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Sci-Fri


Nathan Strum

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So last Friday saw the second season premiere of The Clone Wars. It started off quite well with a two-parter about the bounty hunter Cad Bane, attempting to steal something called a Jedi Holocron in the appropriately titled Holocron Heist, and then using it to get some critical information for the Emperor in Cargo of Doom.

 

The animation seems a bit better this year (still some wonky walking), but the plot was a definite improvement.

 

First, Cad Bane is an excellent character. Unlike the utterly useless Fetts, this is a bounty hunter who can actually back up his reputation with cunning, ruthlessness, and serious skills. The series is getting a little edgier too, since they show a Jedi (sadly, not Anakin) getting tortured to death by him - on screen. In a "cartoon". Heavy stuff.

 

Second, Anakin's apprentice - Ahsoka - is starting to show a bit of a dark side. Or maybe... a bit of the dark side. Maybe it wasn't so bright to give him his own Padawan... ya' think? It'll be interesting to see how that all pans out. I'm sensing tragedy afoot. Anyway, the characters and plots are starting out more interesting already than last year ended. With luck, we can stay away from Jar Jar and the whole Anakain/Padme romance for awhile.

 

Now if AT&T would just carry Cartoon Network in HD here...

 

 

Also on Friday (or Fryday) the SyFy channel (formerly the SciFi channel in what's probably the most pointless name change since this guy), debuted the latest in the Stargate series of er... series, with:

 

Stargate: 1999

 

I mean...

 

Stargate: Voyager

 

No, that's not it either.

 

Lost in Stargate?

 

?

 

Anyway, it debuted Friday. And it comes up with the brilliantly original idea of stranding a bunch of people from Earth on something hurtling out-of-control, lost in spa... er... the universe, trying to survive, find and explore habitable planets, and of course, find a way back to Earth.

 

There's a scientist on board who's responsible for them being there, that nobody trusts. I forget his name, so we'll just call him Dr. Smith. You have a fat video game nerd/genius (gee... appealing to the target demographic much?), and a whole bunch of generic actors I don't recognize at all. Supposedly, Lou Diamond Phillips is in the series, but I think he was in the pilot all of 5 seconds. Tops. So maybe next week we'll get to see him. Or not. I couldn't possibly care less. (If they were looking for a B-grade sci-fi actor for the show, you can't get any better than Mark Dacascos. There's always the off-chance he might yell "Allez-cuisine!!" during an episode, and that would be worth watching.)

 

Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping and Michael Shanks from Stargate SG-1 all made rather useless cameos in the pilot (I know Anderson's character is supposed to be laid back, but there's laid back, and then there's just phoning it in for the paycheck).

 

Just to keep connection with earth (apparently so the producers can bring in more interesting guest stars from time to time) the... what are they... Universians? ... anyway, they brought along a set of communication stones, that allow them to instantly swap brains with someone on Earth... several billion light years away. Uh... yeah. Look... I'll grant you pretty much any plot device in science fiction, but that's pushing things. There should be at least some time delay or something.

 

I'm not sure I'll keep up on this one. Stargate Atlantis was already pretty weak sauce, and there's nobody - nobody - on board this tub that I really want to see any more of.

 

Well, maybe Ming-Na. ;)

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I've watched the first four episodes of Stargate on Hulu and was reminded too much of Sliders (planet of the week) and too intimidated by it's prodigious broadcast history (314 episodes if you count Infinity and Atlantis) to want to commit to it. However, the fact it's been on so long must mean something.... okay, truth be told, I wasn't at all interested into you said Ming-Na.

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Another week... and an even better episode of Clone Wars? Well, yes. The series is actually improving. This week brought Children of the Force, and instead of being the sappy, cute, youngling*-heavy episode you might expect, this instead focused on the Emperor's** plot to kidnap Force-sensitive infants and use surgical droids to turn them into his slaves and raise them to be his evil minions.

 

Did I mention that the series is getting a bit darker?

 

We're definitely seeing a bit more of Anakin's bad influence on his apprentice - she's definitely hot-headed, and not above revenge being a motive for her actions. I'm hoping we see more of that, actually. Makes for good pathos. We also saw a darker side to the Jedi this week as they forcibly used the Force to make someone do their bidding (not the more innocent "these aren't the droids you're looking for" by any stretch... more along the lines of what Spock did to gain information in Star Trek 6 from what's-her-name, the vulcan trainee/traitor***).

 

They also went to the lava planet where Anakin would eventually (in Revenge of the Sith) get chopped up and barbecued. They resisted the urge to have him say, "I hope I never have to come back to this place". I'm still debating whether that's good or bad. I admire their restraint in not stating the obvious... but it was an obvious place to have some sort of poignant observation or precognitive moment. A minor point, but also a missed opportunity.

 

Anyway, I kind of hate to admit it... but this is... well... good Star Wars. I'm rather surprised. Pleasantly so.

 

That said, next week is all about Padme, so the series will probably go right down the dumper again for at least a week. We'll see.

 

 

And over on the othyr channyl, we had the second installment (actually, part 3 of the first story) of Stargate Unyverse.

 

This episode, called "Air" focused on their lack of air, and their need to find some way to fix that. Next week will probably be "Water", after which will probably follow "Cheeseburgers" and with any luck, after that, "Toilet Paper". At least I'm sure betting the people on board Moonbase Alpha the ancient spaceship are probably hoping so. (That would make for a great comedic moment. Someone returns from visiting Earth, and their first comment when asked how was their visit was, is "It was squeezably soft!")

 

They spent most of the episode wandering around an utterly featureless desert planet - looking for limestone or something to fix the air scrubbers****. And there were some conflicts, and then some people that aren't important got lost, and others who are obviously part of the main cast were in peril, but not really of course, because you know that they're part of the main cast, and nothing significant is going to happen to them. And I'm sure we'll catch up with the others who got lost later, in probably some horrible way. (Seems to me they already did that in Stargate Atlantis with that guy in the first or second season.)

 

The whole thing was really boring. Few things are more boring than watching long shots of people walking across sand. While arguing.

 

They also used the communication stones again, which gave Lou Diamond Phillips something to do for five minutes or so. The problem with these little plot devices, is that it allows anyone on board the ship to basically instantly travel home and vice-versa. So... this makes being away from Earth unbearable exactly how? Seems to me they can basically be in constant communication with Earth, allowing a constant stream of advisors, doctors, physicists and whoever they need to fix stuff/solve problems on the ship. And if they were smart about it, they'd swap places with the more useless people on board the ship on a continual, rotating basis to do just that.

 

So far, Stargate Universe rates a big ol' "who cares?" from me. I'll give it a few weeks, but I'd rather give over that hour of my Fridays to Chefs vs. City. And that's in reruns.

 

* I hate the word youngling... even by itself it's sickeningly cute.

** Technically, I guess he's not the Emperor yet. But I really don't care.

***And again, I don't recall her name, and I'm too lazy to look it up.

****Couldn't they just suck up a bunch of air through the Stargate from the planet?

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This week on The Clone Wars brought Senate Spy, which played more like a soap opera than science-fiction. The Jedi Council suspected a senator of collaborating with the trade whatever banking guild thing guys, so they needed someone to cozy up to him and spy on his shenanigans. So they chose Padme, since she'd hooked up with the guy back when Anakin was still off in Jedi Jr. High School. Anyway, it was all very relationshipy, and didn't really do much of anything to progress anything significant along. Although I guess it's supposed to add more depth to their relationship and make the whole conclusion of Revenge of the Sith that much more poignant. Riiiight...

 

The whole thing just got bogged down in that whole guild federation trade banking nonsense that made Episode I such a boring morass to slog through. The animation also really couldn't hold up to the emotion they were trying to get across, so they should just stick to broad action and zero-gravity lightsaber fights. Apparently there aren't any new episodes due for three weeks, but the previews look more action-centric than this week so that's encouraging. Plus, we're well ahead of last season in terms of watchability, animation quality, and a merciful minimum of idiotic battle droid dialog. And so far - no Jar Jar. But really, nobody cares about the relationship between Anakin and Padme, and watching CG cartoon characters make-out is just downright... creepy.

 

 

As for Stargate Galactica Universe, I've come to the conclusion that the show is about a bunch of stupid jerks, lost on a big ship in space. Why? Well, because everyone is either stupid, a jerk, or both. Apparently, they still haven't come up with the idea of sending smart people to the ship (via communication stones) to help out the scientist guy with making the ship work, because this week the scientist had a nervous breakdown, they ran out of power, and now they're drifting straight towards a sun. The good news? They're out of power and they're drifting straight towards a sun! With any luck, the series finale will be next week, and we can be done with it.

 

However, I suspect that won't be the case. I predict that just as those who can leave the ship abandon it, they'll discover the ship was heading towards the sun because the sun is actually capable of restoring power to the ship, causing a last-minute rush to get back on the ship, and happy, warm feelings all around. Except for those who were hoping for the sweet release of death, and are now stuck hurtling through space on a ship with a bunch of stupid jerks.

 

This would happen to include the commander, who doesn't want to be there because his wife (who he spent his valuable communication-stone-Earth-time visiting instead of, oh... gathering information that could save their sorry selves) dumped him. Meanwhile, the other commander he swapped brains with (played by Lou Diamond Phillips - who I'm hoping will someday team up with Gary Busey as zombie versions of Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly in a buddy-cop movie musical set in the future featuring Kurt Russell as an evil zombie Elvis bent on taking over the world with Rock 'n' Roll... and um... where was I? Oh, right...) is also a jerk, and thinks that the commander on board the ship should be permanently replaced. I didn't know you could do that with brain-swapping stones, but whatever. Meanwhile, the fat computer nerd is being under-appreciated, but that's okay because he got to see one of the women nekkid during the inevitable gratuitous shower scene. Although why she's showering when they have a limited water supply is questionable (yes... they said it was "mist". Guess where mist comes from?). They also mentioned an (unworking) waste reclamation system, which brings up the rather unpleasant question of where they're storing all their poop at the moment. Personally, I think this would make for some great comedy if they were using the Stargate to dispose of it. "Unscheduled off-world activation", indeed!

 

Anyway, I'll probably give them one more week. I really don't care for any of the cast. There are just too many people on board the ship to keep track of (despite the feeble plot device to have each of the record something about themselves for posterity :) ), and besides... they're all a bunch of (altogether now...) "stupid jerks".

 

 

It wasn't a total loss though, as I picked up Baskin-Robbins' Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream for the first time this year. It's a blog tradition! I had to call around to several stores for it, too. Mad props to the B'n'R in Canyon Country for hooking me up. :)

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Well, as I mentioned last week, no new Clone Wars this week.

 

Another thing I mentioned last week, was:

I predict that just as those who can leave the ship abandon it, they'll discover the ship was heading towards the sun because the sun is actually capable of restoring power to the ship, causing a last-minute rush to get back on the ship, and happy, warm feelings all around. Except for those who were hoping for the sweet release of death, and are now stuck hurtling through space on a ship with a bunch of stupid jerks.

 

Called that one. Right down the line.

 

This week, by the way, was "Light", which of course followed last week's "Darkness". Stay tuned, no doubt, for "Sad" and "Happy", "Cold" and "Warm, and "Boring" and "Exciting".

 

Nah... just kidding about that last one. There won't be any "Exciting" episode.

 

Oh, and the fat computer nerd got his heart broken by the hot babe he saw showering last week, since she and someone else hooked up for some horizontal space rhumba. Cry for the fat, sunburned computer nerd. Not because he's destined to remain alone and unloved on their agonizingly boring trip through space, but because he's the last stereotype that can be made fun of on TV without groups of activists getting all up in arms about it.

 

I'm just wondering... who brought razors so all the men can stay clean-shaven? And aren't they supposed to be rationing water?

 

Next week, people who I don't care about will say things I don't care about, and do more stupid things, and be a bunch of jerks about it.

 

And the "shaky-cam" effect they use for all of their special effects shots will make someone, somewhere, throw up.

 

Yay TV!

 

(Almost forgot... remember the little space-ball thing they tossed into space with all of their personal stories on it? That's going to come back to haunt them. Some aliens will pick it up and find some way to use it against them. Bet on it.)

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Oh, hey. Forgot to watch Stargate (Insert tired recycled sci-fi cliché here) last week.

 

And setting my DVR to record it? Too much work. Maybe I'll catch the re-run this week.

 

Anyway, the episode was titled "Water". That much, I caught.

 

Now... why does that sound familiar?

 

Next week will probably be "Water", after which will probably follow "Cheeseburgers" and with any luck, after that, "Toilet Paper".

 

Oh, right. :) Well, I missed the air-date by a couple of weeks, but I got the title right. And now I'm really looking forward to the "Cheeseburgers" episode...

 

stargate_lolfatz.jpg

 

They're going to have to find something to eat, because if they don't, it's going to be hard to explain how this guy is staying fat when everyone is on severe food rationing.

 

Unless... he's eating the crew!!

 

That would be awesome.

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So last week there was a new Clone Wars episode: Landing at Point Rain. Not a particularly telling title, but this episode put the War in Clone Wars. This had some of the most impressive battle scenes yet, and that includes the movies themselves. It was really quite a spectacle, and pretty engaging to watch. And while I wouldn't quite call Anakin a sympathetic character yet, his annoying edges are starting to wear off a bit, and I find myself more interested in what's going on with these characters. The relationships between Anakin and Obi-Wan and Anakin and his apprentice are beginning to become more familiar, if not yet quite completely welcomed. But they're heading in the right direction, and I look forward more towards watching the episodes now, than necessarily making fun of them.

 

 

Stargate Yawniverse on the other hand... (Yawniverse! I should write for Mad magazine. Except they'd probably call it Stargate Yecchiverse.)

 

I caught up on "Water" from a week ago finally (another episode with stupid jerks doing stupid things), which was pretty-much a throw-away episode. People said stuff, and someone almost died, but didn't of course, because he's in the main cast. But that's okay, because they have enough people on board the ship to serve as red-shirts, and they were able to off someone anyway. They didn't completely solve their water problem (turned out an alien bug swarm that could make faces like the water pod in The Abyss drank it), since they managed to only bring back a few hundred pounds of ice. Yeah... that'll last.

 

Also, I managed to watch the new episode for last week - "Earth". Let's see... Air, Water, Earth... Fire? Did they have a Fire episode yet? Wind? Earth, Wind and Fire? Whatever. But they finally had the idea of using the communication stones to send some scientists out to the ship. Unfortunately, the scientists turned out to be (altogether now...) stupid jerks. Plus the Lou Diamond Philips character is likewise turning out to be a stupid jerk, too. And there was some brain-switch sex involved, which brings up all sorts of weird questions like - how does the Colonel or his wife know Lou doesn't have STDs? It also looks like they've tipped their hand at how they're eventually going to get everyone home, which is just as well, since the sooner they have a plausible explanation, the sooner they can cancel the series, hurry out a final episode and get the whole thing over and done with. Next week it looks like they're already jumping the shark with some sort of time-travel based episode, because they run across some warning they left themselves in the past. Or the future. Or something. Whatever. Maybe I'll tune it in... now that Clone Wars is actually getting good, I need something to make fun of Friday Nights.

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This week on Clone Wars was Weapons Factory, which was a continuation of last week's episode. After landing on the planet, of course now they actually had to do their mission which was to destroy a weapons factory. So Anakin and another Jedi sent their two teenage girl Padawans in to do the job (what's with all these teenage girl Padawans? Are they trying to hit the Hanna Montana demographic?) It was another surprisingly good episode though, since even more of the character's annoying edges are being rubbed off, and their personalities and relationships are gradually coming to the forefront. We see some of the traits that are eventually going to lead to Anakin's downfall -

his impatience and his inability to deal with loss,

and they treated one particular sequence so well,

I thought that the two Padawans were in actual peril. Death-type peril. It was played very seriously, and given the fact that at some point Anakin's Padawan is going to have to be dealt with, it very well could have been at that moment.

Having a character in that situation is something you don't see in American TV animation. I've experienced that sort of thing only with Anime, so Clone Wars is really stepping up the level of their storytelling to get me to even think they'd do that.

 

Something I'd neglected to mention last week is that the planet they're on is Geonosis, which is the planet from SW: Attack of the Clones where you had all of these flying bug aliens making battle droids. What I'd also neglected to mention is that as the battle is going along, they're mowing down hoards of these things. Laser blasts, flame throwers, light sabers... chopping, burning and blowing away these guys. If they weren't aliens, they'd never get away with what is essentially graphic violence on TV like that. Even then, the clones are meeting some pretty brutal deaths, but they're encased in armor, so you don't really get the sense of them being humans quite as readily. The point is though, they're not really pulling any punches in telling this story. It's just now, finally beginning to really feel like the Clone Wars that we've been waiting to see since 1977. It's interesting stuff, and I hope they can keep it up. Moreover, I'm hoping they have an overarching story line for the whole series, including how they're going to end it. Somehow, they're going to have to tie this back into the movies, and I'm hoping when they do, it has a significant impact on how we perceive SW: Revenge of the Sith.

 

 

Also last night was the final episode of Stargate Whateveriverse. Everybody died, so the show's over, and we can all get back that wasted hour on Friday nights and... what? Another new episode next week? Well, crud.

 

Okay, it was my final episode then. I'm done with it. This week they had the episode "Time" (I'm getting a little tired of the trite idea of using one-word titles), in which the crew gets pulled into one of these cliché time-loop things where things repeat, they leave a message for themselves, fix something each loop, and go back and do it again. In fact, it was such a cliché, they didn't even bother showing the final conclusion during the episode. The writers just assumed we'd know that they'd fixed everything on the next loop, so why even bother showing it?

 

The big problem with this episode (besides being painfully unoriginal), is that it was completely predictable. Without half-trying, I could tell what was going to happen before anyone on the show figured it out. That's really annoying. The major plot point -

that the disease came from the water they picked up the previous week

- was tipped during the opening credit's montage. Why else would they

have to remind viewers of them picking up water last week at the very beginning of this episode,

unless it was critical to the plot? They could have easily worked around that by inserting a flashback into the episode. Then maybe, maybe they wouldn't have telegraphed the answer to the audience so badly. Plus, as soon as any of the regular cast started dying, you just knew they were going to have to do the time-loop again.

 

There were a few character moments with the fat computer nerd where we learned more about his hackneyed tragic past, but it all comes across as so soap-operatic and forced, that it's hard to really care about any of these characters. Dr. Rush is the only one of interest, but I'm done watching the show for now. Next week's previews show more people visiting Earth, and more of the Colonel's domestic problems with Lou Diamond Philips in the middle of it, and frankly, I couldn't possibly care less about any of that. So it seems like a really good time to break with the series, and let it go off and flounder on its own. Maybe I'll tune it in at the end of the season/series to see if it's any better, but I'm not expecting anything. Stargate Uninterestingiverse is just a mishmash of other Sci-Fi series, taking what some writers are assuming to be the successful elements from them, and lumping them into one big mess. See also: Star Trek Enterprise.

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This week on The Clone Wars was Legacy of Terror.

 

You should imagine that title in big, red letters dripping blood.

 

It wasn't that way on TV, but it should've been, because this episode was obviously meant to be aired around Halloween. (They missed by a few weeks.)

 

But it was still a pretty good episode. Sure, they borrowed ripped-off elements from Star Trek II and Aliens, but those are pretty-good sources to be borrowing stealing from. The idea here being that the bug aliens on Geonosis have a giant queen, who lays worms that will snake into your brain and let her take over your mind.

 

Even... if... you're... dead.

 

So you know what that means, right?

 

Yep! Alien zombie bug creatures! They don't stay dead! Even lightsabers don't kill 'em. But they shuffle around, all glassy-eyed, making drooling noises as all good zombies do. They don't eat brains though, as far as I can tell. But maybe they're new at this whole "zombie" thing.

 

The basic plot is, the leader (not the queen) of the bug aliens is on the run, so one of the Jedi - Luminara Unduli (not Andouille) - chases off after him, then disappears. So it's up to the "A"-list Jedis to save her bacon. This involves skulking around dark tunnels, running into zombies, clones getting killed, and uh... negotiations.

 

That part didn't really fit into the episode. You don't negotiate with giant, alien bug queens. But they figured that out.

 

Pretty-good episode. Not all that scary, but kind of fun in a cheesy zombie B-movie sort-of way.

 

Next episode (which isn't until December) looks fun, too. The brain-worm theme continues, but with the two teenage girl Padawans apparently trapped with it onboard a spooky ship. Can you say "slasher flick"? I knew ya' could. ;) If the title "Brain Invaders" wasn't enough reason to watch it, the tag line in the trailer says, "If you find a worm in space, do not put it in your nose."

 

Words to live by.

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Brain Invaders.

 

Yep. If those two words weren't enough for you to have watched last week's episode of Clone Wars, well... you're just beyond hope.

 

It turned out to be another good episode. Really good, actually. You never quite know where they're going to go with the characters, and the good thing about that is we're actually starting to care about them. Fancy that.

 

So yes, there were brain-invading worms, and the Padawans were trapped on board a ship with a bunch of zombie clones who were trying to kill them.

 

(C'mon... now if that isn't good television, I don't know what is!)

 

We also got to see Anakin starting to show more of the dark side of him that will become Darth Vader. And I don't mean the wimpy, "Noooooooo!" Episode 3 Vader, but the cool, "If this is a consular ship, WHERE is the Ambassador?!" (crick) original Star Wars Vader. Yeah. That's what I'm talkin' 'bout.

 

It's going to be interesting to see which direction Anakin's Padawan (say that three times fast) goes as Anakin descends further into the Dark Side. Will she follow him? She has some of those tendencies, but also sees in him that he's different from other the other Jedi.

 

Which brings up the question... is "Jedi" plural? Or is it "Jedis"? "Jedies"? It's like fish and fish, right?

 

Anyway, no new episodes until January. So take the month off. Go catch up on re-runs on the Star Wars website. I'll be here when you get back.

 

 

In other Friday viewing, Nicktoons wrapped up this season of "Wolverine and the X-Men" with a three-parter. I've been watching this as new episodes trickle in, and it's a pretty-good adaptation of the X-Men. Definitely not following some of the canon of the comic book (admittedly... it's been 20 years since I actively followed it), but it's pretty good. Different from the previous two X-Men series, and basically has nothing to do with either of them (although I suppose it could sort-of follow X-Men: Evolution, but not really). The animation is adequate, and in general they have the characters down pretty-well. If you've got nothing better to do, it's worth catching in re-runs.

 

Besides - it'll give you something to do instead of watching Stargate Universe. (Is it still on the air? I guess it must be - IGN is still posting reviews. Looks like I left just in time.)

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So I go away on vacation, and not one, but two new episodes of The Clone Wars aired - on the same night, no less.

 

Fortunately, my DVR caught 'em, and I had the chance this week to catch up.

 

(As an aside, the latest issue of Consumer Reports rates various broadband services, and AT&T's U-Verse and Verizon's FiOS come in at the top of pretty-much all the ratings. And the big cable companies? Pretty-much dead last. Of course, that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, but it sure is nice to see the cable companies finally getting slapped around a little.)

 

The first episode was Grievous Intrigue. In it, General Grievous (through devious means) captured a member of the Jedi council (some guy... I can't tell one Jedi from the next), and so other Jedis (Jedies?) had to go save his sorry self. Really, there wasn't much intrigue to it, since Grievous is a pretty weak character. He always has to team up with his evil robot minions to beat the Jedis (Jedees?), so he never really comes across as much of a threat, since in the end you know he's going to go skulking off like a coward after the inevitable butt-kicking he receives. What was a little intriguing though, is we got a little bit of insight into his motivations - he's not in the war for power or gain, he just wants to kill Jedi. All of them. So there's a story there, somewhere, and I'm hoping they dig it up during the series. Something made him really hate Jedi... so will we get to see the tragic downfall of a previously nobel character? Or will the previous Grievous be just as devious? :thumbsup:

 

In the second episode, The Deserter (not "The Desserter", although that would have been pretty funny if they'd had Duff Goldman guest star as a voice actor), they continue to pursue Grievous to a planet where an injured clone gets taken into the home of another clone who deserted the Republican Army, after all of his group was killed off, then married a hot-looking magenta chick with those weird head-tail things, and had a couple of kids. Of course, the Droid Army comes a-knockin', and proves the old adage, "You can't run away from your problems". Although in the end of the episode, the droids are defeated, and he gets to stay there with his family, so I guess maybe you can. Go figure. Anyway, it was a pretty-good episode, delving a bit more into the clones. Of course it makes me wonder, when the Emperor eventually flips the switch for the clones to kill off all the Jedi, does he do that, too? Or since he's out of communication, does it not affect him?

 

 

Elsewhere on a Friday (and subsequently on my DVR) was Battlestar Galactica: The Plan. Basically, it was a two-hour recap of stuff we already knew, but it showed a behind-the-scenes with the Cylons we didn't know about, and how some of their anti-human shenanigans actually went down. It was okay, but a lot less interesting than I thought it was going to be, since I thought that "The Plan" referred to the plan the Cylons came up with before attacking the Colonies, and that would have been pretty cool. But as it was, it basically just took place during the series, so it was like watching a rerun with bonus footage. It was okay. Certainly though, it had to be better than Stargate Uniworse.

 

Is that still on? I haven't even noticed.

 

I'm debating watching Caprica or not. Looks a little too soap-operatic to me.

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Hey... another fresh Clone Wars episode. How about that?

 

Well in this week's episode - Lightsaber Lost - Ahsoka (Anakin's Padawan/apprentice/Jedi-wannabe) loses her lightsaber.

 

Hence the title.

 

Technically though, it was stolen. But that lacks the alliteration.

 

Anyway, it was another good episode. She wants to hide her loss from Anakin, and reluctantly teams up with an ancient Jedi (who gets mad props for having the coolest lightsaber ever - a sword cane - although I suppose it could also have been like Evel Knievel's liquor-cane, since it was mostly hollow), and they end up doing a detective/buddy cop episode for a half an hour. Ahsoka is headstrong and impatient (maybe some traces of the dark side?), and he's slow and methodical (there's one particularly funny scene with him driving slow in speeder traffic and everyone's zipping around him, although it would have been funnier if his

was blinking). She ends up chasing the thief around Coruscant free-runner style, and you really get a sense of scale, height, and danger; it's much more affective than the speeder chase at the beginning of Episode II: Attack of the Clones. In the end, we all learn a lesson about patience, respect for our elders, and not trusting weird-looking space chicks with eyes that blink the wrong way.

 

This episode was actually good enough for me to watch twice. I rarely do that with the Clone Wars, but they really made the whole chase entertaining. There was one place where Ahsoka is hanging off a giant floating video screen, with Emperor Chancellor Palpatine's head giving a speech on it, not unlike the famous

. She also says when she loses her lightsaber, "my master is going to kill me." Foreshadowing? Could be... :thumbsup:

 

Next episode, after waiting some 30 years... we meet the Mandalorian Warriors. If you're a Star Wars nerd at all... you'll tune in.

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I was so busy last week, I forgot to write up that week's Clone Wars episode - The Mandalore Plot.

 

Did you miss me?

 

So anyway, it didn't so much have Mandalorian Warriors, as it did some war-mongering extremists who dressed up in their armor. So they're Mandalorian Posers. Like Boba Fett. But these guys don't wuss out all the time and die stupidly like the Fetts do. In fact, the Mandalorians basically disown Fett in this episode, by saying "We don't know where he got that armor. We don't have anything to do with stupid-loser bounty-hunter-wannabes." Or something to that effect... I'm paraphrasing. It's been a week, after all. :ponder:

 

The episode involved a plot by the extremists, who go by the collective name of "Death Watch". (Make up your own jokes about malfunctioning counterfeit Rolexes here.) They're out to kill the Duchess of Mandalore, who is heading up a coalition of

who want nothing to do with the war. So of course, the Separatists... they're the bad guys, right? Anyway, they hire these Death Clock guys to kill the Duchess, and bring the glory of war back to Mandalore. (Hey... I just busted a rhyme. Word up.)

 

We meet some of these guys, who all fly around in Boba Fett suits (fanboys rejoice), and the leader carries a wicked-cool black lightsaber. Not the hilt - the blade. Black energy or something. It's really cool looking.

 

darksaber.jpg

 

Anyway, they mix it up with Obi-Wan, who it turns out has some history with the Duchess. But more on that in a minute.

 

(Wait 60 seconds here.)

 

Okay, we're back with this week's episode - Voyage of Temptation. Obi-Wan, some clones, and Anakin are accompanying the Duchess (I used to own a Shetland sheepdog named "Duchess"...) back to Coruscant to address the Senate about the neutral coalition. In the meantime, more of Obi-Wan's history with her is revealed, and it turns out they had a thing for each other, even to the point where Obi-Wan was considering giving up being a Jedi for her. (They certainly bicker like a couple. It's cute.) Then some killer droid-things who were stashed on board get loose and bust up the place (they're mechanical spiders, like some of the little things running around in Minority Report), killing some more clones, and even using the corpse of one like a puppet to try and fool Anakin. Pretty cool idea, and rather grisly concept for a cartoon. They're really pushing the characters, stories and gravity of being at war this season, and I think it's all for the better. There's one scene in the previous episode where the head Death Watch guy just executes one of his minions for failing to kill Obi-Wan. Just "boom" - busts a cap in him. On screen. (They never would've gotten away with that on G.I. Joe back-in-the-day.) Then, the episode ends with the Duchess and Obi-Wan having to decide whether or not to kill a traitor who's threatening to blow up the ship, with the bad-guy saying, "So which of you will compromise your principles and become a cold-blooded killer?" (or something to that effect). Then right on cue, Anakin runs him through the heart from behind with his lightsaber. Brutal. It's too bad this series didn't happen before Episode III came out. Then maybe that movie would have had more impact. (Probably not though... because it was still really badly written.) You really get to see Anakin change over time, and more of his Darth Vader tendencies emerge.

 

That was kind of a long paragraph.

 

Also in this episode was a nod to (or ripoff from) "The Trouble With Tribbles". In once scene, Obi-Wan is trying to sniff out a traitor by carrying around a tiny assassin droid, and the suspect it reacts least to turns out to be the bad-guy. So it's like a Tribble and Klingon, but in reverse.

 

Where was I going with this? I forget now.

 

Well, these are both pretty-good episodes. Some good action, good storytelling, character development, and the production values are pretty amazing. The Duchess' ship is a particularly cool design. Next week the Mandalorian saga continues on Coruscant, as the Death Watch guys come after the Duchess there. Looks like plenty of action. I'm definitely enjoying this series now, certainly more than the first season. I'm even tempted to buy season 1 on Blu-Ray. But maybe I'll start with the movie first (which I still haven't seen). It's only $12.

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This week's Sci-Fri update is brought to you in High Definition!

 

Can you tell the difference?

 

Maybe you need a bigger monitor. Trust me, it's quite stunning.

 

At some point, and without telling me, AT&T added Cartoon Network HD to my lineup. I probably would have noticed this before, except I just surf through a short list of "favorites", rather than the umpteen-hundred long list of every channel they offer (including, annoyingly, ones I'm not even subscribed to, and therefore can't even watch).

 

I didn't find this out before last week's episode - The Duchess of Mandalore - aired and was sitting in its lowly, disgusting, standard definition putridity, festering away on my DVR. It sickens me to even think about it.

 

So I set my DVR to record a later airing of it in HD, and waited to watch the episode in all of its high definition glory - the way George intended it.

 

Now, I had seen one episode in HD last year, when TNT flirted with rerunning them, but that was it. It's been standard definition ever since.

 

Lemme tell ya'... what a difference 1,728,000 pixels makes!

 

Clone Wars is really an amazing looking show. The depth of detail they put into the environments is pretty incredible, rivaling any of the best special effects on high-budget live-action sci-fi TV series out there, and approaching feature-film level work. Much of the world (and characters) are textured with an almost painterly approach, which doesn't show up so much in standard definition, but really looks great in HD. It's clear why they went this route, too. Besides being a distinct visual style, it frees them up from having to make the people look photo-realistic, which is tricky for computer graphics under the best of circumstances (much less a TV "cartoon" show).

 

Oh yeah... almost forgot to write about the actual content of the episode.

 

Well, this week was less about action, and more about political intrigue and plots. There was a Mandalorian assassin chasing around the Duchess of Mandalore on Coruscant, but this episode was more about seeing the Chancellor manipulating both sides of the war for his own purposes, and the idea that the Republic isn't what it once was anymore. It was more interesting than maybe it sounds. It's good to see the writers taking an opportunity to delve more into some of the intrigue that's eventually going to lead to the rise of the Empire, and how all of that works. In the small doses a TV series provides, it's a lot more palatable than it was when it painfully bogged down Episodes I - III of the movies.

 

That said, I'm hoping next time they get back to blowing stuff up. After all, isn't that what HD was made for?

 

Edit: Forgot to mention, one of the character's names in this episode was Pre Vizsla. Clever! :ponder:

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Huh. I can't believe I missed this one...

 

Plus, as soon as any of the regular cast started dying, you just knew they were going to have to do the time-loop again.

 

Of course, that should have read, "Plus, as soon as any of the regular cast started dying, you just knew they were going to have to do the time-warp again."

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yarYjuN-m8I

 

Comedy gold.

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This week brought us Senate Murders.

 

And guess what happened to two of the senators?

 

That's right! They got caught having illicit affairs with underage senate pages.

 

I mean... they got murdered.

 

So this was basically a detective episode. Sort of like CSI: Coruscant. It was kind of a weird episode. While it did hint at more of the Chancellor's manipulation of the senate and the war, it seemed to mostly serve as a vehicle for this oddball detective they introduced, who seemed to be a cross between Columbo and other quirky TV detectives. That didn't work at all. Besides being annoying (rather than endearing or humorous), the execution of the idea just clashed with the whole Star Wars universe, and seemed more like the kind of an episode usually cranked out to create a spin-off series. Also, as far as detective stories go, it wasn't all that engrossing, or difficult to figure out "whodunnit". If they're going to do this kind of episode, it really needs to focus more on intrigue and the big picture of the rise of the Empire, and skip the quirky one-shot characters.

 

And the walk animation was seriously bad in this episode too - to the point of being distracting. (But then if the plot had been better, maybe I wouldn't have noticed).

 

Next week though, they start blowing stuff up again. Real good.

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This week brought us the episode The Hunt For Red October.

 

No, wait... it was Cat and Mouse. Sorry.

 

But same kind of thing... stealth, silent running, getting an enemy commander to torpedo himself. You know how it goes.

 

We did get to see the first ever Star Wars universe cloaking device though. At least as far as I know. Maybe they've had it in the comics before, but I stopped following them after Marvel's run. But the cloaking device works pretty-much like the Star Trek ones, except that it's really easy to spot a cloaked ship in the Star Wars universe. They show up on radar and everything! So... not very stealthy. Yet another point in favor of Star Trek in the endless "Star Wars vs. Star Trek" nerd fight.

 

Yeah, I said it. Nerd fight. And the answer as to who would win? Captain Kirk. Single. Handedly. Take that. One flying drop kick and Yoda would never know what hit him. Yoda's just styrofoam. Captain Kirk tosses around styrofoam like they were boulders!

 

Or something...

 

But if it was The Next Generation, then Star Wars would win, because Picard would just surrender. Wimp. Unless they were just fighting against Episodes I-III, because they're all pretty-much useless, so even Star Trek Voyager could beat them.

 

But not Star Trek Enterprise. They'd even lose out to the Star Wars Holiday Special.

 

So in the hierarchy of who'd win in a fight, it goes something like this:

 

Star Trek (the original cast, except for the space hippy episode and the odd-numbered movies)

The original Star Wars trilogy (as an aside, Return of the Jedi really hurts this group, otherwise they probably would have won)

Star Trek: The Animated Series

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Commercials featuring William Shatner as The Priceline Negotiator

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Star Trek: Voyager (but only after Jeri Ryan joined the show)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (the first animated series)

Star Trek (original cast, odd-numbered movies and the space hippy episode)

Star Trek: The Next Generation Movies

Star Wars Episodes I-III

Droids animated series

Ewoks animated series

Star Wars Holiday Special

Everything else ever made

Star Trek: Enterprise

 

So... that takes care of that. Glad to help solve yet-another endless debate! :thumbsup:

 

Oh right, this week's episode. Well, it was pretty good. Lots of space battles and stuff, but nothing that moved the overall story forward, and the whole thing was really... familiar. And predictable. But the battles looked cool.

 

Not sure when the next episode is, as there was no preview for it, but the biggest wuss in the galaxy will soon be coming to The Clone Wars: Baby Boba! Watch for it soon!

 

babyfett.jpg

"I'm the most feawsome bounty huntew in the gawaxy!"

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This week's episode - Bounty Hunters - was excellent. Well, for TV. Or rather, American animated sci-fi TV. But still.

 

The little fortune cookie phrase they show at the beginning of each episode for this week was "A poor dancer blames the floor".

 

No wait... it was "Courage makes heroes, but trust builds friendship."

 

But mine was better. Because the first thing that happened was Anakin crash-landed yet-another ship, and in the process blamed the ship.

 

What the episode ended up being about though, was a group of farmers had hired out some bounty hunters (which are usually the scum of the galaxy... that is, the bounty hunters are - not the farmers) to protect them from pirates who were extorting them (the farmers were being extorted - not the bounty hunters), including one that had made an appearance before: Hyundai. Or Honda. Or Fondue. Something. Anyway, he was the bad guy.

 

The bounty hunters turned out to be an interesting group. More mercenaries than actual bounty hunters though, since they weren't after any bounties, as such. They were not all what they appeared at first, and turned out to have hearts of gold. Well, not literally. Although with one guy who was a little alien in a giant robot suit, that might have very well been the case (sort of like the little alien inside the human robot in Men In Black... not that he had a heart of gold, but rather he was a little alien in a giant robot suit... although his robot suit might have had a heart with some gold components in it... am I digressing too much?) One of the bounty hunters had a Captain America shield for a hat. That was pretty cool. Someone shooting at you? Just put your head down and run at 'em! Then take off your hat and bounce it off their head. The lead bounty hunter had some nice moments as well, as she began to show more compassion for the farmers she was initially only there to make money from.

 

The violence in Clone Wars never ceases to surprise me, in that this is still essentially a cartoon. But, it's a prime time cable cartoon, so they can get away with things like someone grabbing someone else from behind, and twisting their head until their neck breaks. You never would've seen that in G.I. Joe or He-Man. Nope. But A-Team style "violence" where millions of bullets are shot and nobody ever gets so much as a scratch just wouldn't work here. This is Star Wars after all.

 

Anyway, it was a really good episode. Good characters, interesting story, more of the relationship shown between Obi-Wan and Anakin and his Padawan. Also, there was a moment where Anakin had to make a decision to spare the bad guy's life or not, and because of how he's been set up in previous episodes, I really didn't know what to expect. I thought for sure he was going to "Force-push" the guy off a cliff, but he didn't. I found myself actually being impressed with his restraint. So there's a nice dynamic to the inner conflict he's having. It keeps us guessing, and that's a good thing.

 

There are four episodes left to this season, and April 23rd will bring us "the most adorable li'l bounty hunter in the galaxy"... Boba Fett. Awww... idn't he cuuuuute?

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Hey, they just posted the trailer for the season two finale: Li'l Boba's Big Adventure!

 

Actually, that may not be the title. I'm just guessing.

 

But it looks pretty good. Except it breaks with the old adage, "Never work with children or animals".

 

I think this will negatively impact the mystique/fanboy appeal of the character. People may think they want to know his history, but that doesn't mean they really want to know. Especially as a precocious, whiny 12-year-old kid. Sometimes less information is better. After all, Darth Vader never recovered from this. :thumbsup:

 

Personally, I couldn't care less. I always thought Boba Fett was a grossly overrated character, so the more that can be done to destroy his mythos, the better. :)

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So this week brought Godzilla to The Clone Wars!

 

But to avoid copyright infringement, they called it The Zillo Beast.

 

Zillo. Zilla. Po\tA\to. Po\tä\to. You take the high road, I take the low road. Etc.

 

So what happened, was the Jedi unleashed a new super-weapon (like an EM pulse) to take out an entire army of droids in one fell swoop. And just like nuclear bombs woke up Godzilla, the Electro-Proton Bomb™ woke up the Zillo.

 

Then, of course, he proceeded to wreak havoc. Really though, I'm not sure what else you do with havoc. Is there something besides wreaking?

 

Anyway, the Jedi, being the good sorts of animal-loving pacifists that they are, decided to just stun the thing into submission, rather than kill it, and relocate it to some unsuspecting nature preserve on some other planet. One that didn't have fuel that they needed for the war effort. (Hey... a cautionary nuclear tale and a blood-for-oil allegory all in one episode!)

 

Of course, since the creature had nigh-indestructible armor (even being lightsaber-proof), naturally the military wanted to study it instead. So the episode ended with them taking it back to Coruscant* instead of setting it free, and based on the previews for next week, quicker than you can say "Jurassic Park", the whole thing is going to go south in a big fat hurry.

 

Which of course, is exactly what The Clone Wars needs - a Japanese monster movie homage. Can't wait! :)

 

*Incidentally, I have to copy/paste "Coruscant" every time it appears in this blog, since I can never remember how to spell it.

 

 

Oh, and I channel-hopped into Stargate Uniworse ("Worse!" Ha! The comedy just never stops!) for all of five minutes. Looked like some sort of mutiny was going on between the military and the civilians. Then I changed channels again, because anything else was on. :thumbsup:

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In this week's episode, The Zillo Beast Strikes Back, the Zillo Beast struck back.

 

Kind of saw that one coming.

 

If last week was Godzilla, this week was King Kong. You know, they bring a monster back to the big city, it breaks free, kills people, climbs buildings, gets shot at by airplanes, dies at the end. The problem with this episode was that Coruscant is so huge, that even this giant lizard thing really didn't seem like it could do all that much damage.

 

In the end, they had to kill it, which was too bad, because apparently the Zillo Beast is the only one in the Star Wars universe smart enough to figure out that Chancellor Palpatine is evil. The beast knew it, and went after him. Tried to make a tasty meat snack out of him. I'll bet the Jedi will look back on this one day and wish they'd just let him do his thing. But hey, hindsight is 20/20.

 

But the Zillo Beast will return in some form, because Palpatine ordered his scientists to clone it. So you know what that means, right? Yep - The Trouble With Zillo Beasts! I'm looking forward to that one.

 

So now we're down to the last two episodes, in which we get to see what's been happening with Boba Fett in elementary school.

 

Umm... yay? :thumbsup:

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This week's episode - Death Trap (or as I prefer to call it, "Field Trip of Death") - marked the re-introduction of Boba Fett to the Star Wars universe.

 

As we last left Boba in SW:Episode II, the precocious little 12-year-old was left holding his dead dad's helmet. What would've been funny, is if the head was still inside it, and as he walked away, it fell out, bounced a couple of times, and then got tripped over by Jar-Jar in a hilarious bit of physical comedy. "Whoopsie! Meesa so sorry little Booba! Meesa trips over poppy's head!"

 

I tell ya', it would've elevated the movie to a whole new level.

 

But onto this week's episode of The Clone Wars. So we catch up with Boba, impersonating one of the kiddie-clone brigade (remember, he is a clone), while they're on a field trip to a Jedi star cruiser - the one with Mace Windbag on board. Boba's plan is to blow up Mace real good, for that whole chopping-his-father's-head-off misunderstanding. Anyway, he misses, and so the Bounty Hunters he's in cahoots with (these are evil ones, not the good ones of a few weeks ago) tell him he needs to blow up the whole ship now. He's a little reluctant, but not enough to actually not do it, so he does it. And of course, people get hurt, his little clone schoolmates are put in jeopardy, the star cruiser is left spiraling out-of-control, and we're left waiting for next week's one-hour season finale.

 

Oh, and another nail-in-the-coffin of the Boba Fett mystique? His nickname as a clone... "Lucky". :thumbsup:

 

Too bad it wasn't something like "Stinky" or "Princess" or "Sarlacc bait". Any of these would have also been acceptable. :)

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Last week was the two-fer season finale of Clone Wars. Part one was R2 Come Home, in which R2-D2 gets his feelings hurt by C-3PO one-too-many times, and runs away from home. The sad little droid gets into a series of mischievous Home Alone style adventures, featuring a couple of clumsy Corellian thieves voiced by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern.

 

Nah... I'm just messin' with ya. But that would be pretty funny.

 

Actually, following last week's cliff-hanger, Anakin and Mace Windu search the crash-landed star cruiser, trying to find survivors. But Li'l Boba has left his dead dad's booby-trapped helmet behind, which explodes and traps the Jedi. Jedis. Jedii. Whatever.

 

So they have to send Artoo all the way back to Coura... Corua... (copy/paste) Coruscant for help. He can't just call, since his communications thingy was conveniently destroyed, so he has to take off in Mace's ship, evade the bounty hunters, and blast off through hyperspace to go there in person. Which brings up the question... if R2-D2 can fly a Jedi starfighter that well... why do they bother with clones? Why not just have an army of good droids, battling the army of bad droids?

 

Anyway, R2 makes it, and they get saved just in the nick of time. But not before the bounty hunters escape with hostages.

 

In the final final episode of the season, Lethal Trackdown, Anakin and Mace are on the mend, so it's up to Anakin's apprentice Ahsoka and supporting-Jedi Plo Koon to track down the bounty hunters (lethally), free the hostages, and restore peace and freedom to the entire galaxy!

 

Okay, maybe they come up a little short on that last part.

 

So they go and do and fight and win. And hey - rescuing two out of three hostages isn't too bad, right?

 

And by the end of the episode we learn a lesson. We learn that Boba isn't a cold-blooded killer at all. He's a misunderstood kid with a troubled past and a heart of gold. Where's the galaxy's most fearsome bounty hunter? Well, he sure ain't here. The kid refuses to kill hostages, and ends up turning in his fellow bounty hunters, and revealing where the hostages are kept. Then he just gives up without a fight, and goes off to Jedi juvie-jail. And why? Because someone told him his dad (who was also supposed to be some ruthless bounty hunter) was "honorable", and that he'd do the right thing.

 

Rrrrrrright.

 

Now, isn't Boba Fett supposed to have this mystique built-up around him? Isn't he supposed to be the most nerd-tastic Star Wars character ever? Isn't he the best, most ruthless, killer in the galaxy? Well, nope. He's some punk wimp kid, sitting in jail, because it was the "honorable" thing to do. It seems like they're trying to make Boba into a more... acceptable role model? I don't know. It's weird. But hey, in my book, it's perfectly in keeping with the story of a galactic nincompoop whose claim to fame was hiding in some garbage, following Han Solo at a distance, reporting him to the Empire (who actually captured him), and then died by falling into a hole. You go, Boba!

 

Also in the episode, both his dad's helmet and his ship - Slave I - were destroyed, so... how does he get them back? (Yes... Slave I was destroyed off screen, so the bounty huntress flying it probably survived, and she probably just fired some missiles that blew up, so we only think it was destroyed.)

 

Anyway, both episodes were very good. Lots of great action, good character moments, and when it comes down to moving the story along, The Clone Wars pulls no punches. Dead bodies litter the wreckage, a hostage is executed... they're playing for keeps. Pretty mature for a "kid's cartoon".

 

They still need to work on the walk animation though. But they're getting better.

 

They ran some sneak previews of next season, which look pretty good. Ahsoka starts having visions, but of what? Anakin's downfall? Her own downfall? Will she go down the wrong path, or be forced ("force"d! Ha!) to confront Anakin some day? Clone Wars has turned into something that I actually look forward to watching now. It's much better than Star Wars Ep. I, II or III. I've probably said it before, but it's too bad they didn't make this series first, before those movies. Then, the movies might have actually had some depth, interesting characters, or emotional impact. Check it out if you get the chance.

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So... they finally killed Stargate Universe: 1999 in Space.

 

Yawn. :sleep:

 

But I decided since I'd wasted several otherwise perfectly-good blog entries on the series already, I'd watch the series finale tonight.

 

Finale.

 

Usually, that means "ending".

 

Like, it comes to an end, so you don't have any more of it.

 

Apparently, nobody bothered telling the writers. Or more likely, nobody cared.

 

I haven't watched a single episode since the last time I blogged about it. I watched the end of the penultimate episode (more out of laziness to change the channel last week than anything), but that's been it.

 

Turns out, I didn't miss much. They were still lost in space. Still doing stupid things, and now some aliens were mad at them. And I think some of the characters had died or something. One lost her eyesight, one has ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), and a couple of them have really bad hair now. So not much new. Still a bad soap opera in space.

 

And the fat computer nerd is still fat. But not quite as fat. Still, after a couple of years on rations, you'd think he'd be skinny by now.

 

So, in the finale, they decide the only way they can escape the bad guys, who are camping at all of the planets their ship is going to stop at, is to get into stasis pods they just conveniently discovered, and skip over the rest of those planets, and just move on to the next galaxy.

 

Which is going to take three years.

 

And of course, they discover at the very last second that eight of the pods were damaged, so eight people have to stay behind (insert dramatic music sting and commercial break here).

 

So they have to fix them, in a daring plan that works perfectly, with absolutely no drama or tension whatsoever.

 

Except, that after everyone else is in stasis, they discover again that one of the pods still isn't working.

 

So the fat computer nerd volunteers to stay outside the pod to try and fix it, or until his life support runs out.

 

And then they run the credits. The end.

 

Ummmm... right. Missing something here? Like... the finale? Do they make it? Does the fat computer nerd die? Do they all die? Does he pick someone else he doesn't like and kill them and take their stasis pod? Does anyone care?

 

Nnnnoooo. Nobody does.

 

To wit, from Wikipedia:

The second season (and last) of SGU is planned to end as a cliffhanger. To resolve this a movie was being planned; however, due to timing constraints, Stargate writer and executive producer Brad Wright announced on April 17, 2011 that the SGU movie was not going to happen.

 

So a lousy series gets a lousy send off.

 

Maybe in eleven years, they'll dust the cast back off, and make a made-for-TV-movie called: Rescue from Stargate Universe. Except that one of the actresses will be replaced by a Tina Louise look-alike.

 

Personally, I think I'll wait for The Harlem Globetrotters on Stargate Universe.

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