certainly a worthy plot development for the series and something I'd never even considered before. But it was typical of the series that it's sorted out quite simply before the end of the episode, not that it takes away from the story in this particular instalment, because this remains a good one thanks to the twists and turns and the gravity of what goes on.
***
Very different to how I expected this episode to play out, and for a while I wasn't sure if it was working for me, but it went to some interesting places and was quite accomplished as a forewarning before what should be a spectacular season finale. I really thought, despite its position as penultimate story of the season, that this was going to be some kind of comedic body-swap story from the way it opened: Vala's back, she's pregnant, and… Siler and everyone else at SGC don't seem surprised to see her wandering the halls. That is until you realise that the communication stones so beloved of 'Stargate Universe' are working their magic again and Vala found a way to switch consciousness with Jackson, which makes it pretty funny to begin with as we see him prancing around like a woman. Things become a whole lot more serious and a different direction, there's no Daniel trying to behave like Vala on her side of the stones, and much of the episode is her telling the tale of what happened to her after she was sucked through the Stargate or whatever device it was that zipped her into The Ori galaxy way back near the beginning of the season.
It's not surprising that she should have landed on her feet, becoming known as the lady that fell from the sky and picked up by a crippled follower of The Ori, Tomin, who nurses her back to health and then marries her. So she's got a fairly comfortable situation going as she tries to find a way back, or to communicate with our galaxy, while at the same time being 'blessed' with the equivalent of a virgin birth (if she weren't already a promiscuous type), rather than a pregnancy from her new husband. Whether it was marital bliss or the concern for her situation, she does seem to take to her new role, right up until the nasty village leader brands her a dangerous evil and chains her up in the monument we saw people burn to death upon at the beginning of the season. Michael Ironside (he's in everything), plays Seevis (he almost always plays bad guys), the village leader and man to lay judgement down on her, but things are more complicated than we first suspect. The episode impressed me with Seevis' reveal as not only a staunch member of the resistance, but its leader! It was so easy to believe the cover Seevis had cultivated for himself as this villainous, surly brute, just because of the casting of the role, and I never once questioned it. They really got me when he approaches Vala at the cliff edge where we can see the many starships being built for the followers of The Ori in readiness to strike at our galaxy through force of numbers.
It takes on a disturbing hue as not only is the episode titled 'Crusade,' but that is how The Ori are portraying their evil mission, to convert or die. Although this is all couched in Medieval style of dress, speech and attitude, it still struck me more than ever that they're making a commentary on Islamic extremism, covering themselves by hiding it in what could be seen as 'Christian' overtones of monks and priors and these little European-like villages. That way they can get away with doing such things, it seems. However The Ori are read into, that they are the gravest threat to life in our galaxy is indisputable, and no amount of healing or rhetoric can hide that. At the same time the series is playing with the notion of King Arthur and Camelot, notions quite opposed to the Islamic extremism in our contemporary world, and while I doubt they were going for Arthur and his knights being the British mythological answer to the cries of terrorism, nor the English as the brave defenders of liberty in the world, you can't help but get some of that and it's refreshing that it's not American mythology - except that the nation is too young to have its own mythology, the closest being the Wild West. I'm sure fascinating essays could be written into all this, but I'm just here to judge this episode, and I think it worked well. It shows Vala as doing more than her usual selfish ambitions dictate, and while she performs in order to survive, she also bites her tongue, bides her time, and is surprisingly sensitive and sensible.
Her brave facing of three days without food and water is a testament to there being more than just a space pirate in her makeup, and whether it was survival or not, she never gave up her friend. She jumps right back into the old Vala's ways by lying most convincingly to her husband when he comes to kill Seevis and the other woman, destroying the all-important communications device in the process. Rather than her husband being conveniently killed in the expected sabotage attempt by the resistance that would have taken out all the willing followers that were to leave on the ships, he lives still thinking she's important to the Priors' plans, and giving her a way back to our galaxy as she's decided to go with him. And for all she knows she is important, thanks to this mysterious pregnancy: so good when she asks SG-1 for examples they've ever heard of this happening and Teal'c mentions Darth Vader! - 'Revenge of The Sith' would have been in cinemas around this time, I believe, so it was a timely reference, and great fun!
There's almost as much interest coming from the political machinations of our old 'friend' the Russian General, who basically gives Landry the ultimatum that the Stargate must be returned to Russian hands. It's a great reminder that the current 'gate the SGC uses isn't even their own, and with the real world politics the way they are you really can imagine that the Chinese would back the Russians to run their own programme of operations, with the US condescendingly invited to join as guests, of course! It was a major blow to everything that such a thing came at such a tense moment just before everything's about to go up, but as ever with the Russians it's not as simple as that, Landry able to fathom that what they really want is something else: the 304, as it turns out - they want to be able to boldly go into space, like their American allies, I suppose. It was a real wrench to go into something like this because the consequences could have been enormous! A part of me wishes this had been drawn out a little more as it was certainly a worthy plot development for the series and something I'd never even considered before. But it was typical of the series that it's sorted out quite simply before the end of the episode, not that it takes away from the story in this particular instalment, because this remains a good one thanks to the twists and turns and the gravity of what goes on.
***
Lethe
DVD, Discovery S1 (Lethe)
Watching this series makes me feel like an oyster, shifting uncomfortably in my seat trying to adjust the discomfiting grit in my gullet. Will it ever coalesce into a pearl? How I want to like it! But I'm increasingly aware that this may as well have been the Kelvin-verse TV series that at one time looked to be the only future of my favourite franchise, for all the care they pay to canon. They want to play in the 'cowboy diplomacy' time period that the 23rd Century came to represent, while at the same time they obviously want the 'TNG' era's technology and complexity - it creates an uneven tone that pulls in both directions and neither sits in the camp of exploring what this moment in history was all about when the Constitution-class ships were out expanding the Federation's knowledge, nor that of an expanded galaxy full of political ramifications and the delights of more advanced devices. Such as the Holodeck. Now I'm sure there are workarounds that could be used to explain how Discovery can have a holographic simulation in which Lorca and his newly appointed Security Chief (remind me what happened to the last one?), try some target practice against lifelike Klingon soldiers. Maybe the simulation is a very basic one and we're just seeing what they see, but in reality they were just hooked up to a device that was allowing their mind to experience it what wasn't actually a fully three-dimensional construct? But it appears on the face of it to be the same kind of Holodeck, right down to the yellow grid pattern when the holographic facade is stripped away, and which was new tech in 'TNG'!
How can you place your series a century before such developments and then throw them away on a training sim that had no bearing on the story and only served to show the bond between Lorca and his fellow escapee, Ash Tyler, from Klingon captivity? If they were more creative they'd have found a way to get that across through some other period specific training - maybe they could have gone rock climbing together, I don't know? It shows a clear disregard for the intentions of Trek's previous creators to make a cohesive and believable historical universe, and instead opts for the approach taken by JJ Abrams and gang, which was to have whatever gimmicks they wanted to impress a modern audience, regardless of whether it fit. It's lazy writing and sorely disappointing for those of us who actually care about the fidelity of this future chronology. And there's no need for it. The Holodeck wasn't the only large grit that was difficult to swallow: Cornwell must be the most unprofessional Admiral in history - not only does she drop everything to run after her friend, Captain Lorca, to meet him personally, but she condescends to drop the chain of command and chat as old mates. Then she spends the night with him, and we learn she used to be a doctor or psychologist of some kind. I wonder if she stopped practicing because she was forced to on account of having extracurricular relations with patients? It's all pretty bad, and Lorca would only have needed to report her actions to a higher authority to discredit her, except that he should have got busted as well.
When you think of Captain Janeway and how professional she was with her First Officer, despite having good reason to suppose she might never return to face any kind of music, and that she could have done with a close companion in her position, we see how different a time we're living in when writers are doing such crazy things at the drop of a hat. Casual and unprofessional, not inspiring or uplifting. But then that's the approach taken by this series: just as they want the tech from future eras, but not the attitudes, they want the Trek name, but not its morals or tone. It's a Trek series for our current age, that's for sure! Which means that it constantly rankles to watch it with the eyes of someone who sees it as (and which the creators claim is), a part of something greater than itself, namely the 'Star Trek' universe. There were possibilities for a truly great story here, with a couple of Klingon Houses said to be disgruntled with Kol's leadership and willing to do anything to undermine him, even stooping to peace overtures with the Federation. Then there's the whole Vulcan side of things, with a group of 'logic extremists' attempting to take out Sarek on his way to meet with these Klingons. And of course the flashbacks to Burnham's refusal into the Vulcan Expeditionary Force.
That last one had never been heard of before, but that's okay, we are supposed to be learning new things, so that's good. And it was nice to finally meet Amanda Grayson, Sarek's human wife and Mother of Spock whom was set to play an integral role in the season when it was under Bryan Fuller's direction. I'm not so sure she'll still figure as prominently, but there was nothing I could fault her appearance for, thankfully - she behaved as you'd expect from the brief times we had with her in 'TOS' and the films, speaking up for the human side of things and being encouraging to her ward, Michael. And all that was nicely done, pleasant, fitting uniforms and a graceful, beautiful setting, the Vulcan gongs and IDICs reminding us that for some reason, while the makers of this series love to do as they will, especially with visual canon, they sometimes wish to adhere to established continuity and cultural styles, even down to the 'musical notes' characters of Vulcan written language. It only serves to make other choices more head-scratching. Imagine if they'd put the same amount of concern into the Starfleet and Klingon look? This could have been a great series with the money they were throwing around (even if, like all Trek before it, they're not above reusing sets to amortise the budget, this time the holo-simulation of the Klingon prison the excuse), but they needed some old voices to keep things shipshape across the board and it suffers without the steady hands of the Okudas, Doug Drexler, Larry Nemecek…
Even the Vulcan portrayal still hews to the emotional more than I care for. Not since Tuvok have we seen a 'proper' Vulcan, emotionless, stoic and cool. 'Enterprise' botched the whole thing and set a precedent for everything since, but this is supposed to be just ten years before 'TOS' when the few Vulcans we saw were very Vulcan - even Spock, 'only' half Vulcan was so very Vulcan most of the time. James Frain chooses to speak as if he's in constant discomfort, his facial features betraying every little emotional change like he's in a palsy of indecision. I will grant that he's not at his best in this episode, suffering, near to death, and in those scenes when he displays anger, irritation or frustration at Burnham's presence in his mind, I buy it, it's fine, but these uncharacteristic moments would have had so much impact if we'd seen him play Sarek as Sarek had always been played before: I think of the incredible performance of Mark Lenard in 'TNG' when we see him coping with a condition of old age, losing his strong control and mask-like impassivity to a roiling of emotions. This Sarek is only a few notches below that on a good day! Even when we see scenes of what he did the day of Burnham's rejection to the VEF, he can't portray the Vulcan way, he has to emote and it's distressing to see. Sarek was such a cool character and they've really failed to bring him off successfully. They don't even have the excuse they used on 'Enterprise' that it's a hundred years before the Vulcans we know in 'TOS' so they might be different (ignoring the two century lifespans of the race in the process!), because as has been trumpeted for their USP, this series is but ten years before 'TOS'!
I did wonder if the title referred to a 'TOS' character, a woman who was a mental patient in 'Dagger of The Mind,' and how were they going to work this lady in? I also had the faintest of hopes they were going to bring in some Letheans, one of my favourite of the minor races - I didn't really think that, but it would have been fun! In reality it's a reference from Greek Mythology, so they're trying to be literary and intelligent, they just come across as guttersnipes rolling around down there while glancing into a bookshop's window and seeing something notable that bears repeating. I can't express how low an opinion I'm continually feeling for this series, because even if it had been averagely written, but had adhered to the precepts and the reality of past Trek, had carried the torch, then I would find something commendable in it. But while this episode was marginally more palatable than the previous one, it's still more frustrating and irritating and disappointing more than anything else, and far from making me hopeful about all the other Trek projects coming down the pipeline I keep getting a deep sinking feeling as if that which I enjoy most is no longer wanted or respected or desired in today's world.
What did I actually like or enjoy amidst all the chaotic wrenching of my insides? As I said, I appreciated the detail and integrity of the Vulcan culture - while the shuttle that Sarek uses to go to Cancri IV was disappointing in that it didn't have that beautiful ring ship quality seen by their vessels in 'Enterprise,' this is a century later so they would look different, and there was the impression of the ring design within that. Cadet Tilly was less annoying and actually had some positive scenes, and even Stamets was in a good mood for a change, enthused and upbeat. We have what I believe is the first mention of the Constitution-class Enterprise, as well as Sarek's son, Spock. I'm not sure, but 'Yridia' would probably be home to the Yridians (which were known even in 'Enterprise' as they had one appearance). The food slots looked like those on 'TOS.' And I love it whenever Burnham acts Vulcan. Vulcans bombing or being renegades is an established thing and a surprisingly common one in Trek history as there logic can sometimes lead them up the garden path, so that makes sense, although ironically I'd have to agree with the failed assassin to some degree when he claims Vulcans are superior to human, because they just are, and I sometimes wonder if it's human writers' way of subconsciously getting back some of that ground by making Vulcans out to be so petty or whatever negative emotional response they can fashion! There were probably other planets that were mentioned, but I really couldn't concentrate on the unfolding of the universe when so many things were upsetting me. It's like Admiral Cornwell said about Lorca, he's not the man she knew - that's how I'm feeling about this series, it's not the Trek I knew, as much as I try to accept it into the fold.
**
Watching this series makes me feel like an oyster, shifting uncomfortably in my seat trying to adjust the discomfiting grit in my gullet. Will it ever coalesce into a pearl? How I want to like it! But I'm increasingly aware that this may as well have been the Kelvin-verse TV series that at one time looked to be the only future of my favourite franchise, for all the care they pay to canon. They want to play in the 'cowboy diplomacy' time period that the 23rd Century came to represent, while at the same time they obviously want the 'TNG' era's technology and complexity - it creates an uneven tone that pulls in both directions and neither sits in the camp of exploring what this moment in history was all about when the Constitution-class ships were out expanding the Federation's knowledge, nor that of an expanded galaxy full of political ramifications and the delights of more advanced devices. Such as the Holodeck. Now I'm sure there are workarounds that could be used to explain how Discovery can have a holographic simulation in which Lorca and his newly appointed Security Chief (remind me what happened to the last one?), try some target practice against lifelike Klingon soldiers. Maybe the simulation is a very basic one and we're just seeing what they see, but in reality they were just hooked up to a device that was allowing their mind to experience it what wasn't actually a fully three-dimensional construct? But it appears on the face of it to be the same kind of Holodeck, right down to the yellow grid pattern when the holographic facade is stripped away, and which was new tech in 'TNG'!
How can you place your series a century before such developments and then throw them away on a training sim that had no bearing on the story and only served to show the bond between Lorca and his fellow escapee, Ash Tyler, from Klingon captivity? If they were more creative they'd have found a way to get that across through some other period specific training - maybe they could have gone rock climbing together, I don't know? It shows a clear disregard for the intentions of Trek's previous creators to make a cohesive and believable historical universe, and instead opts for the approach taken by JJ Abrams and gang, which was to have whatever gimmicks they wanted to impress a modern audience, regardless of whether it fit. It's lazy writing and sorely disappointing for those of us who actually care about the fidelity of this future chronology. And there's no need for it. The Holodeck wasn't the only large grit that was difficult to swallow: Cornwell must be the most unprofessional Admiral in history - not only does she drop everything to run after her friend, Captain Lorca, to meet him personally, but she condescends to drop the chain of command and chat as old mates. Then she spends the night with him, and we learn she used to be a doctor or psychologist of some kind. I wonder if she stopped practicing because she was forced to on account of having extracurricular relations with patients? It's all pretty bad, and Lorca would only have needed to report her actions to a higher authority to discredit her, except that he should have got busted as well.
When you think of Captain Janeway and how professional she was with her First Officer, despite having good reason to suppose she might never return to face any kind of music, and that she could have done with a close companion in her position, we see how different a time we're living in when writers are doing such crazy things at the drop of a hat. Casual and unprofessional, not inspiring or uplifting. But then that's the approach taken by this series: just as they want the tech from future eras, but not the attitudes, they want the Trek name, but not its morals or tone. It's a Trek series for our current age, that's for sure! Which means that it constantly rankles to watch it with the eyes of someone who sees it as (and which the creators claim is), a part of something greater than itself, namely the 'Star Trek' universe. There were possibilities for a truly great story here, with a couple of Klingon Houses said to be disgruntled with Kol's leadership and willing to do anything to undermine him, even stooping to peace overtures with the Federation. Then there's the whole Vulcan side of things, with a group of 'logic extremists' attempting to take out Sarek on his way to meet with these Klingons. And of course the flashbacks to Burnham's refusal into the Vulcan Expeditionary Force.
That last one had never been heard of before, but that's okay, we are supposed to be learning new things, so that's good. And it was nice to finally meet Amanda Grayson, Sarek's human wife and Mother of Spock whom was set to play an integral role in the season when it was under Bryan Fuller's direction. I'm not so sure she'll still figure as prominently, but there was nothing I could fault her appearance for, thankfully - she behaved as you'd expect from the brief times we had with her in 'TOS' and the films, speaking up for the human side of things and being encouraging to her ward, Michael. And all that was nicely done, pleasant, fitting uniforms and a graceful, beautiful setting, the Vulcan gongs and IDICs reminding us that for some reason, while the makers of this series love to do as they will, especially with visual canon, they sometimes wish to adhere to established continuity and cultural styles, even down to the 'musical notes' characters of Vulcan written language. It only serves to make other choices more head-scratching. Imagine if they'd put the same amount of concern into the Starfleet and Klingon look? This could have been a great series with the money they were throwing around (even if, like all Trek before it, they're not above reusing sets to amortise the budget, this time the holo-simulation of the Klingon prison the excuse), but they needed some old voices to keep things shipshape across the board and it suffers without the steady hands of the Okudas, Doug Drexler, Larry Nemecek…
Even the Vulcan portrayal still hews to the emotional more than I care for. Not since Tuvok have we seen a 'proper' Vulcan, emotionless, stoic and cool. 'Enterprise' botched the whole thing and set a precedent for everything since, but this is supposed to be just ten years before 'TOS' when the few Vulcans we saw were very Vulcan - even Spock, 'only' half Vulcan was so very Vulcan most of the time. James Frain chooses to speak as if he's in constant discomfort, his facial features betraying every little emotional change like he's in a palsy of indecision. I will grant that he's not at his best in this episode, suffering, near to death, and in those scenes when he displays anger, irritation or frustration at Burnham's presence in his mind, I buy it, it's fine, but these uncharacteristic moments would have had so much impact if we'd seen him play Sarek as Sarek had always been played before: I think of the incredible performance of Mark Lenard in 'TNG' when we see him coping with a condition of old age, losing his strong control and mask-like impassivity to a roiling of emotions. This Sarek is only a few notches below that on a good day! Even when we see scenes of what he did the day of Burnham's rejection to the VEF, he can't portray the Vulcan way, he has to emote and it's distressing to see. Sarek was such a cool character and they've really failed to bring him off successfully. They don't even have the excuse they used on 'Enterprise' that it's a hundred years before the Vulcans we know in 'TOS' so they might be different (ignoring the two century lifespans of the race in the process!), because as has been trumpeted for their USP, this series is but ten years before 'TOS'!
I did wonder if the title referred to a 'TOS' character, a woman who was a mental patient in 'Dagger of The Mind,' and how were they going to work this lady in? I also had the faintest of hopes they were going to bring in some Letheans, one of my favourite of the minor races - I didn't really think that, but it would have been fun! In reality it's a reference from Greek Mythology, so they're trying to be literary and intelligent, they just come across as guttersnipes rolling around down there while glancing into a bookshop's window and seeing something notable that bears repeating. I can't express how low an opinion I'm continually feeling for this series, because even if it had been averagely written, but had adhered to the precepts and the reality of past Trek, had carried the torch, then I would find something commendable in it. But while this episode was marginally more palatable than the previous one, it's still more frustrating and irritating and disappointing more than anything else, and far from making me hopeful about all the other Trek projects coming down the pipeline I keep getting a deep sinking feeling as if that which I enjoy most is no longer wanted or respected or desired in today's world.
What did I actually like or enjoy amidst all the chaotic wrenching of my insides? As I said, I appreciated the detail and integrity of the Vulcan culture - while the shuttle that Sarek uses to go to Cancri IV was disappointing in that it didn't have that beautiful ring ship quality seen by their vessels in 'Enterprise,' this is a century later so they would look different, and there was the impression of the ring design within that. Cadet Tilly was less annoying and actually had some positive scenes, and even Stamets was in a good mood for a change, enthused and upbeat. We have what I believe is the first mention of the Constitution-class Enterprise, as well as Sarek's son, Spock. I'm not sure, but 'Yridia' would probably be home to the Yridians (which were known even in 'Enterprise' as they had one appearance). The food slots looked like those on 'TOS.' And I love it whenever Burnham acts Vulcan. Vulcans bombing or being renegades is an established thing and a surprisingly common one in Trek history as there logic can sometimes lead them up the garden path, so that makes sense, although ironically I'd have to agree with the failed assassin to some degree when he claims Vulcans are superior to human, because they just are, and I sometimes wonder if it's human writers' way of subconsciously getting back some of that ground by making Vulcans out to be so petty or whatever negative emotional response they can fashion! There were probably other planets that were mentioned, but I really couldn't concentrate on the unfolding of the universe when so many things were upsetting me. It's like Admiral Cornwell said about Lorca, he's not the man she knew - that's how I'm feeling about this series, it's not the Trek I knew, as much as I try to accept it into the fold.
**
The Final Countdown
DVD, The Champions (The Final Countdown) (2)
They did love Nazi villains on this series ('The Survivors,' 'The Search,' 'The Mission'), as well as last minute defusing of atomic bombs ('Happening,' 'The Dark Island,' and probably others I've forgotten!), but then you have to remember when the series was made: the late 1960s was well within living memory of both the Second World War and its devastating atomic conclusion, not to mention a tension of living under the Cold War between East and West, the latent threat of nuclear attack wiping out half the world at any moment. It's not surprising that there were so many films and TV series' that dealt with that public worry head-on in a fantasy setting, a sort of catharsis to make it less real perhaps. The psychology of choice of villains at different periods of TV history would make an essay in itself, but Air Marshal Von Splitz and his gang weren't the best thought out examples - after twenty-five years in a Russian prison he's finally been released, is tailed by the intelligence services and then promptly disappears. He was of the Luftwaffe High Command, head of The Special Operations and, we discover, has knowledge of a last ditch attempt to turn the tide of the war by dropping an atomic bomb in a V4 rocket, the payload of which was lost when the Heinkel plane carrying it had to be abandoned by the German air crew when it was shot down by a Royal Airforce Spitfire. It didn't go off so now he wants it back so he can win the last battle of the war!
You can tell that there was a thought that Nazi forces were still at large in the new Germany just waiting for the right time to strike, with Von Splitz' associate, Dr. Neimann saying the explosion will act as a signal to their compatriots to rise up. It plays on the idea that not every soldier loyal to the Nazis was routed out and put on trial, and I suppose from their hindsight of both World Wars it seemed highly possible that Germany could rise a third time to strike back at the world, but it shows that simple hindsight isn't always the best pointer for what will happen - many other factors would have had to be considered, not just the events of the Wars. But it was an easy sell to a Sixties TV audience and it gives our champions an evil to face. And the Marshal is an evil man, as are his stone-faced henchmen and Herr Doktor in the half-moon specs. You can imagine him being the type to carry out experiments at concentration camps, and the men have a dangerous atmosphere around them as if violence is only a single word of command away. They're the typical Nazi soldier: cruel, cold and belligerent. We see the contrast between them and other Germans that had moved on after the war, with Flight Lieutenant Wolf Eisen, in charge of the mission to drop that bomb, and his navigator, Gerhardt Schultz, both seeming normal. The first has a daughter and is still active in the service, and shows courage in his demands to know what's going on from his kidnappers, while the second is a genial host at Unterberg Farm in Weltzbach, a town near Frankfurt.
When Von Splitz decides Eisen knows too much, he orders him dealt with, and similarly, when they've got all the information they can coax out of Schultz that the bomb must have fallen into a lake near Helmstadt, playing on his goodwill, saying they're from the government tasked with finding the bomb before the casing corrodes, people's lives at risk, they promptly and mercilessly shoot him in his own house, his wife has time to see it and scream in terror before she, too, is murdered in cold blood! They don't stint on the violence in this particular episode, as they'd done a few times before on the series - the shot of the failed experimental superhuman from 'The Experiment,' writhing in agony when he's shot in camera, springs to mind. Craig is tied to a chair and punched in the face, slapped in the face and chopped on the back of the neck by either Kruger or Heiden, and it's all right there, the camera fairly close in so you see every jolt and snap of his head. In that case it doesn't make quite as much impact because he just bounces back up like rubber, his superior endurance allowing him to mock his brutal captor whose knuckles feel the wear more than Craig's face! There's also a right royal rumble in the staircase room (again! - as soon as I saw how it was laid out with all those tables covered in sheets, I knew there was going to be a big fight), with Craig and Richard taking on the Marshal and all his men rather effectively.
There was plenty of action, but also a fair amount of detective work, and while I could have wished for more Sharron in the episode, and more of the trio working in the same vicinity, we do get that by the end and it's good to see them all off adding to the data they need to work out what's going on. As Craig sums up so deadpan after Tremayne's opening briefing, they don't know where Von Splitz is, they think he might have a secret, but they don't know what it is, and it's all rather bemusing. That changes once it becomes known that an atomic bomb is the object of the villain's intentions. The locales are once again more than just England, although Sharron and Richard do pay a visit there to meet Tom Brooks, the pilot who originally shot down the plane carrying the bomb, and which he realises through that action he effectively won the war singlehanded! The main place of action is Germany as the Air Marshal's gang track down the bomb, eventually finding it underwater in what was excellent use of stock footage. Indeed, the use of stock was rather accomplished as I sometimes found myself wondering what had been filmed for the series and what was already existing footage they'd retrieved. The biggest source of this was the murder attempt of Eisen, left unconscious in a car, then rolled down a hill. Just as in the opening to 'Mission: Impossible 2' when the pilot of a plane comes to just in time to see a closeup view of an onrushing mountain, Eisen awakes to the horror of flying over a cliff, the car smashing and rolling. The way the scenes of the car being sent on its way are cut with the actual flinging of a car over the edge after it had raced down this steep hill, genuinely made me wonder if they'd filmed it themselves, and I couldn't tell if it was a scale model or a real car the way it had been shot, though the DVD booklet gave away its origins as reuse from 'The Baron.'
If I'd seen that series then no doubt it would have taken away from this episode to realise they'd only reused it, but it was new to me and it looked very dramatic and intense! The lake seen in this episode appeared suspiciously similar to that in 'The Survivors,' so it wasn't surprising to learn that the former episode had actually been the previous episode shot and that, again according to the handy DVD booklet, they had combined location shooting on both episodes. So it really was the same lake, although I thought some of the scenes on the shore looked as if they'd been created in an elaborate 'greens' set (in other words, getting all the plants and trees in to make it look like a natural environment), with all this fake smoke to create atmosphere, but which only served to make it look like a smoke machine had belched out, or someone had lit a massive cigar nearby that had filled the area! The underwater filming of the bomb and divers around it was also something that looked very specific, though it didn't fit quite right with what they were saying about having to free it, as the scene shows a diver cutting into the casing or welding something to it rather than setting it free from anything.
As well as getting back to a slightly more international feel, another thing that improves the episode is the way Tremayne is integrated with the unfolding events, coordinating his agents and other parties via the telephone at his desk, in his best telephone voice. Sometimes you do get the impression of a one-sided conversation and that he had to do the script without someone responding, but he does it so well and it's just good to have the old guy involved when in too many episodes he's had only one scene of briefing or a humorous tag at the end of a story. It was a real wasted opportunity not to have him in on the action more often as they did in a handful of episodes, his presence always adds to scenes. Strangely, the frequent time in an episode when he puzzles over some piece of good fortune his agents have had, or some unexplained discrepancy in time or reasonable expectations, comes in the middle of the episode: he quizzes Richard on how he was able to get the required information about the bomb out of the dying Eisen, who'd been found and was lying in a hospital bed wrapped up in bandages. All the other people that had tried to get the vital knowledge out of him hadn't been able to, but somehow Richard had, and– oh, they've gone… It was both funny and useful as a reminder that Tremayne, though he may have called a truce after 'The Interrogation' and seemed more open to letting his agents have their little 'games' without questioning them, still held suspicions on how they could achieve the seemingly impossible at worst, improbable at best, feats they carry out on a regular basis!
That Eisen is said to have died shortly after telling Richard the necessary information only puts an added tension on the danger of Von Splitz' plan - men have died to stop this. And it looks like more might do so, including our champions who have only twenty-five minutes in which to defuse this sensitive old bomb that Dr. Neimann has set to go off. I'm not sure the plan had that much merit: it seems to be as simple as setting the bomb off as a signal to Nazi forces still waiting to seize power, but I'm not sure what blowing up and irradiating a section of the country would do! Shock the nation and the world, I'm sure, but I have to wonder if Von Splitz was really just another insane man intent on revenge. He may have planned it all out meticulously in the years of his internment, but thinking about this one thing may have made his mind crack, especially as he seems to be living out an impossible fantasy, aided by his men who similarly have been unable to let the loss of the war go and move on with their lives. If Von Splitz' plan shows a lack of imagination I have multiple examples of the episode itself being full of odd details or mistakes as if Von Splitz had written it himself: maybe it was all a dream he was having in prison?
Look at Schultz' dead wife on the floor and you can see she's lying on some kind of blanket or rug arranged perfectly for her head, yet we didn't see her fall so neatly and certainly the murderers didn't give her any arrangement. In real terms it would have been to give the actress some comfort for her head to lie on. I've often pointed out the painted look of the backdrops they use to represent the great outdoors from internal sets, but the one you see through the narrow door at the Unterberg farm was very good… Until the villains all troop out and cast their shadows on it as they pass, somewhat shattering the illusion of distant hills! Then there's the post credits sequence which features a snowy landscape where children find a small unexploded missile just underneath the surface of the snow! Which means it would have just been lying on the ground… Tremayne himself does an impression of Super Mario, saying that "…As far as the intelligence service was-a concerned…" It was obviously Anthony Nicholls stumbling slightly in his memory of what he was saying, and it's only a small slip, but preserved for posterity forever. Another slip was actually my hearing as I thought his secretary, speaking on the intercom, said: "Yes, dear," and "Right, dear," but it was actually 'sir' said in a slightly heavy accent! The back projection used for some of the car scenes were definitely at fault: you can see a bright greenery to the grass and plants behind Craig as he drives to Frankfurt, but when we see the external view there are the remains of snow about, and it's gloomy.
There's also the moment when the Air Marshal returns to his large country house with Craig as prisoner (what, you mean one of the champions got captured?), and when they enter into the staircase room through the main doors you can see a backdrop for the outside with its blue sky, but above the door, just under the arch, you can see the set only goes so far and from the low camera angle a sliver of 'sky' can be seen! Also, when Craig and Richard make their finely synchronised leap through the glass windows into the room where Neimann is priming the bomb, you can see it's a couple of stunt men before it cuts to the actual actors fighting inside. And the episode ends with Richard tasting some of the syrup in the grease gun, offering it to his fellow champions, who all lick their finger - I wouldn't be doing that out of a grease gun that had just been emptied of a full cartridge of grease! Another thing is that it seems like most of the villains in the series prefer exactly the same wallpaper and room layout in their houses, but I guess that's just Sixties conformist design (nothing to do with them being the same sets, oh no!).
Something the episode gets right is including opportunities for the champions' abilities and powers to be used in the story, making them essential to the success of different stages of the mission, whereas in a few recent episodes they may as well just have been ordinary agents or spies, with no special advantage about them. As ever, the post credits scene is a good place to start as Richard is shovelling snow like a madman in his efforts to extricate a Land Rover from the deep snow. It's not that he seems particularly super when he notices the child banging (typical), the newly found missile against something, but he must have been some distance away, so to recognise what this unlikely item was, then cover the ground so quickly and hurl the explosive so far away, is a good demonstration of reaction time, speed and visual acuity - plus I love that we see him protect the child, huddled on the ground, while in-camera behind them the explosion erupts spectacularly! They probably filmed the sequence at the same time as the episode because you can see snow on the ground at other times during the story, too. It's a fun scene with all these children having great enjoyment of the snow, though I assume it was dubbed later as the voices don't sound quite right. I'm not sure whether the next power was Richard reading Eisen's lips or it was his sensitive hearing that could pick up the inaudible whispers of the dying patient, but it worked either way.
Richard has another loss of control while driving, which we've seen before, because of the sudden impression of Craig's pain as he's beaten while tied to a chair. It's not clear if Sharron senses it too, since he tells her they're really working Craig over, when more often it tended to be she that felt others' pain. Fortunately, Craig can take all the beatings the Marshal's man can administer, and once he's been left alone, presumed unconscious, he quickly gets up off the floor and crushes the chair he's attached to against the wall until it falls apart, then proceeds to snap the ropes keeping his hands behind his back. Earlier, Craig had been able to use his sensitivities in the investigation, running a finger over the notebook from which Von Splitz' man stole Schultz' address, and able to read the slight indentations left behind like Braille. Richard and Craig talk to each other in their special way when the former comes to rescue the latter - one interesting and more humorous use of this power comes when Sharron joins Richard and upon asking if he found Craig, Craig's disembodied voice replies: "He found me," butting in from a distance, though the line reading was a bit off because he emphasises the 'He,' when that's what Sharron asked! The fight in the staircase room when the two men take on all of the Marshal's gang, was well choreographed, but it's noteworthy for a couple of signature moves: firstly, Craig and Richard do their combined kicking in of the door to the room, and during the fight Craig seems to move with lightning speed across the room to grab one of the men who's taking up position with a gun on the stairs, then does the usual head over heels throw to chuck him over the bannister and onto a table.
I suppose the daring leap through glass windows could also be counted among their abilities, though any spy worth their syrup would do the same, unless it's Sharron - they keep her out of harm's way again and even instruct her to get out of the blast radius because they're not sure if they can prevent the detonation, though she refuses and chooses to stay to whatever end. Sir Charles Dyson is the man from Aldermaston who's an expert with such devices (it was fun to hear of somewhere not far from where I live), and gets on the phone to talk them through the defusing process, but with phone lines unreliable they end up having to rely on Craig's knowledge. It's great to hear something else about his life, that he had an uncle in a bomb disposal unit during the war (best line of the episode goes to Richard: "You should have brought him with you"), and they sometimes used a magnet to stop the timing mechanism on bombs, or if that was unavailable, liquid sugar, hence pumping the device with syrup. As a famous starship engineer once said, 'the more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to gum up the works,' or something to that effect! It's a happy ending, and fortunate the champions managed to prevent the blast since they had two more episodes still to fulfil on their contracts.
A lot of characters show up in this episode and there's a whole raft of speaking roles that don't get credited, surprisingly. At the top of the list would probably be Sir Charles, the bomb expert, since he has important input, even if he was cut off before he could do much. There's also the female doctor looking after Eisen, Detective Schneider who was with Eisen when Richard visited, and a German cyclist Craig asks for directions to the farm. Schultz' wife does little more than a dramatic scream, but at least she's on screen - Tremayne's secretary and the phone operator were both speaking roles only. And though the two main henchmen of Von Splitz were named as Kruger and Heiden, there was at least one more who had a visible role, pushing the car containing Eisen off on its merry way. Interestingly, the actor who played Neimann was called Wolf Frees, so maybe they got the idea for Eisen's first name from him? As I said, it's nice to have Tremayne remain a part of the story throughout, and this time, although there's no tag scene in his office, the defusing of the bomb was enough to round the episode out as it wasn't a quick scene unlike so many episodes that concluded so abruptly. We get to see some nice views of his office again, especially the far corner near the window when he walks under the window behind his desk to pour a drink, as well as the screen on the other side of the world map being used to show black and white film footage again during the briefing. Scenes of Von Splitz were cleverly mixed in with what appeared real filming from the time to give his historical role reality. It was also nice to see Craig and Richard using the office into the evening as you can see by the dark sky through the blinds.
Why not give this three stars, then? I still don't think it's really a good episode, in spite of strong moments of action, well integrated powers and more Tremayne, plus the greater impression of other countries than just Britain. I felt it could have been a lot better, as 'The Survivors' was, but we don't really get a good sense of a plan from Von Splitz and he doesn't seem like a man of rationality, nor an interestingly irrational one. He was a bit of a boring villain, if truth be told, his men doing all the dirty work while he just proudly strutted around, and neither was Dr. Neimann explored enough to make us feel great disgust for him. The characterisations were pretty light and if it hadn't been for the mostly silent presence of the henchmen I don't think the group's threat would have been very strong. With them there was a sense of brutality just itching to do something to someone. They could have used Anna, Eisen's daughter, better, but she didn't have much to do. The story was getting there, and certainly a change for the better compared with the last few episodes: one of the better not so good ones is how I'd sum it all up. I can't believe there's only two to go!
**
They did love Nazi villains on this series ('The Survivors,' 'The Search,' 'The Mission'), as well as last minute defusing of atomic bombs ('Happening,' 'The Dark Island,' and probably others I've forgotten!), but then you have to remember when the series was made: the late 1960s was well within living memory of both the Second World War and its devastating atomic conclusion, not to mention a tension of living under the Cold War between East and West, the latent threat of nuclear attack wiping out half the world at any moment. It's not surprising that there were so many films and TV series' that dealt with that public worry head-on in a fantasy setting, a sort of catharsis to make it less real perhaps. The psychology of choice of villains at different periods of TV history would make an essay in itself, but Air Marshal Von Splitz and his gang weren't the best thought out examples - after twenty-five years in a Russian prison he's finally been released, is tailed by the intelligence services and then promptly disappears. He was of the Luftwaffe High Command, head of The Special Operations and, we discover, has knowledge of a last ditch attempt to turn the tide of the war by dropping an atomic bomb in a V4 rocket, the payload of which was lost when the Heinkel plane carrying it had to be abandoned by the German air crew when it was shot down by a Royal Airforce Spitfire. It didn't go off so now he wants it back so he can win the last battle of the war!
You can tell that there was a thought that Nazi forces were still at large in the new Germany just waiting for the right time to strike, with Von Splitz' associate, Dr. Neimann saying the explosion will act as a signal to their compatriots to rise up. It plays on the idea that not every soldier loyal to the Nazis was routed out and put on trial, and I suppose from their hindsight of both World Wars it seemed highly possible that Germany could rise a third time to strike back at the world, but it shows that simple hindsight isn't always the best pointer for what will happen - many other factors would have had to be considered, not just the events of the Wars. But it was an easy sell to a Sixties TV audience and it gives our champions an evil to face. And the Marshal is an evil man, as are his stone-faced henchmen and Herr Doktor in the half-moon specs. You can imagine him being the type to carry out experiments at concentration camps, and the men have a dangerous atmosphere around them as if violence is only a single word of command away. They're the typical Nazi soldier: cruel, cold and belligerent. We see the contrast between them and other Germans that had moved on after the war, with Flight Lieutenant Wolf Eisen, in charge of the mission to drop that bomb, and his navigator, Gerhardt Schultz, both seeming normal. The first has a daughter and is still active in the service, and shows courage in his demands to know what's going on from his kidnappers, while the second is a genial host at Unterberg Farm in Weltzbach, a town near Frankfurt.
When Von Splitz decides Eisen knows too much, he orders him dealt with, and similarly, when they've got all the information they can coax out of Schultz that the bomb must have fallen into a lake near Helmstadt, playing on his goodwill, saying they're from the government tasked with finding the bomb before the casing corrodes, people's lives at risk, they promptly and mercilessly shoot him in his own house, his wife has time to see it and scream in terror before she, too, is murdered in cold blood! They don't stint on the violence in this particular episode, as they'd done a few times before on the series - the shot of the failed experimental superhuman from 'The Experiment,' writhing in agony when he's shot in camera, springs to mind. Craig is tied to a chair and punched in the face, slapped in the face and chopped on the back of the neck by either Kruger or Heiden, and it's all right there, the camera fairly close in so you see every jolt and snap of his head. In that case it doesn't make quite as much impact because he just bounces back up like rubber, his superior endurance allowing him to mock his brutal captor whose knuckles feel the wear more than Craig's face! There's also a right royal rumble in the staircase room (again! - as soon as I saw how it was laid out with all those tables covered in sheets, I knew there was going to be a big fight), with Craig and Richard taking on the Marshal and all his men rather effectively.
There was plenty of action, but also a fair amount of detective work, and while I could have wished for more Sharron in the episode, and more of the trio working in the same vicinity, we do get that by the end and it's good to see them all off adding to the data they need to work out what's going on. As Craig sums up so deadpan after Tremayne's opening briefing, they don't know where Von Splitz is, they think he might have a secret, but they don't know what it is, and it's all rather bemusing. That changes once it becomes known that an atomic bomb is the object of the villain's intentions. The locales are once again more than just England, although Sharron and Richard do pay a visit there to meet Tom Brooks, the pilot who originally shot down the plane carrying the bomb, and which he realises through that action he effectively won the war singlehanded! The main place of action is Germany as the Air Marshal's gang track down the bomb, eventually finding it underwater in what was excellent use of stock footage. Indeed, the use of stock was rather accomplished as I sometimes found myself wondering what had been filmed for the series and what was already existing footage they'd retrieved. The biggest source of this was the murder attempt of Eisen, left unconscious in a car, then rolled down a hill. Just as in the opening to 'Mission: Impossible 2' when the pilot of a plane comes to just in time to see a closeup view of an onrushing mountain, Eisen awakes to the horror of flying over a cliff, the car smashing and rolling. The way the scenes of the car being sent on its way are cut with the actual flinging of a car over the edge after it had raced down this steep hill, genuinely made me wonder if they'd filmed it themselves, and I couldn't tell if it was a scale model or a real car the way it had been shot, though the DVD booklet gave away its origins as reuse from 'The Baron.'
If I'd seen that series then no doubt it would have taken away from this episode to realise they'd only reused it, but it was new to me and it looked very dramatic and intense! The lake seen in this episode appeared suspiciously similar to that in 'The Survivors,' so it wasn't surprising to learn that the former episode had actually been the previous episode shot and that, again according to the handy DVD booklet, they had combined location shooting on both episodes. So it really was the same lake, although I thought some of the scenes on the shore looked as if they'd been created in an elaborate 'greens' set (in other words, getting all the plants and trees in to make it look like a natural environment), with all this fake smoke to create atmosphere, but which only served to make it look like a smoke machine had belched out, or someone had lit a massive cigar nearby that had filled the area! The underwater filming of the bomb and divers around it was also something that looked very specific, though it didn't fit quite right with what they were saying about having to free it, as the scene shows a diver cutting into the casing or welding something to it rather than setting it free from anything.
As well as getting back to a slightly more international feel, another thing that improves the episode is the way Tremayne is integrated with the unfolding events, coordinating his agents and other parties via the telephone at his desk, in his best telephone voice. Sometimes you do get the impression of a one-sided conversation and that he had to do the script without someone responding, but he does it so well and it's just good to have the old guy involved when in too many episodes he's had only one scene of briefing or a humorous tag at the end of a story. It was a real wasted opportunity not to have him in on the action more often as they did in a handful of episodes, his presence always adds to scenes. Strangely, the frequent time in an episode when he puzzles over some piece of good fortune his agents have had, or some unexplained discrepancy in time or reasonable expectations, comes in the middle of the episode: he quizzes Richard on how he was able to get the required information about the bomb out of the dying Eisen, who'd been found and was lying in a hospital bed wrapped up in bandages. All the other people that had tried to get the vital knowledge out of him hadn't been able to, but somehow Richard had, and– oh, they've gone… It was both funny and useful as a reminder that Tremayne, though he may have called a truce after 'The Interrogation' and seemed more open to letting his agents have their little 'games' without questioning them, still held suspicions on how they could achieve the seemingly impossible at worst, improbable at best, feats they carry out on a regular basis!
That Eisen is said to have died shortly after telling Richard the necessary information only puts an added tension on the danger of Von Splitz' plan - men have died to stop this. And it looks like more might do so, including our champions who have only twenty-five minutes in which to defuse this sensitive old bomb that Dr. Neimann has set to go off. I'm not sure the plan had that much merit: it seems to be as simple as setting the bomb off as a signal to Nazi forces still waiting to seize power, but I'm not sure what blowing up and irradiating a section of the country would do! Shock the nation and the world, I'm sure, but I have to wonder if Von Splitz was really just another insane man intent on revenge. He may have planned it all out meticulously in the years of his internment, but thinking about this one thing may have made his mind crack, especially as he seems to be living out an impossible fantasy, aided by his men who similarly have been unable to let the loss of the war go and move on with their lives. If Von Splitz' plan shows a lack of imagination I have multiple examples of the episode itself being full of odd details or mistakes as if Von Splitz had written it himself: maybe it was all a dream he was having in prison?
Look at Schultz' dead wife on the floor and you can see she's lying on some kind of blanket or rug arranged perfectly for her head, yet we didn't see her fall so neatly and certainly the murderers didn't give her any arrangement. In real terms it would have been to give the actress some comfort for her head to lie on. I've often pointed out the painted look of the backdrops they use to represent the great outdoors from internal sets, but the one you see through the narrow door at the Unterberg farm was very good… Until the villains all troop out and cast their shadows on it as they pass, somewhat shattering the illusion of distant hills! Then there's the post credits sequence which features a snowy landscape where children find a small unexploded missile just underneath the surface of the snow! Which means it would have just been lying on the ground… Tremayne himself does an impression of Super Mario, saying that "…As far as the intelligence service was-a concerned…" It was obviously Anthony Nicholls stumbling slightly in his memory of what he was saying, and it's only a small slip, but preserved for posterity forever. Another slip was actually my hearing as I thought his secretary, speaking on the intercom, said: "Yes, dear," and "Right, dear," but it was actually 'sir' said in a slightly heavy accent! The back projection used for some of the car scenes were definitely at fault: you can see a bright greenery to the grass and plants behind Craig as he drives to Frankfurt, but when we see the external view there are the remains of snow about, and it's gloomy.
There's also the moment when the Air Marshal returns to his large country house with Craig as prisoner (what, you mean one of the champions got captured?), and when they enter into the staircase room through the main doors you can see a backdrop for the outside with its blue sky, but above the door, just under the arch, you can see the set only goes so far and from the low camera angle a sliver of 'sky' can be seen! Also, when Craig and Richard make their finely synchronised leap through the glass windows into the room where Neimann is priming the bomb, you can see it's a couple of stunt men before it cuts to the actual actors fighting inside. And the episode ends with Richard tasting some of the syrup in the grease gun, offering it to his fellow champions, who all lick their finger - I wouldn't be doing that out of a grease gun that had just been emptied of a full cartridge of grease! Another thing is that it seems like most of the villains in the series prefer exactly the same wallpaper and room layout in their houses, but I guess that's just Sixties conformist design (nothing to do with them being the same sets, oh no!).
Something the episode gets right is including opportunities for the champions' abilities and powers to be used in the story, making them essential to the success of different stages of the mission, whereas in a few recent episodes they may as well just have been ordinary agents or spies, with no special advantage about them. As ever, the post credits scene is a good place to start as Richard is shovelling snow like a madman in his efforts to extricate a Land Rover from the deep snow. It's not that he seems particularly super when he notices the child banging (typical), the newly found missile against something, but he must have been some distance away, so to recognise what this unlikely item was, then cover the ground so quickly and hurl the explosive so far away, is a good demonstration of reaction time, speed and visual acuity - plus I love that we see him protect the child, huddled on the ground, while in-camera behind them the explosion erupts spectacularly! They probably filmed the sequence at the same time as the episode because you can see snow on the ground at other times during the story, too. It's a fun scene with all these children having great enjoyment of the snow, though I assume it was dubbed later as the voices don't sound quite right. I'm not sure whether the next power was Richard reading Eisen's lips or it was his sensitive hearing that could pick up the inaudible whispers of the dying patient, but it worked either way.
Richard has another loss of control while driving, which we've seen before, because of the sudden impression of Craig's pain as he's beaten while tied to a chair. It's not clear if Sharron senses it too, since he tells her they're really working Craig over, when more often it tended to be she that felt others' pain. Fortunately, Craig can take all the beatings the Marshal's man can administer, and once he's been left alone, presumed unconscious, he quickly gets up off the floor and crushes the chair he's attached to against the wall until it falls apart, then proceeds to snap the ropes keeping his hands behind his back. Earlier, Craig had been able to use his sensitivities in the investigation, running a finger over the notebook from which Von Splitz' man stole Schultz' address, and able to read the slight indentations left behind like Braille. Richard and Craig talk to each other in their special way when the former comes to rescue the latter - one interesting and more humorous use of this power comes when Sharron joins Richard and upon asking if he found Craig, Craig's disembodied voice replies: "He found me," butting in from a distance, though the line reading was a bit off because he emphasises the 'He,' when that's what Sharron asked! The fight in the staircase room when the two men take on all of the Marshal's gang, was well choreographed, but it's noteworthy for a couple of signature moves: firstly, Craig and Richard do their combined kicking in of the door to the room, and during the fight Craig seems to move with lightning speed across the room to grab one of the men who's taking up position with a gun on the stairs, then does the usual head over heels throw to chuck him over the bannister and onto a table.
I suppose the daring leap through glass windows could also be counted among their abilities, though any spy worth their syrup would do the same, unless it's Sharron - they keep her out of harm's way again and even instruct her to get out of the blast radius because they're not sure if they can prevent the detonation, though she refuses and chooses to stay to whatever end. Sir Charles Dyson is the man from Aldermaston who's an expert with such devices (it was fun to hear of somewhere not far from where I live), and gets on the phone to talk them through the defusing process, but with phone lines unreliable they end up having to rely on Craig's knowledge. It's great to hear something else about his life, that he had an uncle in a bomb disposal unit during the war (best line of the episode goes to Richard: "You should have brought him with you"), and they sometimes used a magnet to stop the timing mechanism on bombs, or if that was unavailable, liquid sugar, hence pumping the device with syrup. As a famous starship engineer once said, 'the more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to gum up the works,' or something to that effect! It's a happy ending, and fortunate the champions managed to prevent the blast since they had two more episodes still to fulfil on their contracts.
A lot of characters show up in this episode and there's a whole raft of speaking roles that don't get credited, surprisingly. At the top of the list would probably be Sir Charles, the bomb expert, since he has important input, even if he was cut off before he could do much. There's also the female doctor looking after Eisen, Detective Schneider who was with Eisen when Richard visited, and a German cyclist Craig asks for directions to the farm. Schultz' wife does little more than a dramatic scream, but at least she's on screen - Tremayne's secretary and the phone operator were both speaking roles only. And though the two main henchmen of Von Splitz were named as Kruger and Heiden, there was at least one more who had a visible role, pushing the car containing Eisen off on its merry way. Interestingly, the actor who played Neimann was called Wolf Frees, so maybe they got the idea for Eisen's first name from him? As I said, it's nice to have Tremayne remain a part of the story throughout, and this time, although there's no tag scene in his office, the defusing of the bomb was enough to round the episode out as it wasn't a quick scene unlike so many episodes that concluded so abruptly. We get to see some nice views of his office again, especially the far corner near the window when he walks under the window behind his desk to pour a drink, as well as the screen on the other side of the world map being used to show black and white film footage again during the briefing. Scenes of Von Splitz were cleverly mixed in with what appeared real filming from the time to give his historical role reality. It was also nice to see Craig and Richard using the office into the evening as you can see by the dark sky through the blinds.
Why not give this three stars, then? I still don't think it's really a good episode, in spite of strong moments of action, well integrated powers and more Tremayne, plus the greater impression of other countries than just Britain. I felt it could have been a lot better, as 'The Survivors' was, but we don't really get a good sense of a plan from Von Splitz and he doesn't seem like a man of rationality, nor an interestingly irrational one. He was a bit of a boring villain, if truth be told, his men doing all the dirty work while he just proudly strutted around, and neither was Dr. Neimann explored enough to make us feel great disgust for him. The characterisations were pretty light and if it hadn't been for the mostly silent presence of the henchmen I don't think the group's threat would have been very strong. With them there was a sense of brutality just itching to do something to someone. They could have used Anna, Eisen's daughter, better, but she didn't have much to do. The story was getting there, and certainly a change for the better compared with the last few episodes: one of the better not so good ones is how I'd sum it all up. I can't believe there's only two to go!
**
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