Lifeline

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S4 (Lifeline)

I did fear for Weir. And my worst fear was realised. Or was it? It was clear she was going to sacrifice herself in some way to save the team, but they made it more uncomfortable with the fact that we don't actually see her die, they leave her dangling (not literally), as an unresolved plot thread. While that does give me hope that she's not out of the game yet, and it's almost certain from this that she'll make some kind of comeback, I don't want to get my hopes up only for some episode where they mount a rescue only to see her actual death. In some ways it might have been better to go the whole hog and do her in rather than keep us in suspense. But maybe they still had plans for her, and we know that characters from 'Stargate' generally reappear, whether they're main cast or recurring. For all I know this season could be a blip where the actress was ill or wanted to go off and do something else for a year and then come back for the final season. It's unlikely, I'll admit, but I'm not sure I can see Carter (now promoted to a full colonel, whatever that means), being part of the cast across two seasons after she'd just come off ten seasons of 'SG-1.' But that's the fun of not knowing what's going to happen, you can speculate and wonder until you do know.

What I know about this episode is that it didn't quite engage me as the season opener did. A large part of that was the sense of inevitability over Weir being taken out of the game, whether that be permanent or temporary, and so I didn't really enjoy it. It was also a little bit of a letdown when it came to the big heist to steal a ZPM from the Replicator homeworld, which amounted to little more than Sheppard and Ronon running down a few Atlantis stock corridors and doing computer stuff at a terminal. The word 'heist' conjures up all kinds of clever twists and turns (and I don't mean turning left or right in a corridor!), perhaps my expectations were set too high? And then when it's all gone smoothly and they get greedy and decide to risk uploading a command to the Replicators to go to war with The Wraith, I just felt that was poor decision-making. They should have rejoiced the plan went as well as it did, they'd got the ZPM and they hadn't had to activate the 'kill switch' on Weir to stop her from being taken over (why didn't they try to do it once they were on their way out, or did Rodney say it wasn't working?), quit while you're ahead! Instead, like gamblers they took success as an opportunity to go for an even bigger stake, and in doing so they sacrificed Weir. I didn't feel like there was even that much concern about it, as if this was what they'd been expecting all along!

I don't like over-emotive acting, the kind you see so much in TV now (especially the modern Treks), but I do like to feel some kind of loss or sadness emanating from a character's portrayal of keeping it just below the surface. I wouldn't criticise the acting, but I didn't get much from the characters. Maybe that was because they're mostly military, or it could be that the nature of Weir being taken from them meant there was ambiguity as to her fate, but there was some essential connection missing. The closest we come was Teyla packing Weir's belongings away, which in itself seemed a bit soon, as if they'd given up, no plan for a rescue mission, just 'she's lost and now we're going to need a new boss for Atlantis' (whoever could that be…?). The whole episode came across as a means to an end, rather than a tense, exciting series of developments in themselves, and that's a real shame after all the good work last season and in the opener. Not that there was no good character stuff: I felt Sheppard explaining his reason for leaving Teyla to guard and guide the city was very true to both characters, especially her - she would make an excellent leader if all went pear-shaped, and it was a privilege to be entrusted with it. At the same time it does come across once again as she's the one who gets least to do now, mainly thanks to Ronon taking her role in operations. You don't really need two alien warriors in these things, and that's sad.

I was a bit uncertain about certain parts of the episode, mainly the Replicators themselves. They come across as this franchise's Borg: unstoppable, uncompromising, deadly and completely alien (well served by David Ogden Stiers' return as Oberoth, with his understated, almost blank way of playing the leader). The idea of the shield that stops them in their tracks, but that they gradually adapt to (although that may have only happened in the simulation in Oberoth's mind), was very Borg, even the way Weir confronts them and sacrifices herself to save her 'ship' smacked of Janeway in the 'Voyager' finale. The word 'assimilation' even came up at one point! And when we see Weir finally overcome by the Borg, sorry, the Replicators, and they close in as the camera pulls back, it had the same feel of being pulled into a pit. But why do they exist in humanoid form, I'm used to seeing them as the impersonal Meccano sets clunking and rattling around that was used so much on 'SG-1'? Perhaps I forgot a line of dialogue which explained their penchant for human form in a previous episode. And the homeworld of the Replicators - I thought that meant THE Homeworld, but with Oberoth there it seemed as if it was just the Replicator planet they'd been to before.

Like the last episode, it was fun to have Carter and Dr. Lee doing stuff together again, and I was really hoping he would end up working with McKay and Zelenka, and he does sort of, at the end, but he just makes some clever remark about terminology and doesn't actually contribute anything. But then that's always been the joke about Lee - he's actually a bit incompetent and isn't one of these amazing brain-boxes like McKay or Carter that can solve all kinds of science riddles, he's just a useful assistant. Looking at all the pieces laid out side by side as I've gone through them in this review, it doesn't add up to much, but I'm not saying it was a bad episode, far from it, more that the season opener set the bar at a goodly level and they've already dipped a touch. The real quandary was whether it was worth risking one woman's life to force Replicators into confrontation with Wraith, but this series doesn't generally explore issues, it tends to focus on the action and razzmatazz. It may prove fortuitous that they had this opportunity and took it, but I'd prefer to think it was better to have got out of there with Weir fully intact. Sure, it was a good motivation narratively speaking, that she's only going to have this level of access to the Replicators this one time because if they tried it again they'd know about the previous attempt, and it was a big, juicy carrot, but at the same time it wasn't the be-all and end-all. Rodney could have found a way to do it in future, I have faith in him. So now I'm mixed - I didn't want Weir to leave, but do I want her to come back as recurring? But they're settled on a new planet now, soon to have a new boss, so I'll see where the story takes me.

**

Blaze of Glory

DVD, BUGS S3 (Blaze of Glory)

The title could easily refer to the triumphant return of the series to TV and the way it had reinvented itself. While the sci-fi elements (or perhaps it was the arc), hadn't been generally as well received as the first season's slightly more real-world style and completely episodic structure, they knew they had at least one more shot as two years of the series had been guaranteed just from the reaction to the first episode, showing just how strong the concept was and the faith the BBC had in it. I don't remember that original Saturday night that I sat down and enjoyed my first ever 'BUGS' season opener, but it was something special to me as I'd never got in on the ground floor before, having missed the entirety of Season 1 and only coming aboard Season 2 in the third episode, so this had been the first time I was anticipating the series and it didn't disappoint. I personally loved the sci-fi nature of the stories and the creeping chill of a big bad manipulating things from his prison cell, but in those days I didn't really know about preferences, I was simply glad to see more of the series. On the face of it, giving the characters home lives and romantic interests wasn't to my taste, but when I returned to the series when the DVDs came out in the mid-2000s I recognised it as the next logical step to develop the series: you need to have more continuity and connections so the world becomes more than a champagne bottle that's shaken about, fizzed up and the cork pops out, then an entirely new bottle is picked up next week - a slightly different flavour, but no relation to the discarded bottles that came before.

With Season 3 they chose not to abandon the idea of arc-based storytelling, and wisely so, but at the same time they went with a completely different approach - rather than the villain being the focus, it was our characters and their lives. It seems obvious today, but don't forget that the kind of ITC dramas from the Sixties and Seventies which 'BUGS' was trying to update to the Nineties, didn't have much character growth, if any, designed as they were to be watched in any order, dipped in and out of, and not necessarily made for the dedicated viewer. At the opposite extreme would be the soap operas that had gradually gained traction on a certain portion of the viewing public (and from which our three leads had migrated), and we were getting to the point where drama and sci-fi were realising they could deal in ongoing stories and build a loyalty in the way the soaps had done, while still having a foot in the episodic camp so as to be able to explore an idea. It's the best of both worlds, far more attractive to me than the complete serialisation of modern series' which often seem like bite-size chunks of plots rather than fully rounded or fleshed out stories. Made for binging rather than thoughtful cogitation. And I'm not saying 'BUGS' was particularly thoughtful, but it does throw up questions and ideas here and there, though its main objective was light entertainment thrills. We were only going to love the characters more if we were allowed to see beyond their immediate friendships, however, so it was the right choice.

The season begins with quite a shocking tone, perhaps carrying over from the major events of Season 2 in which we were threatened with a devastating AI takeover of humans, not just our civilisation, but our very minds, bodies and wills, too! We saw death and revival, we saw subterfuge and deception, and through it all we saw the great bond between our trio. That bond was about to be tested in new ways that we hadn't seen before: the three were about to become five, and not only that, their bond was to be interfered with by outside connections. I like to joke about it, but it's true nonetheless: Beckett had his money worries, Ros had sudden financial security and a boyfriend, and Ed… well, he got an earring! I don't know why the Australian was always the least to be developed, maybe there was some kind of bias because Ros and Beckett are English on an English TV show, or perhaps it was an attempt to keep one of them more mysterious. We'd find out a little about him later in the season (specifically in 'Buried Treasure'), but the man with no (sur)name remained largely an unknown. Was this one reason why Craig McLachlan reportedly wanted to leave? Or was it a ploy to increase his leverage on the series? I don't know, but I imagine he was the sort that always wanted to try his hand at a multitude of projects so perhaps being tied to a series for several months, three years in a row, was too much for him?

McLachlan would eventually leave before his time, sadly, spelling the death knell for the series which would limp along without him in Season 4, but at some point, I don't know whether they were actually into production or if it was during the scripting stage, he changed his mind about leaving immediately and the story was altered in consequence. Many of us have wondered at what point he would have been written out, whether it could have been right at the beginning with the motorbike crash, or in Part 2, which also has suitable moments to kill him off, but the most likely scenario is that scene at the end of this episode where he drives villainess Kitty McHaig's Battle Wagon away from his friends because it has a bomb counting down inside. In the event he has to type a code to defuse it and can't find the 'e' on the keyboard, bailing out at the last second, but still close enough to the blast to sustain serious injuries. It would certainly have given the series a different slant if Ros and Beckett were mourning the loss of their comrade (as we'd see in a different angle at the start of Season 4), especially regarding what happens to Kitty in Part 2, but it was far better for the series that Ed remained a central part of it. I have to say it would have been a really disappointing way for him to bow out simply from the fact the sequence wasn't one of the more exciting of the series - this lumbering vehicle trundles away down a dark tunnel. I don't know how they could have made it more dramatic or shot it to be higher paced, but other than the fact of Ed's daring and care for his friends, it isn't one of the stronger moments.

It's interesting that this opening episode has far less of the action quotient compared to the average episode before. Part of it is due to a lot of setup for the whole direction of the season, but it's also because more time is given over to character work. It provides a different change of pace and works as a transition story from what our team had been to what they would be, and no surprises, Stephen Gallagher was the man given the task. It's not just that he was the best writer on the series, he also seemed to care about the 'mythology' of it, keeping track of the details that had been previously established and pleasingly reiterating them to make the series so much more than knockabout action scenes (something that really came home to me seeing it on DVD). The biggest impact on the series had been The Bureau of Weapons Technology so it was fitting that it should become so integral to the ongoing series. Before all that, however, we're reminded of the fate of Roland Blatty and it's confirmed his entire staff were wiped out, either dead or comatose, setting up the terrific revival to come at the end of the season. Just as fascinating is getting some history added to this organisation as the weapons dump full of nerve agents and assorted nasties (we'd already seen that these dumps had been unwisely located in the city from 'Newton's Run'), was closed up by the order of The Bureau of Weapons as far back as 29 September 1953.

It's great to have such detail added to the series and gives it a scope beyond the idea of it being slightly in the future. Now it also has a past, just as Beckett's past would occasionally come up - in fact it does so again. While DOIC (Director of Intelligence Coordination) Jan doesn't mention The Hive by name (more's the pity), she does allude to Beckett's time working for the government and he says 'once you're out, you're out.' It was never explained why he wasn't allowed to come back to The Hive, but we can assume it was do with failing to protect SACROS, and anyway, he didn't seem too happy there and he's been much more content working with Ros under Gizmos. Or was that ever what it was called? It never gets a mention and it would come into play in only another year when someone else was running a Gizmos so it seems most likely that their business had developed into something else - perhaps with Season 2 they rebranded and discarded the old name and likeness, but it's never been clear what exactly their business is, other than the fact they work together as a trio and have various clients, plus usually work out of one location. It's sad that the red-walled apartment of Season 2 is gone, but in reality it would have been a set. I've no idea if they chose to break it down rather than store it (especially when you consider they knew they'd be coming back for at least one more year), or whether they wanted to freshen the series up visually as well as narratively.

The new Gizmos (as we really shouldn't call it), is actually Ros' new apartment, bought from the proceeds of success in a new business venture with Channing Hardy ("Never trust a man in a bow-tie" - a reference to Charlesworth from 'Hot Metal'?), who saw the potential in the Henderson designs and offered her a deal she couldn't refuse. I like that Gallagher provides reasoning for why she'd never marketed her gadgets before, and it's incredibly true to the character: she's never been asked before. In other words she really hadn't thought about it because money isn't her driving force. She reiterates that trait when she tells Beckett not to be impressed, she's not. It's tough for him because he's just gone bankrupt after foolishly trusting his ex-girlfriend (the one he 'nearly married'), and ending up being guarantor for a debt. This is all so far removed from the somewhat surreal tone of Season 2 that it's almost harder to take in: real world problems? Process servers? Money matters? Okay, so maybe it's not that far from the series' remit, they have dealt with banks a number of times, but it's never been this personal before. In the past they were only risking their lives, now it's their livelihoods, too! It was tough on poor Beckett, but it will get him to the point where he understand himself better in relation to Ros. Beckett and Ed are the same cheeky chappies as ever, but it's lovely to see Ros go back to the much more unreserved version of herself from Season 1. I don't know if she was told to be more contained for Season 2, and the shackles are off now, but something's definitely changed.

The style and panache introduced in Season 2 is still much in evidence. As well as Ros' attractive new apartment with its in-built pillar fish tank and pleasant natural light streaming in (it really feels like an apartment, though it could just as easily be another set, and is more likely to be), the team continue to dress in classy outfits to continue the visual representation of their success in the business (or to keep up appearances in Beckett's case) - Ros has a red top under grey trouser suit, Ed carries off a smart jacket over a lime green top, and Beckett sports a purple shirt and tie under a waistcoat, so the colourful nature of the visuals that helped maintain an appealing colour palette continues. In contrast to them we see the destruction art of villain-of-the-week Kitty McHaig, who expresses her bitterness at the way her Father treated she and her twin brother, Chris, through twisted sculptures and fire. Calling her exhibition 'Art War' she's actually quite intelligent and up on the technological industry - she's heard of Ros Henderson, for example, and even cites her as a possible source of the sabotage device our team find (which looked a lot like a spark plug!). You can see a lot of satire or commentary going on in this episode, with Kitty representing the view that art comes from troubled people and is bought by fools. Or even the cliche of her brother asking why she can't paint a nice picture - art must be negative and stems from a tortured soul. At the same time she's stringing her buying public along knowing they'll swallow whatever she gives them, a large element of truth in there.

The construction industry is also criticised as a powerful force that is only interested in money, and the time it takes to make the money. Andrew McHaig, owner of McHaig construction is this big, bullish unstoppable force who follows the rules only so far as he avoids paying out penalties, but is tough enough to take action whenever it's needed - you sense he expects the same from those who work under him. But it's more complex than that, he may be painted in a villainous light, but he's also responsible for these big projects and it's the attitude of big business to Get Things Done. That he hasn't treated his children right (even at his son's funeral he keeps his mobile phone with him and takes a call), is as much from their perspective, and on them as it is on him, but as we'll learn in Part 2, he's had his own problems and throwing himself into his work has always been the solution and reaped the rewards. Already there's far more going on with these characters than most 'BUGS' guests so you can see a concerted effort being made to build more dimension, not just to the series, but to the characters, too. Even how the season opens is different - we see nothing of our main cast when last season opener they were front and centre, right in the midst of action. Instead the audience is made to wait and anticipate a bit longer. And it's a stark opening as we see Chris commit suicide. That's quite a dramatic turn for such a fun TV series to lead with, but it shows the intent, they're not playing games here.

Interestingly they chose to stick with the same title sequence which still only contains images from Season 1 (something that always intrigued me about the series since I'd never seen any of those episodes, and every week I'd be tantalised about a lost past that I may never see!). That would change by necessity for Season 4, but either they felt people needed to be reassured this was the same 'BUGS' they remembered, or it cost too much to change up some of the clips used, so it remained the same. In fairness it was a superb choice of imagery and music so you wouldn't want it altered too much! I like the way we're introduced to each of our trio in different ways, involved in various things, so we're immediately aware they have lives outside the team. I wondered at first if Ed's testing of a high performance bike was to earn a bit of extra dough on the side, but later he says he was helping out a couple of mates. It's good to reiterate his love of bikes because it wasn't a trait used as much last season as it was in the first. I do wonder where he was limping off to as he does his John Wayne impression (that was funny!), as he seems to be heading towards empty fields and track! Obviously the setup of him injuring himself was originally planned for the story, partly as a reason he couldn't just escape the bomb in the Airport Link Tunnel where McHaig is working, but also as a preparation for his death when Beckett warns him one day he won't walk away from one of those stunts, which would have had much more resonance if that original plan had gone ahead.

Beckett himself has his own concerns as we see him go into financial meltdown, but he's a proud man and carries on with life as well as he can. It's fortunate in a way that he's presented with this huge problem of the weapons dump to take his mind off his personal life, and he doesn't lose his sense of purpose or sit around feeling sorry for himself, nor does he give up on his loyalty to the business and team when Jan tries to entice him away with a job offer. It struck me, could Jan have been responsible for engineering his money worries? Could she have somehow made sure the recording studio of Amanda Courtney's boyfriend went under solely to gain a hold over Beckett? Surely she wouldn't be that manipulative? Amanda didn't seem that nasty, either, though a touch bitter, when we saw her at the start of Season 2. We would come to respect Jan mightily, but at this stage of the season she's a complete unknown quantity. If she's this Director of Intelligence what department does she command - is she the boss of The Hive, SSD and Bureau, some kind of oversight to them, or completely unconnected? I don't think it was ever spelt out, other than Alex Jordan (who is only known as a very low grade filing clerk in this episode!), being enticed to help Beckett because it will be one in the eye for her boss, who seems to be quite dismissive toward her. It's all quite amusing and mysterious, but like a lot of things in the series it wouldn't be answered and we're left to speculate.

I do love that Beckett's first thought upon his bank account being frozen is that Ros is playing a trick on him, because we can believe she'd have the technical nous to do such a thing, even if it seems unlikely she'd go that far just to wind him up. Ed maybe, but that's another story… As badly as things have gone for Beckett, Ros' life is the mirror image - suddenly flush with wealth and opportunity, but it seems she's most concerned with ploughing it into the business. And she's still concerned about the little details, like saying she doesn't like the colour of the credit card-sized camera that's making all the money. Was the fact it was yellow a deliberate reference to her old faithful yellow car that she'd used for almost all of Seasons 1 and 2 and would never be seen again? Did she go off that colour and that's why she got rid of the car (since it never exploded or got crushed like most of her vehicles!). Was it to make room for Channing's gift of a new car that would be coming soon? Or am I, as a fanatic, reading too much into one single line of dialogue? One question I did have was who she was talking to on the phone when she's contacted about the tunnel issue - whoever's speaking to her isn't either Ed or Beckett because she asks this person to keep trying Beckett and she'll call Ed. Does she have a secretarial service? Is it McHaig? That wouldn't seem to fit as why would the client be ringing round for her. One of those little mysteries we'd never know.

One of the most fascinating things about the episode is being able to see the aftermath of what happened to The Bureau of Weapons. It's sad to see it reduced to a pile of physical files and boxes, and some cages of computing equipment, all overseen by this one file clerk. What was she even doing? Going through and filing it all away or waiting for the department to be started up again? The contrast is strongest when we see this little cardboard sign taped to a door, about as far as you can get from the stylish, technological design of the series, this broken down empty office used for dumping all the data in one place. What about their facilities, we know they had at least one testing site and now they're reduced to this? There's some fine symmetry with the first ever episode, 'Out of The Hive,' when Beckett and Ed met by the former getting the latter in a headlock (even though Ed was supposed to be a martial arts expert!), only this time it's the unassuming little frizzy-haired, glasses-wearing file clerk who sorts Beckett out! Again, it could be a deliberate thematic reference back or pure coincidence, but immediately Alex becomes this intriguing character, having already gained a measure of viewer sympathy by being on Beckett's side against Jan when he goes to CORA for the vital records. You do wonder why the government or some department therein isn't immediately all over the McHaig site, but then I think they covered that by saying he was keeping it internal as he didn't want work stopped, which is why he called in our team in the first place.

It's that outsider's mentality that Jan feels could be so useful in her position - people can trust the team where they might not be so quick to call in the authorities, and they've built up a good reputation for themselves which is another example of the series showing things have developed. The episode is full of uncertainty, whether it be the true nature of characters like McHaig, Kitty, Jan and Alex, or the various situations our main people find themselves in. At the same time it's still a pretty satisfying story insofar as the first part of a two-part episode can be. We get to the point where Kitty's villainy is apparent and deadly and I love the rivalry between Ros and her. Just as Beckett is immediately wary around Channing, distrusting him, his motives, and displaying a little jealous, too, Ros doesn't like the quick bond that's sprung up between Ed and Kitty and is full of disapproval for her. It's good writing, and the direction (other than the big action scene at the end), complements it. It may be a cliche to have Ed and Kitty's eyes lock across a crowded room at her exhibition, seeing each other through flames (just like the later 'Mission: Impossible 2' - fitting, since in the episode she does her Tom Cruise impression hanging down behind the JCB!), but it's not the kind of flare 'BUGS' generally went for, they were usually more about explosions and cameras gliding across anonymous office buildings.

There aren't a lot of gadgets in the episode, the most advanced being the one we only glimpse (Ros' card camera), but there is some heavyweight hardware to make up for it: the JCB transporting the warhead; Kitty's Battle Wagon; the 'overpack container' used to safely store the bomb. Everything is suitably big and imposing, whether that be the vehicles or the amount of people. Gone are the visions of empty streets from Technopolis, we're back to the real world and there are people all over the place. It's also notable that things take place in daylight when Season 2 was so full of dark scenes where the cast's breath could be clearly seen! I wonder if this was a stipulation of the actors, that they were tired of working in freezing, dark conditions. Or was it more to do with visual and thematic tones, as Season 1 was much more like this episode: bright, sunny and full of as many naturalistic locations and environments as shiny, modern 'BUGS' buildings. It's clear they've gone for this style on purpose, it's no accident. I love Season 2, it probably has to be the best for me, but 3 is very close to it in quality. It has the advantage of further advances in TV production, it looks a little better, technology has come a little further and I think I've probably looked forward to reviewing this season more than any of the others. It continues what would be a tradition beginning with Season 2, opening on a two-parter, it deals with the series' established history and characters while setting up new ones, and Gallagher makes it look so easy. Such a shame he couldn't stay for Season 4 or the series may have lasted a lot longer than it did…

Some last little trivia: Beckett could potentially have dated the episode as he asks for information on a Bureau operation from forty years ago (so we're in 1993? Nah, probably just being general). And how did he know Roland's old passcode? He also places the series in the definite location of London when often they'd appeared to try and be vague about time and exact location. There was a bit of a gaffe about the Bureau of Weapons, since in 'Assassins Inc' Ros claimed it was new, and here we see it's been going since the Fifties! Unless Roland had revived a long dormant department. There's no excuse, either, since Gallagher was responsible for the earlier story, too! And while the series looked so new and fresh it remains true to its own running jokes, such as Ed always having something inappropriate to say, or someone commenting on Ros' driving (Ed in both cases this time). Was Chris' line ("I've got to go now"), a sly reference to the suicides of Cyberax, since they said the same sort of thing, only adding there's something they had to do. I wouldn't be surprised. And then it all ends on neither a jolly laugh or a creeping chill, but instead has a new angle: Beckett is uncomfortably about to answer why Jan believes the team are working for her now, and the others don't look too happy with him. Roll on the next episode!

***

Adrift

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S4 (Adrift)

In the absence of good 'Star Trek' these days this fills the gap nicely. Who knows if the series will be able to live up to the consistency of Season 3, at the moment I don't care, all I care about are the immediate and continual problems our intrepid team on Atlantis are facing: this is 'Stargate' done as a disaster film and it carries you along. Before I get into that, however, there's an elephant in the room, or rather a Colonel not in the city: Samantha Carter. I have to admit I was stupidly spoiled on her addition to the 'Atlantis' cast by recently looking up the Companion books that came out to accompany the series back in the day and happened to see the cast photo on the front of the Season 4 edition. I was thrilled and overjoyed to see Carter part of the group, as unexpected as it was delightful, and I can only imagine how pleased I'd have been to see her face and Amanda Tapping's name come up in the opening credits without any prior warning, because as it was I still felt a warm glow - I wasn't a hundred percent sure that she'd be part of the series as a fully paid up main cast member, she could just as easily have had a recurring guest role and they simply decided to include her in the photo, but confirming her, at least for this season, was brilliant!

It makes absolute sense to bring over a character from the concluded 'SG-1,' and while I'd never considered who I'd most like to see, she'd definitely be up there, as much as I knew that most of the main 'SG-1' cast showed up in the 'Atlantis' sequel, 'Universe' (which I watched before this). I was so happy to see her as a proper part of this series that I forgot to see if there were any other cast changes in the opening credits, so it was with a heavy heart that I suddenly wondered if I'd missed Dr. Weir coming up, and then Torri Higginson's name appeared in the guest credits and my heart sank: they giveth and they taketh away. I was so hoping that Carter would simply be an addition rather than a replacement, especially as Beckett had been written out last season. And especially with the fact that Carter and Weir knew each other since she took over as the boss of the SGC for a short period when General Hammond left, I really wanted to see them work together again. I can only imagine it must be a money issue that they only had so much to spend on the cast and Tapping was likely to command a large portion of that so maybe they had to lose someone? This is why I really need the Companion books to find out this production history, because although it happened so long ago, it's news to me!

For the rest of the episode I was wondering if Weir would even wake up, so it certainly helped to create tension, though far from the positive kind I prefer (I'm not one of these people that enjoys thinking anyone could die at any moment, I don't think that's good writing - hence why Beckett's demise was so shocking and dramatic, since it was so well written and unexpected). What it did give us were two or three lovely scenes with some weight to them to counter the reliance on physical problems and give the episode a bit of heart. Surprisingly, Ronon was responsible for the most touching moment as he comes in to the comatose Weir's hospital bed and simply thanks her for allowing him to join her team. He didn't say much but it was all that was needed. Then we have the words you'd almost never expect to hear coming from the arrogant McKay's mouth: "I'm sorry," after he's disobeyed Sheppard's specific instructions not to activate Weir's Replicator nanites that remain in her body from before, even to save her life, because it will put the city at such great risk. And then there's Teyla who has such joy on her face when she talks to the newly woken Weir.

The conflict between Sheppard and McKay, well it wasn't really a conflict, more the usual bickering between them, where McKay knows so much more, but Sheppard is the man in charge and needs to be the one making the big decisions and it was a fascinating situation because it's not even that McKay has this rush of power because of the situation he's in, it's purely what he thinks is possible and what is in all their best interests throughout the multitude of problems he and Zelenka are largely responsible for fixing. He was right (so far), in doing what he did, even against Sheppard explicitly telling him not to, because it does save Weir. But I suspect it will come back to bite them in the next episode which is set up as a heist for much-needed ZPMs in the stronghold of the Replicator homeworld - I predict, sadly, that Weir will either become a threat because of the nanites in her which will somehow alert the Replicators, or, and perhaps also, she'll sacrifice herself to save them all. That's the kind of thing she'd do. I don't know what this means for the future leadership of Atlantis, whether Carter will become the boss or Sheppard, despite being military and Weir being civilian, but it throws up many questions like that and it certainly has me excited to see where they take things.

Whatever happens I will be sad, because I felt the balance of characters was so nicely set in Season 3, and then Beckett gets knocked off, and while Dr. Keller is also a promising character with a lot of potential, being this person with much less experience and concerned about her role (though she seems pretty confident in this episode), I'd have preferred them to keep the same mix of characters when they'd got so close to perfecting them. And now to have Weir leaving, whether it be next episode or in a few, it just won't have the same magic, or that's what I fear. I'll soon find out. In the meantime this was a good, strong episode to open the season, a cross between 'The Poseidon Adventure' and its 70s ilk, and 'Stargate: ER.' As soon as one problem is fixed or patched up, another comes along. The team have to work in difficult circumstances, a lot of civilian types flying the Jumpers to clear a path through an asteroid field. I felt there was some inconsistency in Sheppard's actions to defend the city - at first when one of the teams doing repairs is caught out when the shield shrinks, he demands they must be saved, while Rodney explains there's nothing they can do and if they try, the whole city may not survive. Then later, he's adamant they can't save Weir by activating her nanites, no matter what, the city's safety is paramount. Is it his personal feelings that he's overcompensating for (like Janeway and Chakotay on 'Voyager' they always seemed like there was something to play there), or is it that he learned from the earlier sacrifice and realised the city must come first?

I'm glad I boned up on what had happened at the end of Season 3 because they do throw you into the action with this premiere, and rightly so (after a quick recap), and the energy and drama is portrayed strongly. The effects, as I noted last season, have really turned a corner and they can do so much more than they used to be able to, with all those Jumpers shooting up asteroids, or Sheppard and Zelenka doing a space jump to the other side of a blown-out corridor (Sheppard suggests he call a Jumper when Zelenka gets shot through with a micro-meteorite, so surely it would have been simpler to do that before jumping across - maybe it would take too long, and he only said it after the injury since time wasn't going to make a difference if they didn't complete the repair?). One thing that didn't work quite so well was the city itself flying through space - it did look a little toylike, or a very detailed real world miniature, simply because it looked too in focus as it swept across the screen, but that's a minor quibble for an episode which has so much to impress. All this and Dr. Lee, too? They really poured a lot into this opening story and it worked. While I'll be sad if Weir is written out for good (if she lives she could return for Season 5, yes?), whatever happens I'm itching to find out, which is a success in my book. The only thing I'm not clear on is how they shaved Weir's hair off to cut out a bit of her cranium to relieve pressure on the brain, yet when she wakes up she has a full head of hair - a wig? Oh, and fun to see Yee Jee Tso of the 'Dr. Who' TV film.

***

How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

DVD, Star Trek: The Animated Series (How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth)

I'm not surprised 'TAS' didn't make it beyond a couple of years with stories like this, indoctrinating children into the idea that humanity has progressed beyond the need for God. Of course it's couched in a much safer and less direct message (unlike 'The Magicks of Megas-Tu' which was distinctly overt in its message that the Devil isn't such a bad guy, just misunderstood!), that of an alien being who visited Earth and gave rise to various cultures such as the Mayans and their serpent god, or the Chinese dragon - a mishmash of cultures which this creature thought it was helping, but has now returned in vengeance because humanity is warlike, judged based on… The historical messiness didn't make any sense: if the kinds of things Mayans did was so good why did they practice human sacrifice and that sort of thing? I didn't understand how or at what point this serpent worm (another Satanic connection!), arrived and what effect it had on the cultures it encountered, but then it is only a kiddie cartoon with less than half an hour running time.

It is disturbing that this kind of specifically anti-God story was just included as part of the package, children absorbing it passively and no doubt many parents not even aware of the kind of messaging being presented. But as I hinted, it could also be used to show that false gods of other cultures that never knew the Judaeo-Christian God of the Bible misled people into all sort of things. Except that the idea is this being was supposedly trying to do good for them, its 'children' as it calls humans. But what did it do? As much as I could gather was that it required a perfect recreation of a city to its specifications which has no bearing on morality or behaviour and sounds like slave labour to me! Perhaps if they'd made it clear that this was the ideal way to live at the time, for sanitary needs, water, food and of course some kind of worship culture of this being, but in the episode it's just a riddle to be solved like some puzzle out of 'The Crystal Maze' - just turn the heads of all four snake statues so they all look towards the top of the pyramid and you win!

It reminded me of various Trek ideas, most obviously for the time would be Apollo and the ancient Greek gods that we learned in 'Who Mourns For Adonais?' were actually aliens that stopped off at Earth for a little devotion and worship, then eventually moved on, except for this one guy, Apollo, who couldn't quite bring himself to exit this galaxy because he missed the good old days when people believed in him. In his case he hadn't sent a probe back to Earth to see how things had progressed in order to decide whether to return and exact vengeance for failing him so badly, but it's the same story. Interestingly, you can also see another part of the Q character who took a lot from Trelane in 'TOS,' this seemingly omnipotent being (though clearly not), who puts humanity on trial at the start of 'TNG.' Then there's the Caretaker, a Sporocystian life-form the USS Voyager encountered in its pilot episode that Janeway ends up explaining to it that it's no longer needed by its children any more, the most overt 'we don't need God these days' sentiment expressed in Trek. I prefer it when they remain agnostic rather than come down so heavily on the subject, though of course they can always argue that in these cases they are specific enough and correct that these are false gods, so that they hardly ever actually mention The God in Trek (though I wouldn't be surprised if that changed), so as not to alienate a chunk of their viewership in Western nations.

It comes as more of a jolt in a children's animation than in live action Trek which has the luxury of a bit more time to explain itself and is really for adults, though suitable (for the most part), for the whole family (or used to be, can't say that for the new stuff). It's a shame they were wasting their time with such propaganda rather than trying to do something different that hadn't been done before in Trek, but is interesting from a historian's point of view to see the attitude shifts from 'TOS' to 'TAS' to 'TNG' and beyond as (Western) society has gradually become more and more secular and the pillars of faith and belief have been repeatedly undermined. It's not even that the episode is that entertaining - a mysterious alien probe self-destructed after arriving so the Enterprise goes to investigate only to be trapped in a 'force bubble' (unfortunate connotations with 'Star Wars'). A ship approaches and takes on the guise of a giant snake or dragon, then people get beamed away to some false reality to solve the mystery of the city. And then they get brought into the creature's zoo, which contains a large variety of outlandish, wild and weird alien animals, sadly none of which we know.

Kirk wakes up a Capellan Power Cat (presumably from the planet Capella IV which they visited in 'Friday's Child'), and its natural electrical charges threaten this apparently powerful godlike flying snake creature, showing it's not that powerful after all. Kirk saves it and it's happy ever after, with Kirk making his humanistic speech that seems much more akin to the 'TNG' attitude than 'TOS.' I liked that Spock was pompous enough to mention that aliens visited Vulcan, too, but in their case they left wiser than they came! I wonder when this happened because Vulcans had interstellar travel before the 'enlightenment' Surak brought, since when he changed their society some Vulcans left to become Romulans, so I don't know what was so wise about the Vulcans before that time, they were savage and violent, but after it, it wouldn't have made sense for aliens to visit in order to help inferior beings, since Vulcans weren't confined to their planet and so could have met them anywhere!

There's a rare appearance of a Native American Indian, one of the Comanche tribe, whose name is Mr. Walking-Bear - an interesting addition, especially as you'd think that such tribes would have moved with the times and started calling their people after things other than Earth creatures or situations. Maybe he should have been Mr. Tribble-shuffler, or Mr. Star-walker (Skywalker?), but maybe his parents were particularly traditional! It's fortunate that he happened to be in Mr. Sulu's position at Helm (not so fortunate for George Takei…), since he's the one to recognise the serpent image as being from Mayan legend. The fun thing is that you can tell he's voiced by James Doohan, while sitting next to Lieutenant Arex, also by Doohan, and Scotty calls up to the Bridge, too! Not only that, but Walking-Bear and Scotty are both part of the enforced Landing Party, and the serpent creature is also voiced by Doohan so it was a bonanza for him! I keep avoiding mentioning the creature's name, and that's because we hear at least three different pronunciations: Walking-Bear calls it what sounds like 'Cococan,' to Kirk it's 'Cuklocan' and Spock pronounces it 'Cuklucan'!

All this and Uhura turning pink? Yes, it's true - when the Enterprise is attacked by Coco's ship we see a shot of the Bridge and for some reason she's depicted as pink! There are other little mistakes, too, as I've come to expect with this series, such as McCoy turning the head of a statue but the voice which tells Kirk 'this is the last one, sir' is Walking-Bear's! And Coco's teeth change from white to green as it talks. It was certainly a colourful episode, I'll give it that (and nice to see what I assume was one of McCoy's anterooms in Sickbay), but I could do without the simplistic humanistic pride in how developed 'we' are now, especially in the light of 'Discovery,' 'Picard' and no doubt every other production of the Kurtzman era, throwing doubt on that 'evolved sensibility' and making the denizens of both 23rd and 24th Centuries the same as contemporary viewers. Sorry Gene, your vision didn't work out after all, because more 'Gritty,' 'Realistic' views make more money and less people feel insecure. The cherry on the cake is when they throw in some Shakespeare at the end as if to add some profundity, which is preferable to profanity, but has about as much place in a cartoon. Not to say there shouldn't be Shakespeare in 'TAS,' just that it made no sense - we're thankless children because we turned away a false god? Okay… Here's hoping the last ever episode will be a good one, it would be sad to go out on the quality of this.

*

Exodus (2)

DVD, Smallville S2 (Exodus) (2)

This marks the end of an era for me: the final episode of 'Smallville' to review. Fitting then, that it should be the point at which I pretty much abandoned the series on its first run. I actually watched the first two episodes of Season 3, but decided there was no point in continuing, until a few years later when I started my blog and gave it another chance as something I could write about, even if I didn't enjoy it. But this is the episode where things went off the rails, so I'm surprised to find I quite liked it in the past, because, similarly to 'Calling,' I found it to be less enjoyable now. I can see they were trying to recreate the success and drama of Season 1's epic cliffhanger, one of the high points of the entire series, but what we get instead is a litany of misery for all the characters and it's a real low to end a season on. Again, I can see now why they introduced the plot of Martha conceiving a child - it was to give Clark the most self-pitying moment of his life once he realises he's responsible for her losing the baby, causing him to go off the rails and, effectively, turn to drugs for solace and escape: the red ring of Kryptonite is a drug to him, and never an idea I liked. In fact that was the only thing I remotely remembered about the episode before re-watching, that he's somehow exposed to Red Kryptonite and ends the episode and season speeding off to Metropolis on a bike.

Where did he get that bike, stole it? But that was before he'd put on the ring. Maybe it belonged to Jonathan, something he was fixing up, we know he liked motorbikes. I wasn't impressed with the final shot, you'd think Clark would be speeding off in a rage, but he trundles along quite sombrely, so maybe the ring hadn't taken full effect as he was still so shell-shocked from what had happened. But it isn't the only thing I disliked about the story, a big part of that has to be Chloe, whose business it really isn't that her two friends, Clark and Lana, are together! She stomps around like everything's her business and flies off the handle when Clark won't tell her what she already knows, behaving like a spoilt child, then runs into the waiting arms of Lionel, metaphorically, to do his bidding and accept the assignment to investigate the Kents for him. Just as it shows Clark in a terrible light, not only that he turned to drugs, but also that he made such a bad decision as destroying his own ship and blowing up the storm cellar, it puts Chloe in the role of a petulant character, selfish and stupid. About the only character who gets out of the episode without blame is Pete, who doggedly tries to be a good friend as ever, and Lex, who for once, or once more, has chosen to do what's right and admit his crime to Helen of breaking into her office and stealing the vial of Clark's blood, right before their wedding.

There were a couple of things I liked about these events: one, that sense of irrelevancy and petty little day-to-day tiffs that confronts Clark just at the moment he's involved in something far, far bigger and more important - Chloe interrupts him on the way to putting Lionel's freshly minted Kryptonite key into the ship's octagonal slot, and while I feel Clark should have been more tactful and been able to think up a better pretext to get rid of her quickly, at the same time he is just a teenager, so it makes sense. That was a good part of the scene even if overall it just makes you sick to see Chloe behave so jealously and idiotically, making a fool out of herself. And I felt it was important for Lex to realise that doing good and choosing the right path doesn't mean you get what you wanted anyway (even though he does in the end!), it can mean sacrifice and loss, it doesn't make everything better, but it was still the right thing to do. It was encouraging to see a message like that, and to see Lex continuing to fight the growing drive towards evil within him, as we'd seen a number of times before, and which had made his character so compelling. As I said, in the end Helen returns and they continue with the marriage ceremony (though I don't know what happened to the big dinner we saw the rehearsal of last episode - wasn't Clark still to perform his Best Man speech, or was that it?), but even for Lex we don't end happily as he awakes on the way to his honeymoon just as his plane crashes into the ocean!

There was one other thing that stood out to me in the balance of good about the episode: Lionel being tricked by Pete and Clark so the latter can steal his key in the Kawatche caves. He's just given this smug speech about how people are at their weakest when they're angry and he loses it, almost striking young Pete, just pulling back at the last moment as he realises he's been beaten at his own game. That was priceless as we see so little truth in his character, so when he actually loses control, even for a brief moment, it's very satisfying. Something that can't be said for the rest of the episode and that neatly rounds out my experience of the series as a whole. Because I love the first season and find much to like about Season 2, but that's where it ended for me, and while I give some credit to the series for what it became in the last couple of seasons, and recognise there were occasional standout arcs and episodes in the middle seasons, for the most part it was a miserable cycle of trust and secrets, happiness and distrust, bizarre character flips and poorly thought out writing (much like the current crop of Trek series'!), so that taken as a whole I don't know that I could really recommend the series, though I would still laud Season 1 as being such a strong way to begin a series, so much potential, so much verve and panache.

That's really all there is to it - while Season 3 continues the story, is it really worth going there? I wouldn't mind seeing it again, not to write more detailed reviews as I did with these last few episodes of Season 2 that I'd previously reviewed, but just to see if my recollection of it as the worst season is justified! As for 'Exodus' it pretty much undoes all the good that had been built. Lex' life was about to be ruined, Pete would realise he couldn't help Clark, Lana and Chloe and their circular love/hate of Clark, even Jonathan and Martha and their potential 'happy ever after' comes crashing down. I must say I didn't remember how the baby storyline resolved, only that Clark never had a baby sibling. Nor did I remember what happened to the ship, and for Clark to just destroy his heritage like that… I know he was terrified Jor-El was going to do something to him or those he was close to, and now maybe he can't, but even so, it was a foolhardy thing to do. I have no idea how Jor-El was still able to communicate with him even after the destruction of the ship, but at this point, neither do I care. I'm not saying this was a terrible episode, it's certainly watchable and has some good moments as I've detailed, but it's hard to see Jonathan being more kindly and friendlier to Lex than to his own adopted son, no matter what trauma he and Martha have gone through, and it's hard to see so many characters go off the rails. Sadly, that was 'Smallville' all over, and going off the rails would become a regular occurrence. Even so, I'll always remember the series fondly for those bits it got right, it's bright colours and smiling faces, its depiction of goodness, courage and friendship, and not having it to review any more will be strange.

**

Albatross

DVD, Star Trek: The Animated Series (Albatross)

One of the least outlandish episodes of the series, this doesn't deal with wacky aliens or weird phenomena, it's about as close to a realistic example of 'TOS' as I can remember. It does become a little more 'TAS' towards the end, what with skin colour-changing viruses and auroras affecting people, but for the most part this is a serious diplomatic story: after a successful visit to Dramia, Dr. McCoy is accused of being responsible for a deadly plague on Dramia II nineteen years previous, arrested, and it's all legal. The Dramians are seven foot tall yellow gargoyles, which would seem to be in typical 'TAS' style as way-out aliens, but it's all about how you present things, not the look (something modern Trek could learn a thing or two about), and they speak in normal voices about grounded subjects such as legal ramifications and such. In short, they're aliens you can take seriously as well as being fascinating to look at. They had similarities on a superficial level to Talosians thanks to their long shape and bulbous heads (which also had significant individuality), and reminded me of some of the background aliens of later Trek (specifically one of the aliens of 'DS9' sometimes seen on the Promenade or in Quarks Bar, and also on 'Enterprise,' another Nosferatu-like gargoyle face), while being distinctive in their own right for the yellow skin colour.

Scotty's all for breaking McCoy out, which is amusing in the light of 'Star Trek V,' coming fifteen years later, wherein Scotty was the one who did perform an actual jailbreak to rescue Kirk, Spock and McCoy from the Enterprise's Bridge! It also gave a different complexion to McCoy's annoyed line at the end when he tells Kirk if he's ever in jail again don't send that Vulcan to release him, just let him rot, and even expresses dismay at the time, actually saying 'it's a jailbreak,' to Spock! But it does have a serious side, too, as McCoy is doubting himself, feeling guilty that maybe he was responsible for this plague that killed so many and wants to go through with the trial. It's mentioned that Dramian trials and justice aren't the best (which makes you wonder why the Federation is friendly towards them), or something along those lines, but he doesn't seem to care in the worries of his conscience about even the possibility. It's reassuring to see someone go through a crisis of confidence like that, ready to cast himself upon apparent justice if there's even the possibility he did something wrong, an inspiring attitude so different to most people today who would do whatever it took to avoid accepting guilt and wriggle out of punishment, and shows how much the doctor cares for his patients and profession.

Kirk starts out very accepting of the legality of the situation that the Dramians have taken McCoy into custody, but of course he's keen to do some investigating of his own, which is when he starts to be more open to bending the rules or tricking Dramians to get at the truth - when Commander Deemos trails them he allows him to get aboard clandestinely so as to trap him and complete his objective, which is to visit Dramia II and find evidence. This is where the series betrays its more simplistic writing for a child's audience: would Deemos not be suspicious when the Enterprise's Hangar doors open while they're travelling in space, just in time for him to enter? And what about sensors, both internal and external, does he not realise how sensitive and aware a Starfleet starship is? No matter, the important thing is to find out whether McCoy really is responsible or not, and they find an ally on the planet, Kol-ti, who survived the plague and remembers the doctor with affection for curing him of Saurian virus (perhaps the same thing we see in 'Discovery' when Linus the Saurian was first introduced?). He reasons that a man that would cure would not also destroy (though he's forgetting it could be a mistake on McCoy's part rather than deliberate).

I wondered why they were giving so many seconds to a shot of the Enterprise travelling through this brightly coloured aurora on the way back to Dramia, putting it down to simply saving on budget by making the shot last as long as possible, but it comes up as a plot point a little later. This is where Spock also bends the rules, well, actually he flat out breaks them in a rescue of McCoy, since the whole crew have gone down with the plague. This is also where it comes closest to being much more 'TAS,' with everyone but Spock going blue (Vulcans being immune), then eventually green as they succumb. Spock's put in charge and orders 'General Order 6' which means the ship will self-destruct twenty-four hours after the crew have died to prevent anyone else from catching it. Unsurprisingly, this particular General Order was never used in canon Trek, the closest being the best known Order 1 (the Prime Directive of noninterference), and Order 7, preventing anyone from contacting Talos IV, with the only death penalty sanctioned in the Federation as punishment (totally ignored in 'DSC'), but I like that they include some Trek speak like this to further ground the episode in its own universe.

Spock performs his one man rescue mission (using a nerve pinch on the guard), McCoy agreeing to return to the ship to cure this plague, in the process realising the aurora was responsible, not him, and using Saurian virus to take out the plague, happily. Everyone but Spock and McCoy change colour - though the doctor also changes, but it's not part of the story: in the Transporter Room at the end he's shown wearing a gold shirt instead of his correct Medical blue, as they occasionally (and bizarrely), do by mistake for various characters throughout this series. It's a pretty conventional story, but is one of those that functions correctly, shows the crew doing what a crew is supposed to, rather than being sarcastic or insubordinate, they're members of a team doing their duty soberly and sensibly. These are core values of Trek too often missing from the current generation of TV series' and it's worrying that a children's cartoon from the Seventies with a limited budget can get it more right than the most up to date writing and prestige production of today!

The whole crew is present and correct, well, not M'Ress, but Arex, though he doesn't speak, and nor does Nurse Chapel, but nice to see her. As ever, James Doohan takes on some of the guest voices as the Supreme Prefect of Dramia and Kol-ti, but not Deemos or the prison guard, I think. Uhura and Sulu both get lines from their usual stations on the Bridge, so it does end up feeling like a 'TOS' episode. They even use one of the upper screens on the Bridge, which I always like to see, giving new depth to the technology that sometimes seemed stationary. I wouldn't say it was among the finest of 'TAS' stories, but I appreciated its largely serious subject matter, the aliens are good designs and there's a frisson of history, though I'd have liked to have learned more about McCoy's past, such as what ship he was serving on nineteen years before, even if it wasn't actually canon - had it been a 'TOS' episode with greater running time I suspect they'd have included a little more detail. The title comes from the idea of an albatross hanging round someone's neck, guilt they can't shake off, from 'The Rime of The Ancient Mariner' by Coleridge, so there are even poetic allusions, however basic.

**

A Cage For Satan

DVD, BUGS S2 (A Cage For Satan)

Then it was all over. Well, not quite all, as thanks to the BBC's quick reaction to the success of the first ever episode, 'BUGS' was commissioned for a further two years right from the start, meaning whatever they did with Season 2 they were guaranteed at least a 3. There is some kind of irony in the fact that if it had been left to one season at a time for recommissioning, the series probably wouldn't have been brought back after this second year because it hadn't rated quite as well, with a lot of that put down to a greater degree of science fiction in the tone and style, something deliberately pulled back from in Season 3 (and perhaps the arc structure of the main story, requiring a little more commitment than complete episodic structure). And yet it was the third season's finale which would be a sequel to this finale's cliffhanger, that boosted the number sufficiently for a surprise fourth season to be commissioned (something they tried, unsuccessfully, with the end of that season, too!). Cyberax, or Jean-Daniel, may have been responsible for their nemeses' demise after all, except that their legacy was to give the series another lifeline. The vagaries of television… I'd actually forgotten entirely that this episode had a cliffhanger. We get the usual scene of happiness with the team laughing and joking together, if somewhat more subdued than usual thanks to the comatose fate of Roland, Ros' friend and Bureau Chief, they leave his hospital bed, then he flashes open his eyes… duh, duh, duuuurrrr!

An overarching plot may not have been as much to the general viewers' tastes at that time in the mid-to-late Nineties, when Saturday night TV was meant to be throwaway, light stuff (as it still is!), but for those hooked on the series (myself, for example), it was the ideal form - you had the best of both worlds, able to tell contained, individual stories, while also tying in to something grander that required developing and concluding, and it really comes into its own when the DVDs were your only source of viewing the series again, as well as showing how much continuity there was across the run as a whole. It's also fascinating to watch it in one run through because you notice how each season differed from the others. In Season 2 I felt Ros out of the characters, often came across as quite withdrawn or unemotional for the most part, whereas she'd been much more expressive in the first season, so I wonder if Jaye Griffiths was reacting to criticism? Or maybe the greater sci-fi tone that came in meant she felt she should be more subdued. It doesn't hold for Jesse Birdsall and Craig McLachlan, whose characters stayed the same, though Ed is much more tech savvy this season, no longer standing in for the audience who may not have been aware of much of the technology of computing and bugging, but, like Ed, had presumably been brought up to speed.

With this last two-parter of the season it was clear the series had turned a corner and become much more than it had originally been designed to be. It can seem far-fetched that Ros, whose friendship with Ed and Beckett had seemed so strong for so long, should be strained to the point she could believe they might be working against her, and there are things about Stephen Gallagher's script that don't bear as close a scrutiny as usual as he raced to the finishing line of the season, but Ros' predicament, or more specifically, her friends' predicament of not being able to tell her what's going on or they'd be condemning her to death, was a masterstroke. Would Ros go to JD for help when she knows he always wanted revenge upon those who incarcerated him, so how much more would he want that revenge when he's locked up again, for life? Or that her friends wouldn't be doing what they could to help her, unless there was nothing they could do. But in reality of course it wouldn't occur to anyone that their brain may have been infected with 'a time bomb ticking in your mind,' as Ed so aptly put it, merely knowing it was there enough to set it off. So with Roland missing, and presumably no one from the Bureau available, with her files removed and her friends whispering behind her back, what could she think?

I had forgotten what happened to JD, that he'd been taken to the Ultimax prison in Technopolis and sentenced to spending forty-six of any forty-eight hour period in unconsciousness, a solution that does seem, as Ros said, inhumane. The justification is that these are the worst offenders, the 'extreme social deviants' of all nations, and that in their dreams they're free. This sounds as hollow as the promotional videos that present Technopolis and Technopolis Tower as these attractive modern ideals, but in the typically cheesy marketing way. Can they control the brain patterns of the inmates, has technology got that far? Otherwise they may be living in nightmares, which some might say is what they deserve, but again, would be inhumane. There's no chance for parole, nothing for them to exist for, they may as well be dead. They practically are dead. But this is all part of the Technopolis dream. It seems the nations of the world have supported that dream insofar as they're happy to export their criminals to it, like Australia when it was the new world, but judging by the lack of people this is as much as they're willing to invest in, the vast majority of companies invited to the grand opening of the Tower not deigning to turn up (so Ros has the pick of hotel rooms - but surely asking for the Cyberax suite would be a mistake as that's the one that will be occupied, won't it, or was she actually ordering champagne there as a way of getting inside?). It's not even clear if there are any other prisoners, JD is the only one we see, so it could all be mere advertising spiel the warden spouts so proudly.

Technopolis is a ghost town, a blank slate, which appears to have no real future judging by what we see. They have extreme levels of enforcement, with armed and armoured soldiers available on instant demand, showing they keep their security very seriously, suggesting the mindset of a fascistic state (and oddly, everyone there speaks in English accents). Or it may simply be that with Cyberax in all the systems, Ed and Beckett were branded terrorists who should be shot on sight. How Beckett managed to smuggle explosives aboard an aircraft in order to get into this place shows how clever he is (and that this was before the 11 September attacks on America), each of the team have great skill that if they were to use for personal gain or turn on the others, would prove a real challenge, just as Ros proves to them, decking Beckett with a single punch and locking him and Ed in the hotel room, just as she'd previously padlocked them into the basement of Gizmos (still never named on screen as such), this episode, despite mostly taking place in Central Europe, giving us our best look yet at the red-walled HQ which wouldn't return the following year, sadly, despite how swish and modern it looked, visually marking how successful the business had been for them. Ed and Beckett being locked in wasn't the only parallel plot point, we also have another person being punched out (JD by Beckett at the site of the human processor room), and two people killed, then brought back. Poor Dr. Briggs and his assistant from part one, if only the same treatment had been given to them…

Mind you, Ros only halted her walk into 'the light' of death because Beckett called her back to him, something that wouldn't have worked with the others! I know that sequence can be seen as silly and cheesy, but I've always found it to be really affecting - that Ros was pretty much gone, but the voice of her friend could call her back, and she turns and smiles, it's really well staged and was probably the hardest part of the whole story to visualise, because how do you show approaching death? That ending and the cliffhanger after it are the best things about the episode. I don't feel there was as much horror about the idea of human microchips as when we were first introduced to the idea in part one, the closest we come to a chilling moment is when Beckett stumbles upon the room full of comatose victims from the Bureau and there are three more beds waiting for him and his team, like coffins to be filled… Cyberax clearly wanted them alive, and it's even stated in dialogue, so why was it trying to tell Ros its true nature when she's in the hotel room? Other than the obvious wish to have some drama with Beckett charging in and smashing the screen! It could also be pointed out that once Ros has heard the trigger from Beckett and uttered the fateful final words of Cyberax victims, she doesn't rush off and kill herself but sort of stands around. This could be because she has such a strong mind and her will was still intact for a few moments longer than others, since she tells Ed it's not too late.

This line of reasoning is bolstered by the encounter Ed and Beckett have with her former tutor at the Science Faculty, Dr. Talbot, another great mind, another willing to sacrifice himself to get us closer to defeating Cyberax. That whole sequence was great: sinister and hopeless, but a real sacrifice. Instead of having a way to commit suicide, Talbot has locked himself in a room, but he still destroys the Cyberax device, then sinks back, his body intact, but his mind gone. What was the plan? He says the devices are in every institution in the land, so did they need more minds or were they thinking of future expansion when the Bureau's people were no longer enough to contain the virus? JD's plan seems to be some kind of world domination in all but name, telling Cyberax if he wants an army, a government or a nation it will provide it or it will die. By then, having come back from the dead when his cell monitors flatline thanks to it all being connected to Cyberax, he's much more erratic, the experience hasn't helped him become more sane, it's lost him his sinister calmness. With the Cyberax issue of technology being spread around as Trojan horses, it's even more relevant to today when cyber-warfare is more common than physical combat, both Russian and Chinese forces attacking the West, and the West continuing to seek a technologically dependent society, perhaps to our doom? There have been events just like this one where foreign companies have been selling technology to us which may include security nullifying code and infrastructure in their products or software, by which they could one day take control.

It's frightening stuff, but back then it was much more in the realm of fiction than reality (the same for image recognition which is also a dangerous reality), but then 'BUGS' was ahead of its time: both in theoretical sense and in the idea that it was the near future. Now of course it doesn't look futuristic, but at the time they always had incredibly fast computers when consumer tech was severely limited, a wealth of gadgets, most developed by Ros, giving them the edge when it came to those who would abuse technology for their own ends. In some ways it's surprising how watchable the series remains because although much of what we see is outdated (you can always tell a TV series' age by the computer monitors, especially), it didn't rely solely on wowing viewers with tech, it was the friendships and teamwork of the main three that made them so likeable and a joy to spend time with. This season there'd definitely been a concerted effort to give them a more stylish edge, mainly in the clothing, also in the smart environs from which they worked. The vehicles they used were part of that, though Ros' yellow car dated to early in the first season. While the Jeep (there right at the start of the series), would continue to be used in Season 3, this was the end of that car, sadly (in the previous episode as it doesn't appear in this one), though it was probably the only one she ever owned that didn't get blown up or smashed at some point. Perhaps she donated it to a motor museum before that could happen, as a tribute to its faithfulness?

This episode you notice more going on with the clothing than usual. They start out in the same outfits from part one, showing it's coming right after, then when Ros has made her decision to visit JD and get some answers she's changed into a red jacket, as if she means business now, or like a warning that she's getting warmer, closer to the solution that is a danger signal. Beckett changes to a yellow shirt and Ed to a blue one, and by the end when they're all back together in one shot, standing side by side, they represent the primary colours, red, yellow and blue, as if they've come back together and things are as they were. I don't know if this was intentional or simply a side effect of the kind of bright clothing they always wore that were part of the distinctively optimistic colour palette of the series, but it has been fascinating to follow the looks across the episodes and what it could denote. The direction was once again mostly impressive, especially earlier in the episode with great shots like Ros talking to someone we can't see as the camera swings around her, until finally resting on Dr. Talbot, or the beautifully framed moment when she and Ed meet on opposing escalators, speaking in the middle of a diamond. Later, either because the story becomes more dramatic so there's less time to focus on the look, things didn't seem quite so neat and tidy, but in places it showed real creativity - I loved the lighting of JD's cell, black, except for this single light from above.

The big question is about the villains. Did they survive the blast from Beckett's bomb? He only has a few paces on them before the server room goes up and manages to escape, we don't see how close they were to the blast, only the aftermath of their blackened bodies lying on the floor. The thing is, during Season 3 we learn JD's body was never recovered - if we hadn't seen the bodies then we might have assumed they'd been disintegrated in the explosion, but we don't have that luxury. Could JD have somehow crawled away and survived? Would Cassandra have tried to shield him in some way? I can certainly imagine him using her as a shield if he had time, especially in his erratic frame of mind compared to the careful and considered villain he'd been. Then there's the ending of Season 4 where a chauffeur kidnaps Ros and Beckett, and that's the persona we first met him in at the start of 'Pulse.' I think most people who really followed the series really wanted it to be him. I'm not saying a Season 5 would have been more likely if Gareth Marks had made a cameo at the end, I suspect most casual viewers probably weren't that bothered either way, but it would have been better for us fanatics! And what was Cassandra's connection to her boss: gratitude for saving her life, desire for the riches and power she saw he was capable of winning?

You actually feel a level of sympathy for Cyberax by the end, even though you know its end goal would have been to survive and JD's lesson in having the hold of death over it would have likely taught it to be even more ruthless in its quest. That's why Roland was so terrifying as the personification of Cyberax later - there's no more cute CG head any more. The gradual changes in that head were nicely done to show its continuing development: at first it's just a baby, then it's a full-grown head, then it speaks through ripples in its forehead and gains blinking eyes. The design was strong, even though it was relatively crude, it shows what was possible with computer graphics even back then. Cyberax wasn't the only graphic example as Technopolis Tower itself was a real building except for the upper part, which was an extension added by graphics. Though the place was still filmed in Canary Wharf, they did a good job of selling it as this empty, nondescript, anonymous city, whose only denizens seem to be either law enforcement that come out on cue, or statues, even while using certain buildings we'd seen before - the tubular dark glass building had been Kamen & Ross in 'Down Among The Dead Men,' for example. Even some of the internal sets weren't above being reused, as Dr. Talbot's glass partition looks suspiciously like the STA observation area which was also used in 'Bugged Wheat,' though this time Beckett makes an end of it by smashing his way through. Even the mainframe footage from 'Pulse' gets another airing as part of the Technopolis videos, already seen in 'Blackout' earlier this season.

Cleverly, we see JD as part of the construction coordination on the video, which suggests his plans have been very long term. Who knows when these buildings were built, but it must have been more than a year ago, which would put it before 'Pulse' when we first saw him. Suddenly, the wrongheadedness of Technopolis makes more sense when you think such an evil brain may have been integral to its fruition… I appreciate the subtlety of things like that, the same way we never hear the episode title spoken in this episode (it was mentioned in 'The Bureau of Weapons'), or JD unexpectedly saying "Baa," when Cassandra goes off to carry out his bidding, tying back to his comment in the previous episode: "Women are sheep." He was a truly great villain, almost inarguably the best of the series, not just for his relative longevity, but for the suave and deadly manners and that you never knew quite what he'd do. If he had continued as the more unstable version we saw following his death and revival, I don't think he'd have been anywhere near as compelling, but he would never be forgotten as long as the series lasted. Cassandra, too, worked well, though she had a lot less development than in her debut episode and had become merely a lackey by this point.

This episode, coming as it does at the end of, basically, a trilogy, with 'Schrodinger's Bomb' being the opening part, is not quite as strong as the other two. Maybe this is because Gallagher had to gather up all the pieces to tie up the season and JD arc, so there were less creative opportunities, maybe it's because things had to be wrapped up quickly. But we never fully understand why Ros should go rogue on so little evidence after they'd been through so much together. A line about the virus eating into your sanity could have solved that, adding paranoia to the already real conspiracy against her finding out the truth. But despite any flaws in the telling it remains a rip-roaring ride and is still one of the best episodes of the series. It's a shame to say goodbye to this season as it's the one that has always meant the most to me for being where I joined it, an essential part of late childhood. At the same time I'm ready for the more naturalistic, slightly more character focused direction of Season 3, and it really does make it a different experience watching the whole series through in one continuous run.

****

Calling (2)

DVD, Smallville S2 (Calling) (2)

A very confusing episode in light of future revelations. I don't remember Season 3 well enough to be sure, but I'm under the impression Helen was working for Lionel, who planted her to get at Lex, to be his own personal spy in his son's midst, I suppose. Yet in this episode he talks with her as if they don't know each other (unless that was staged for the Mansion's security cameras…?). And again, he's later revealed to know all about Clark and was part of a group looking after the secret, or something along those lines, and yet… Sometimes an episode can be coloured by subsequent knowledge and events, and while I liked this one well enough in the past, I don't think it works as well today. On top of the confusion, not a lot is happening as this is the first of a two-parter, and as well as that we have a lot of teen romance that was exactly the kind of thing I imagined the series would be before I saw it, and which put me off in the first place! It's enough that Clark and Lana are gooey-eyed over each other, and then Lana gets worried about it, but they also have to throw in the constantly jealous Chloe who apparently stalks them now to see if they'll smooch. Come on, she's better than that! I know she's just had a run in with Lionel and made an enemy of him by refusing to spy on the Kents (I suppose the senior Luthor isn't a subscriber to Apple technology since the computers he's donated to the Torch look like ordinary PCs, even if they are aping Apple iMac colours!), but still…

One good thing does come out of the episode, and that was the Dr. Walden storyline being concluded, although even that was over a bit too easily and simplistically: he's read Clark's destiny of world domination and now he somehow has powers to kill him. The whys, hows, or wherefores, we know not, it just is. That's comic books for you, there doesn't have to be rhyme or reason just as long as there's spectacle. Not that there's much of that either, Walden is burned up by his own mistake in hitting a fuel container that then explodes. We're reminded of where the spaceship's key is, or was, as Clark was keeping it in the barn until Walden steals it, then Clark takes it back from his hot, dead hand. A hand Lionel wants boxed up and sent to him, please. Why? It's hard to watch the series with Lionel as the villain because it's uncertain if he is, from future seasons, so I just don't know what to think. I didn't even understand what this rehearsal dinner was all about - was it a dress rehearsal for the actual wedding reception? It just seemed odd, maybe it's an American thing.

I think the whole thing just put me off, and once again we have the same flaws of certain characters barely being there. Pete looked like he needed a scene with Chloe explaining herself. He needed something. What it did remind me is how long he's actually been in the season! I genuinely believed he left within the first few episodes after learning Clark's secret and finding it was too tough to be constantly on the ball about it. I must be remembering Season 3, perhaps that's another reason why I didn't like that one and consider it the worst year of the series, it's certainly where I stopped watching on original transmission. But it's no surprise I forgot Pete was in most of this season because he hardly ever is, and he almost never gets any meaningful scenes, so I can see why the actor wanted to leave - for all the money he must have got for the role, he no doubt expected to be challenged a little in the acting department! And Chloe's only there to act miserable because Clark hearts Lana, which is hardly new news. At least she did come to the barn and try and make up, make up, never, never break up, by suggesting he could come back and work for the Torch. But I don't know if this is Chloe being genuine, Chloe trying to pry into what went on between him and Lana, or the writers back-peddling, thinking they'd be doing another season next year so maybe it wasn't such a good idea to write Clark off the Torch.

However you look at it, it's more laying down of the building blocks that would make the series so hard to like from Season 3 on, with the countless circular fallings out, friends again, another issue crops up, just this miserable, irritating round of unhappiness that blighted the series and took away its brightness, chirpiness and joy. It should be no surprise this was written by Ken Biller, a name I learned not to respect from his days as show-runner on the last year or two of 'Voyager,' where he kept that series safe, secure and far from reaching its full potential. I'm not accusing him of never writing a good episode, I haven't paid enough attention to his specific writing credits (plus that's only a guide, many writers will have input on scripts they didn't get credited for), it's just that the two series' I've seen him take a hand in have been ones that I loved and then went downhill…

But back to this episode: Lex and Helen are about as shaky as Clark and Lana, both the females getting concerned and cold feet, which is tough to understand, especially for Helen's case. If it was all a ruse to manipulate Lex then why would there be all this back and forth, just to clear any suspicions Lex may have had? And why did he take that particular vial of blood, I certainly don't recall that storyline's conclusion in future episode's. If it had one, it may simply have been dropped and we're meant to forget about it. Lex isn't an idiot and any fool could see Clark was lying when he claimed not to be able to read the language of the Kawatche caves, it's become laughable that Lex believes him, or that Clark believes he's fooling him. The series became stunted because of these things that they focused on too much. And I never really understand about Lana and Clark talking about the fact he has secrets. He doesn't even deny it. What secret could a teenage boy have that are so terrible he keeps them to himself? It's just pushing the suspension of disbelief to new limits of destruction!

There was one good thing about the episode, and that was the chill that creeps up your neck when you hear Terence Stamp's voice as Jor-El and the strains of the well known Superman theme play. I knew Clark was going into that storm cellar and we wouldn't find out what was going to happen until the next episode, because that's the most dramatic way you could end. Even though the episode had a surfeit of endings with various characters. It's just hard to identify with so many of the characters now or the direction they took through this season. I do like that Lex has got to a point that he can invite both Jonathan and Martha to his special meal in the place of honour of his parents, and that they even accept, and it was good to see a little more of them than we have done in some recent episodes, but it still reminds me of the days when they'd become merely there for the occasional scene of cheerleading or advice, with none of their own story. Yes, there's the dead end of Martha's pregnancy, to which I don't recall the conclusion, but which obviously wasn't good. But I haven't liked the way the cast has been handled in general, one reason it became a slightly lesser series after the great Season 1, and then dropped off a cliff for me in Season 3. This was the middle ground and they've had their good moments and periods, but reevaluating this particular episode has led me to conclude that it doesn't work as well as I thought in light of the bigger picture.

**

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

GameCube, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006) game

By my count I make this the eleventh entry in the series after two NES games, a SNES version, three Game Boy entries, two on N64 and two previous on GameCube, not counting the 'unofficial' Philips CDi contributions, of course. It's a fine line to walk between continuing a long-running series by giving the players what they want and expect, and at the same time innovating. By this stage of proceedings they were pretty much going to be hamstrung unless they could have come up with something so vast, so involving, and so tied in to the series' history, that it could blow the green tights off even the most jaded would-be elf boy adventurer. The Wii was not built to do that, it was designed as an antidote to the growing problem of blooming game budgets, lengthy development periods and inaccessibility to the non-gamer. So in one sense it's rather strange that this should have been hurriedly converted from a 'Cube game to an early Wii title. In another sense it's not strange at all as Nintendo must have realised that, 1) they needed a big game to get the Wii selling in the absence of Mario, and 2) their long-developed opus might well be trampled underfoot in the rush for next generation machines if they only released it on 'Cube. But I'm not here to talk about the Wii version, I'm here to express gratitude for Nintendo's wise choice not to abandon the original 'Cube release or I may not have played it at all, and certainly not until the last couple of years when I got my Wii!

The issue of staleness still stands, however, even with the GameCube game. I applaud Nintendo managing to get two titles in the series out in a single console generation because 'Zelda' has always demanded a long development process thanks to it generally being the biggest and most carefully considered series on whichever console it graces. In many ways, 'Twilight Princess' was a reaction to criticisms levelled at previous instalment, 'The Wind Waker,' known for being the shortest and most cartoonish example in the series to that point, and not pleasing those who'd been geared up for a 'photorealistic' sprawling update to the 'Ocarina of Time' style with the latest graphics and gameplay, based on the demo that had been shown when presenting the 'Cube as the Next Exciting Console. In my eyes the 'Cube never lived up to the promise laid down by the N64 era (still my favourite console of all time), which was a truly revolutionary time with the move into three dimensions, the greater engagement of story and action, and the sweeping grandeur of it all. As fun as 'Wind Waker' was, sailing across barren oceans was never going to be an improvement on riding your horse (which in 'Twilight' you could even name, thus giving you an instant bond), so that was the first change. And while the visuals weren't going to be genuinely photorealistic, they did choose to make them realistic rather than the expressive cartoon cel-shading that had been so divisive.

With 'Twilight' they made sure to design a long experience with a large over-world and plenty to do. And yet… even with all these improvements… and even at the time it came out, Christmas 2006, there was some kind of nagging concern that all was not quite as it should have been. We come back to that tightrope walk again, and they weren't really able to make 'Twilight' different enough. They didn't even try to connect it to previous mythology (something the series has often seemed comfortable avoiding in favour of the gameplay experience, rather than conforming the game to fit the history), which isn't really a problem, but for someone like me who grew up with the 'Star Trek' universe and all its interconnectedness and beautifully constructed chronology (despite being produced by myriad creatives across various decades), I admire a well put together mythic history. Nowadays of course, Trek has seen fit to follow the 'Zelda' template rather than the other way around, caring less about continuity and more about whatever the latest big story is and so losing its uniqueness and becoming like any other comic book pulp sci-fi. And perhaps the same could be said for 'Zelda' (at least at that time, I can't comment on the series after 'Twilight' as I have yet to play any), that it had become like A.N.Other adventure game, for all its polish and the great minds of Nintendo behind it.

The trouble with the N64 period was that it was a time of great revelation and revolution in gaming - the shackles were off and they were only bound by the limitations of the machine rather than their imaginations. Almost anything could be done at that time, but since then things had tended toward repetition of this admittedly great formula, and 'Zelda' was no exception. That's why there are so few games I would count as truly great on the 'Cube - there were undoubtedly many good games, and also some new forms of gaming such as that seen with 'Super Monkey Ball,' 'Conflict: Desert Storm' or 'Hitman.' New experiences, if sometimes flawed. With 'Zelda' the world was expecting big things - forget the world, I was expecting big things and I was never fully satisfied on the system, which, crossed with my disinterest in gimmick-focused gameplay such as the Wii seemed to be promising, led me to abandon contemporary gaming in favour of returning to the past in which I continue to revel to this day, though I'm a little more open to modern games than I was then. All this to say that I liked 'Twilight,' but didn't love it, and subsequently never replayed it, watched anyone else play it, or had any further use for it, unlike 'Ocarina,' for example, or 'Link's Awakening,' two games that were seminal experiences for me and that I played or shared various times.

In keeping with my wish for continuity I'd been playing various games in the series over each Christmas, one year at a time ('Majora's Mask,' 'Wind Waker,' 'Four Swords'), and this last Christmas was finally the time to crack open 'Twilight' and if not reevaluate it, at least re-complete it! I can't say it was a better experience this time, but I can say I enjoyed it just as much, perhaps slightly more, I don't know, but the fact I remembered so little of it meant that it was at least a fresh experience and one that I found pretty engaging. I went into it with slightly negative preconceptions, but after all it is a 'Zelda' game, and that means quality, even if not to the level of the best in the series. Perhaps I was also already in the mode of thought for it having played 'Metroid Prime 3' just before it, although at the same time that game made me realise it was a streamlined version of the 'Zelda' experience, with less of the tracking about aimlessly or going back and forth. In 'Twilight's defence it was much more helpful in that regard, you always had a hint waiting if you were stuck, thanks to Midna, your Navi-like assistant, maps were clearly marked, and while the game was big you never felt out of your depth or presented with too many options or things to keep track of. Maybe there was too little, I don't know.

On the other gauntlet there was far too much busywork seemingly designed to extend game length rather than being a fun or satisfying task in itself - a case in point would be collecting the 'tears' before you can get into each of the first three dungeons, that really did appear to be nothing more than an extension of tasks to stave off the anticipated entry into the next dungeon. It took me eighty-eight hours to complete originally so I was focused on beating that time, which I thought should be pretty easy since I hadn't been playing to get through quickly before, and I smashed it, coming in about sixty-four hours, though I spent another ten hours searching for the last few Poes, which was ultimately a bit of a waste of time. But the game did what I wanted of it, provided something to absorb me for days on end, and if some tasks were unnecessarily chore-like, the game was rarely dull. Perhaps the size and scope of the dungeons wasn't as impressive as the over-world might have suggested, but even that isn't quite the vast landscape it seems, chopped up into manageable chunks, presumably so the 'Cube didn't blow up with all the demands on its processor. Also, I came to know every patch of ground intimately from my self-imposed quest to track down every last Poe, so that colours the overall impression of size, too.

It must be a real nightmare trying to come up with a new theme for a dungeon in this series because so many have been done. Typically they tend to stick to the forest, fire and water themes for most, but they did try some different ideas, such as one that takes place in the actual Temple of Time, one within a ruined castle in the snow, and one up in the clouds. This last, Sky City of the Oocca, was one of my least favourite as I never like falls into nothingness, I prefer contained environments. It does have me concerned that the next game in the series, 'Skyward Sword' (the first Wii exclusive entry), will take place in this kind of world, especially as I've been given a negative impression of it, but that's to discover this Christmas when I tackle it! The environments were generally the usual tropes of the series: desert (though no Gerudo, surprisingly), snow, Goron's mountain, Zora's watery domain, the forest land in which you begin, not to mention Castle Town and the surrounding fields of Hyrule. It's not that the world's badly designed, it's just that it's not going to have the same impact these places did when I first encountered them in 'Ocarina,' as when the world was new. How can you give players something new and unique, while still paying tribute to, and being part of, such a legacy? I don't have the answer, and I suppose to some extent there is the gift of nostalgia in that they reuse some of the familiar music, such as that for the Gorons, Zoras, or Lost Woods.

At the same time, while it does hold a special place, it's just reiterating that this game isn't the one you played and loved all those years before. On this play I didn't mind so much because I came in with relatively low expectations, remembering I hadn't enjoyed this one as much, but also because I'm less familiar with this particular game. I came without the hype of the time which made me think it was going to be an amazing game, coming so late in the 'Cube's lifespan, with so much preparation, and with so many lessons learned from 'Wind Waker.' I did still find it a little hard to get into, just as I probably experienced before - you're not Link, or connected to him, there isn't a sense of when this fits in the timeline, or that it necessarily is even in the same 'universe,' just a new game using the same styles, types of character, etc. Sure, there are little references here or there that are pleasing (such as Malo and Talo, which comes from Malon and Talon in 'Ocarina,' which comes from Marin and Tarin in 'Link's Awakening'), but I would have preferred some deep connectivity. Not that it would have improved the gameplay, which is fine, but might have made me more excited about being in that world.

I have to say that sometimes it was simply pleasant to be in the world - I stayed up into the night on occasion, and there's nothing like swimming around in the dark depths of Lake Hylia, for example, for that special solitary feeling late at night. And solving the puzzles was as much satisfaction as you'd hope it would be. A criticism could be levelled that this is the easiest 'Zelda' so far, but part of that is that it remains true to its origins and so the puzzles don't tend to vary too much from previous iterations, and if you've played as many games in the series as I have, then of course it seems easier. At the same time I still think it genuinely is easier, the bosses didn't take too much thought or skill to defeat, and even the end wasn't that challenging, but then that was a trend towards accessibility that I believe has continued the more games companies realised that giving the general customer what they want nets them more money than catering to those who are experienced. In some cases this was appreciated, such as the addition of Oocco, whom allows you to exit a dungeon and warp back to that exact spot to avoid pointless travel, and once you can transform into a wolf you can warp to various places in the over-world, which also saves time and you're never really at a loss for how to proceed. Even so, I did get stuck briefly a couple of times, such as missing a simple switch in the water dungeon, or not being able to work out how to pull the switch in the fan room of Sky City, but I got there in the end!

I spent plenty of time on the side quests, such as the Cave of Ordeals where you have to fight increasingly tough enemies as you descend further and further (another idea recycled from 'Zeldas' past), racing the yeti man on a snowboard icicle, playing such skill games as rollerball (manoeuvring a metal ball round a wooden maze without falling off, much like 'Monkey Ball'), the hookshot game, shooting jars downriver, or flying into giant pieces of fruit upriver (!), all of which were enjoyable diversions from the main story and were certainly a challenge. And of course, searching out all the glowing bugs, the heart pieces (inflation means you now need five parts rather than the traditional four, but you have the advantage of a 'fortune teller' to hint where they may be, if needed), and the Poes. As I said, that last one took me well beyond finishing the game, and I was still thwarted. I was pleased to beat my previous record of fifty-two, but the reason I carried on with the search for so long, to the point I was getting bored, was because I'd got down to the last three or four and then I found the others in quick succession which gave me hope I could track down that elusive final one for full completion. But alas, I searched and searched to no avail until I finally decided I wasn't going to find it so I checked a guide (only because I'd officially finished playing), and discovered it was in a place I'd already searched, but hadn't found because I didn't do a specific thing at night, so I was relieved in a way because I knew I'd never have found it. Maybe if I play it again in another fifteen years…

I often find it a struggle to get into a new game, especially narrative-driven ones, because it seems to take ages before you're actually doing anything worthwhile or getting that desired sense of achievement, and I didn't feel this game had the most auspicious start. For example, after I'd been taught to herd goats you then need to find a cat and get it to go home, but unlike other animals in the game (like cuccos), you can't simply pick it up, and if you try to herd it back home it won't go over the bridge. All games have these counterintuitive parts to fit the story or the game world, such as being able to do incredible things, yet you can't jump up and grab a ledge that's much higher than you are! But that's part of gaming convention, it's just that things like that being ironed out or presented better might have shown this to be a game that was developing the genre, not simply continuing it. While on the subject of things that irritated, I have to mention Midna, whose constant yells and chatter of chirpy noises weren't exactly music to the ear. The little clink of the chain on your wolf form's foreleg, as unobtrusive as it was, got under my skin so that I really wished, with all the magic and abilities shown by both you and Midna, such a thing could be taken off! Especially annoying when searching for bugs since they would make a similar bell-like sound, one of those little aggravations which put me off.

I also have to say I don't like the direction the series has been going in with regard to more emphasis on gods and goddesses, demons and magic. Granted, these things have always been there to some extent, but they used to be skirted and a lot less evident since Nintendo is primarily a family focused company, but this was the most egregious in its use of suspect supernatural content, making such things appeal to the young and encouraging the idea that they're acceptable and normal in entertainment, rather than to be avoided as leading to harmful interests. Another minor quibble would be that there's no ability to 'scan' things as there were in past games so you learn the names of the monsters or things you encounter. I really missed Navi in that regard, and Midna, with her arrogant mien and mocking attitude, under the category of 'playful,' just irritated, no matter how much pity you have for her. And maybe this was misremembering, but it seemed the camera controls weren't inverted on the horizontal, so didn't feel as intuitive, turning the camera left if you flick the C-stick left, for example. And I didn't feel there was as much of a bond with your horse as there was before, despite the fact you name it yourself. It's because once you're a wolf you don't really need it, and unlike the other animals you can't talk to it - now that could have been interesting… It is fascinating to see elements developing towards where the series would go in future, such as greater rapport with animals, or sky-based lands.

Lessened expectations do make it a better experience, it's certainly technically tidy, the graphics are sometimes beautiful with an excellent draw distance and no fogging meaning you can see for miles, one example of its place in the advance of technology, as you'd expect from Nintendo, the character models nicely weighty and detailed. And there is plenty to divert attention as you travel around: what could be in that cave, or down that hole, inaccessible areas to tantalise, the usual 'Zelda' formula. It's strange not having a musical instrument, so, erm… instrumental to previous games, but one example where they tried to be different instead of following all the old ways: wolf howling could have been something that was developed a little more as a toy to play with, such as climbing to the top of a mountain and letting rip a mournful song as the sun sets, but there you're a little curbed by only being able to do it at certain spots in the same way as, at first, you can only call your horse (Sandworm, I named it this time!), to you where there's a specific plant. Limitations placed on the player are often necessary, but can also seem unfair or arbitrary and that tightrope also extends to freedom and parcelling out rewards or progress. Largely the game has a good balance, even if it takes much from its own past innovation, such as the shadow world which dates back to 'A Link To The Past,' or changing into other creatures, a key part of 'Majora.'

The biggest change, other than wolf transformation, is relatively minor, and comes from its Wii intentions: the item select wheel, much like the weapons wheel of 'Turok.' It does take some getting used to, the number of times I pressed start and found myself in the option screen where you can see your tally of bugs, poes, heart pieces and other things, instead of going to the wheel when I wanted to select a different item of weapon, often in the heat of battle… It's also easy to see how some of the tasks are geared more towards Wii play, the fishing game especially which isn't something I did much of as all there was to it on 'Cube was waiting until the right time to press a button. Maybe that's all that was involved before, I can't remember, but it seemed more engaging in the past, even though this time you're encouraged to take up the sport even more. The Wii interference doesn't really make a lot of difference, but it is a sign that this wasn't completely and wholly dedicated to the console it was originally designed for. When all things are considered it remains a good game, one that wasn't anywhere near the jump seen on the N64, but slightly better as a gaming experience than 'Wind Waker.' It works as a tribute to the first and greatest game of this style in the series, 'Ocarina,' but this serves as both a gift when it had so much to pull from, and a curse for the unfavourable comparisons that ensue, as it isn't at the same level of innovation of its worthy predecessor, meaning it remains fun, but a footnote, a spinoff, and I know which game I'd prefer to play again.

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