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Review of “FlashForward – Scary Monsters and Super Creeps”

In SciFiTVZone, TV Watchtower on November 5, 2009 at 11:50 pm

It was a Halloween to remember with kangaroos and blue-handed bodies

In “Scary Monsters and Super Creeps,” the show attempted to answer the question:  “What caused the flashforwards?”   Alas, the answer was perhaps more confounding than the question.  For as Simon (Dominic Monaghan) attempted to explain quantum mechanics in simple terms to the blonde on the train, we were all left scratching our heads over how Schrodinger’s Cat Theory actually worked.  In Simon’s example, you have to imagine that in your hand you are holding a tiny cat and a poisoned sardine, and if you fold your hand closed, the cat is given two choices: either the cat eats the poisoned sardine and dies, or it doesn’t and lives.  You will not know until you open your hand which option the cat chose. Thus, it is up to the cat to decide if it wants to live or die.  It is only after you (the observer) open your hand that you will discover the cat’s fate — and quantum physics says that until you open your hand both eventualities occur at the same time.  But, according to Schrodinger’s Cat Theory, the miracle of quantum mechanics is that the observer gets to decide.

 This is a mind-bender.  Are there two parallel realities?  Is it up to each of us to decide which reality will exist?  However, applying Schrodinger’s Cat Theory, as the woman noted, “The cat had already made up its mind.”

 Also following this vein, the series seems to be focusing on whether each character will choose to eat the poisoned sardine or not.  Does each move forward to make their visions a reality or move away and resist their visions to become a reality?  Mark (Joseph Fiennes) and Olivia (Sonya Walger) are pushing against allowing their visions from coming true.  Mark does not want to return to his dark days of alcoholism and a failed marriage, and Olivia does not want to abandon her marriage and find love with another man she does not know.  Additionally, Demetri (John Cho) does not want his vision to come true either, for he does not want to be murdered.

Continue reading article at:

http://scifitvzone.com/2009/11/08/flashforward-scary-monsters-and-super-creeps/ 

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Review of “Stargate Universe – Light”

In SciFiTVZone, TV Watchtower on November 1, 2009 at 9:13 pm
In the end, the credo “every man for himself” feels like a lonely way to live

From the very first episode, we heard Dr. Rush’s (Robert Carlyle) edicts echoing in our ears: “This ship could be the single most important discovery since the Stargate itself” and “this ship simply doesn’t have the capability to dial Earth.” These pronouncements set up the dilemma of (1) Rush is fascinated by the ship; and (2) what if because of his fascination he does not want to return to Earth and is only saying the Stargate aboard the ship cannot dial Earth. So with these conflicting interests in mind, in “Light” the survivors aboard the alien vessel, Destiny, were confronted with yet another imminent challenge: the ship had failing power reserves and was on a collision course with a giant star.

Faced with death just hours away, the survivors had to act quickly with what little time and resources they had remaining. It was time to decide who was going to live and who was going to die. After gathering everyone together, Col. Young (Louis Ferreira) shared their dire predicament and laid out the rules for a survival lottery. He would select two crew members to pilot the shuttle and another 15 people would be selected through a lottery to join in a last-ditch run for one of the three nearby planets in hope that they could survive. It was a bleak prospect anyway they looked at it. Yet in the end, they were all desperate for that one last chance to get away.

 As the rules of survival were explained, it was noted, “We are having another bad day.” But in the mere days since they escaped attack on Icarus, they have had virtually no calm days. They have been cursed with attempting to survive in an alien craft with little or no resources. Their lives have been reduced to one “bad day” after another. It may have been a heady adrenaline rush initially, but it left a nasty downhill kick as that began to ebb away. This was that day. It was time to face their mortality.

Not wanting to leave their fate up to a lottery, some vied to be one of the two selected claiming to be the right person necessary for the shuttle trip. Finally Col. Young yelled in frustration, “We’re all the wrong people!” For none of them had actually been selected to be there. They were only aboard the Destiny out of a trick of fate. They were the survivors of an attack, not people selected to go on a deep space exploration. Finding it odd that Rush opted out of the lottery, Col. Young asked Rush why. Rush merely replied, “This ship – coming here – is my destiny. My life’s work is to be here – not trying to survive on some rock with a bunch of strangers.”

In the meantime, with imminent death staring them in the face, Eli’s (David Blue) “message in a bottle” Keno became even more popular. For as Eli said, “Let’s do something. Let’s leave something of ourselves behind.” So Chloe (Elyse Levesque) left a touching tribute to her father’s sacrifice, “I just wanted to say that my father gave his life so we could survive another day – and we did.” Camille (Ming-Na) left a heart-felt message to her lover, “Tell Sharon my last thoughts were of her.” And Col. Young tried to say good-bye to his wife, “Hi Emily, I just wanted to say – well you know. You know. . . ” But it was Greer (Jamil Walker Smith) who said it best with, “I can’t think of a better way to move from this world to the next, or whatever comes, than to fly into the most powerful thing in all of creation – a star – out in a blaze of glory. I like that. That’s beautiful.”

 So as Eli and Chloe sat awaiting their certain death as the ship moved closer to the burning sun, Chloe put her head on Eli’s shoulder and held his hand. For if this was to be their last moments, they could only seek solace in the fact that they were not alone. Others recited the Lord’s Prayer; some played cards like it was just another day; some listened to music in remembrance; and some sought solitude. Everyone faced death in their own way.

Then unexpectedly, Rush abandoned his solitude and came running out to find Eli who was bewildered by Rush’s jubilation and said, “What are we so happy about?” To which Rush unabashedly replied, “We’re going to live! I am never more pleased to be wrong in my whole life!” For he had simply assumed that there had not been enough power left for Destiny’s shields to protect them, but it did. That is exactly why there was no apparent power, it was because Destiny had taken all of it to power the shields during its traverse through the star. Destiny needed every bit of it in order to protect itself while simultaneously using the solar energy gleaned from the star to refuel. That is the trick that Destiny employed: it replenishes its reserves by relying on solar power which it can only obtain by traveling through a sun. And then as Eli caught on, he said in awe and amazement, “Guys, we’re in the star. . . “

Later after the shuttle and the lottery winners rejoined Destiny, everyone was triumphant at their survival. Yet when Col. Young invited him to celebrate with everyone else, Rush merely shrugged and said, “Celebrate what? That we’re back where we started?” Col. Young then explained to him, “You actually made a sacrifice — unless you knew Destiny was going to make it all along . . .”

And that is the crux of that matter. Did Rush in fact know all along that Destiny would survive the encounter with the star and then chose to let them all believe otherwise?

What Worked

Surely everyone must have felt like cheering when Eli made the proclamation, “Math Boy!” to Rush when Rush questioned his equation results. That follow-up with Eli’s quick-witted announcement, “why am I watching this on TV?!” before he rushed back to the observation deck was priceless.

It was also cool that Eli remembered to use one of the Keno to be aboard the shuttle as it moved away from Destiny so that those behind could see for the first time what the ship looks like from the outside. Rush was awestruck and grateful as he said, “Thank you, Eli. I never thought I’d see the ship from the outside.” He also thoughtfully told Eli, “I’m sorry I got you involved with this.” To which Eli smiled and said, “Actually, I’m not.” Rush just looked at him and quietly replied, “Yet.”

What Didn’t Work

It was heartbreaking and unnecessary to have a scene where Eli had to witness Chloe and Scott (Brian J. Smith) leaving for one last moment of passion. It felt like a slap in the face and made it harder to believe that he would continue to be Chloe’s shoulder-to-cry-upon even in their last moments of life.

Additionally, it was like kicking a man when he is already down to have Eli dream about his mother nagging him to do laundry and reminding him that he does not have any skills. For when she asked him to do the laundry, Eli had flippantly responded, “Not in my skill set” and she quietly said, “Nothing is.” Eli is supposed to be the “everyman” and it is hard to think that the average TV viewer would allow all the women in their lives to treat them in such a deplorable manner.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

‘Light’ was written by Brad Wright and directed by Peter DeLuise. ‘Stargate Universe’ stars Robert Carlyle, David Blue, Brian J. Smith, Alaina Huffman, Ming-Na, Lou D. Phillips, Jamil Walker Smith, Elyse Levesque, Louis Ferreira. ‘Stargate Universe’ airs Fridays at 9 p.m. on Syfy.

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Review of “FlashForward – Gimme Some Truth”

In SciFiTVZone, TV Watchtower on October 28, 2009 at 11:33 pm

The truth never sets anyone free, it just shackles them to a nightmare

Following the premise, “What if it happened before?” Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) enlisted fellow FBI Agent Al Gough (Lee Thompson Young) to contact a hacker to get CIA satellite imagery on Somalia from December 1990 – and they got just what they needed:  photos showing several tall pylons in the middle of nowhere in Somalia.  However, before they can run down this lead, the team is called to Washington, D.C. to answer to a Senate Intelligence Committee who is vetting each intelligence branch to determine which one should run point on the black-out investigation.  It wants to consolidate money and data under one government branch. Thus, the FBI has to justify its Mosaic investigation or they could lose their funding.     

 With an admonishment from Stanford Wedeck (Courtney B. Vance), “Just keep your mouth shut.  If you tell anyone else about this, we are DOA,” Benford must hide what he saw in his flashforward vision about his drinking.  For once anyone hears that he was impaired at the time, it casts doubt on the credibility of the FBI’s entire investigation.  But, at the Senate Intelligence Committee hearings, everyone subjected is to lie detector testing because the “CIA believes this was a targeted event designed to bring about the collapse of our government.”  Despite passing the lie detector test, Mark is asked to testify before the committee and, while subject to cross-examination before the committee, he revealed that he was investigating crow attrition (the mass death of crows) as a sign that the black-out was not an isolated incident and may have happened before.  He was also forced to reveal that he saw masked gunmen coming to kill him in his vision, which he felt validated the Mosaic investigation as it must have yielded fruit or why would anyone want to kill him.  But when asked, “Why is everything in your recollection so hazy and disjointed?” Mark could not give an adequate answer as to why he could not remember more than 30 seconds or so, when everyone else could remember in startling clarity every moment of their 2 minute and 17 second visions.  He only continued to state that the Mosaic investigation is a way to construct a picture of what the world will look like in 6 months and it has proven more reliable than theories that the black-out was due to the work of aliens, pharmaceutical companies, or China.

Unbeknownst to Mark, Senator Joyce Clemente (Barbara Williams) had a personal ax to grind.  As she reminded Wedeck, if only she could prove what he did 6 years ago, she would be the President of the United States.  But then she cryptically said, “If you sit by the river long enough, you’ll see the bodies of your enemies float by,” and shared that in her flashforward vision, she saw herself as President.  It was chilling as she said, “As impossible as that may be, it’s a nice thought, isn’t it?”   But it was also prophetic.

Continue reading article at:

http://scifitvzone.com/2009/11/08/flashforward-gimme-some-truth/ 

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“Fringe” recap

In SciFiTVZone, TV Watchtower on October 21, 2009 at 10:48 pm

After the momentous revelation that William Bell had been hiding in an alternate universe – the same universe that Walter had kidnapped Peter from after his son died — the first season of “Fringe” seemed like it would be a hard act to follow.  But as the second season has already shown, “Fringe” has a few more surprises up its sleeve.

 Starting off with a bang, we were immediately thrown amidst a head-on car crash.  Car accidents are routine, but not when one of the drivers disappears into thin-air.  Thus, in the second season opener, “A New Day in an Old Town,” the sole survivor of the accident was a man who soon revealed himself to be anything but a man.  He was a shape-shifter – and clearly not from our universe.  It was his mission to kill Olivia.  Olivia, in the meantime, had been yanked out of our universe and into the alternate universe for a meeting with the mysterious William Bell.  It was because the auto accident failed to stop that meeting from occurring that Olivia had a bulls-eye on her back.  For whatever William Bell had told her was worth killing for.  However, Olivia’s return to our universe was not gentle and she was thrown through the windshield of her car and sustained a nasty head injury.  This left her unable to remember the vital information that William Bell had shared with her.  Because Olivia was in a coma, Peter stepped forward to take command and was instrumental in getting the Fringe Division reinstated.  It was touch and go for most of the episode, but in the end, Olivia miraculously awoke and Peter saved the Fringe Division from bureaucratic extinction.  And Walter made Peter a custard cake for his birthday.

Continue reading article at:

http://scifitvzone.com/2009/10/22/fringe-recap/

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“Dollhouse” recap

In SciFiTVZone, TV Watchtower on October 21, 2009 at 9:44 pm

Last season ended with Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) discovering the Dollhouse and inadvertently unleashing Alpha (Alan Tudyk) upon it.  Alpha then promptly kidnapped Echo (Eliza Dushku) and downloaded over 30 different personalities into her all at once.  But to his dismay, Echo did not feel enlightened or freed by this process. Her reaction was quite the opposite and Alpha then saw that he had created a monster which he could not control and which turned on him.  He escaped, barely, and Echo was returned to the Dollhouse.  Ballard then traded his freedom for Mellie’s (Miracle Laurie) and agreed to become Echo’s handler while Boyd (Harry Lennix) took over as head of security.

 As we re-entered the realm of the Dollhouse in the second season, it was several months later with Paul Ballard now employed as Echo’s handler, with she and Ballard working together to bring down the Dollhouse from the inside.  However, unlike previous memory wipes, Echo is no longer unaware of what has happened to her.  Due to her super-enhanced multi-identity state, the average memory-wipe does not completely erase the imprinted identity.  Thus, each imprint remains with Echo and she remembers everything after her assignments.  This is the price Echo must pay for, if she revealed the ineffectiveness of the wipes, she would have not have any identity at all, nor could she assist Ballard in taking down the Dollhouse.

 In the second season opener, “Vows,” Ballard was the client and he had retained Echo’s services in order to infiltrate the world of a British arm’s dealer.  Echo has been programmed to be an FBI agent who is under-cover as the arms dealer’s fiancé.  It was a con within a con.  So with Ballard and Echo occupied with their mission to bring down another nefarious organization, the core of the episode actually focused on Dr. Saunders aka: Whiskey (Amy Acker) as she had learned that she was not in fact Dr. Saunders, but was instead a doll.  Wanting to punish Topher (Fran Kranz) for imprinting her in the first place, she asked him to explain why he programmed her to hate him and he stated that he hadn’t.  That was something she came up with all on her own.  He had not merely programmed her to be a “yes” man, but had given her the ability to have free-will.  She was free to chose how she felt.  In the end, confused as to who she was and her role, Dr. Saunders exercised that free will and finally left the Dollhouse.

 In the subsequent episode, “Instinct,” Echo is imprinted with the personality of a recently deceased mother in order to care for the newborn child whose father cannot stand the sight of him.  However, when Echo overheard the father saying that he cannot keep up the ruse anymore and that he wanted to get rid of the baby, she kidnapped the child in order to protect it.  But, like before, a simple memory wipe was not enough to erase her memories and feeling an overpowering need to protect the child, she went to confront the father.  It is only after the father reasoned with her that Echo began to see the difference between her multi-faceted personalities and the imprinted one and was willing to leave the baby with his father.  After having her emotions manipulated into loving a child that was not hers, more than ever, Echo swears to make the Dollhouse pay for making her love a child and then being forced to give it up.

 Then in the third episode, “Belle Chose,” a serial killer’s personality is downloaded into Victor’s (Enver Gjokaj) body in order to ascertain the location of the woman the killer had taken.  After the killer’s uncle released him in Victor’s body back out into society, DeWitt (Olivia Williams) and Topher elected to turn off the Dollhouse system in order to remote-wipe the serial killer’s personality out of Victor.  This worked partially, for instead of wiping the killer’s personality, it merely transferred it into Echo’s body – who was in the middle of a teacher/student sex fantasy.  Echo, as the killer, promptly stabbed the professor, escaped and returned to his lair where there were three women locked in a cage.  Victor (now thinking he is a girl) went dancing at a nearby club and hilarious hi-jinks ensued from that particular identity crisis.  In the meantime, Echo grappled with the imprint of the serial killer and urged the women to kill her in order to escape.  Fortunately, the GPS-tracking chip led Boyd and the security detail to them and everyone was saved.  But are they really?  For Echo again still showed trace signs of still having the serial killer embedded into her conscious.  It remains to be seen whether she will be strong enough to keep that imprint at bay.

Finally, in the fourth episode “Belonging” the series exploded.  They had promised that everything would come together and grab everyone’s attention – and they were absolutely right.  Focusing on Sierra and her backstory on how she was kidnapped, drugged and repeatedly sexually assaulted by her captor – all under the permissive watch of the Dollhouse was eye-opening, sickening and riveting.  It also ratcheted up the level of tension and moral dilemmas they all face.  It was Sierra’s story, and how they all became swept up in it.  Victor as the quiet champion awaiting the return of his princess.  Boyd the fixer who stepped in to clean-up Topher’s mess.  Adelle’s heart-broke handing over Sierra to a monster.  And Topher who never had a heart before, discovered he had one.  Interestingly enough, even with Echo out of the lime-light, she caught Boyd’s attention and there was some cool interplay with Boyd catching her reading a book (Dolls are not supposed to be able to read) and his attempt to ferret out what she was up to.  And in an episode where Paul Ballard did not even appear once, it was startling to see how the other characters came together just fine in his absence.

 The second season is not merely a journey through the various fantasies that wealthy clients are willing to pay for.  It is a discovery of self-identity as Echo fights to figure out who she is amidst all the downloaded personality imprints.  It is also a mission to bring down those behind the Dollhouse and to put a stop to the human enslavement they have created.

 “Dollhouse” is created and produced by Joss Whedon and stars Eliza Dushku, Tahmoh Penikett, Olivia Williams, Dichen Lachman, Enver Gjokaj, Harry Lennix, and Fran Kranz.  “Dollhouse” airs on Friday nights at 9:00 p.m. on Fox.

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Review of “Stargate Universe – Darkness”

In SciFiTVZone, TV Watchtower on October 19, 2009 at 11:47 pm

Discovering the light in the darkness

This was an episode in which the gadgets nearly stole the show.  The lights may have gone out due to power depletion, but it was highly entertaining to see the crew record their messages of hope, longing and despair in the Kino and Eli (David Blue) was never more adorable than when he handed his cellphone to Chloe (Elyse Levesque) to give her a bit of light in the darkness.  

 For all the cuteness, this was a dark episode – and not just because the lights went out. Watching the normally calm, cool and collected Dr. Rush (Robert Carlyle) have a panic-attack and pass out from fear and exhaustion set the tone.  They were all at wits end.  Without power, they were basically sitting in a coffin in space.  Dr. Rush’s fear was not unfounded for all the fiddling everyone had done to figure out what each button and switch did had needlessly depleted their power reserves.  His bellow, “Stop pushing buttons!” was not just out of frustration.  They desperately needed every second of power they could eek out of the ship to survive.

 So while Dr. Rush was incapacitated, it fell on Col. Young (Justin Louis) to figure a way out of their dire predicament.  Thus, it was appalling that his first thought was to use the communication stones to go home and say good-bye to his estranged wife.  But in the absence of both Rush and Young, the younger folk had more to do and they rose to the occasion: Lt. Scott (Brian J. Smith) continued to try to figure out a way to use the shuttle; T.J. (Alaina Huffman) kept a watchful eye on her recuperating invalids, both Col. Young (occupied by Col. Telford) and Dr. Rush; and Eli got to play the hero in the midst of the chaos.

 Continue reading article at:

http://scifitvzone.com/2009/10/22/stargate-universe-darkness/

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Review of “FlashForward – Black Swan”

In SciFiTVZone, TV Watchtower on October 19, 2009 at 11:43 pm

Lulled into a false sense of security

This episode was by far the most surprising to date.  It lulled you into thinking this was the same thing we had begun to expect over the course of the last few episodes, and then out of the blue, it delivered a blow not seen coming.  It was not even a death-blow.  It was just a major shocker.  The “black swan” was not Ned (Keir O’Donnell), the guy who thought he was going to turn into an African American; the “black swan” was Lloyd Simcoe (Jack Davenport).  I guess it is true when they say the best way to hide something is to hide it in plain sight.  For I never once suspected that Lloyd had anything to do with the blackout.  Thus, seeing the final scene of the episode where he takes the call from Simon (Dominic Monaghan) was a surprise.  The hair on the back of my neck and arms rose as I heard Simon tell him, “Talking to me is one of those little inconveniences you’re going to have to put up with now that we’re responsible for the single greatest disaster in human history.”

As continuity goes, it was cool to see Alda Hertzog (Rachel Roberts) again — the blonde terrorist that Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) and Demetri Noh (John Cho) had been chasing at the time of the blackout.  She fooled them by cryptically telling Demetri that his time was running out and then sending them on a wild-goose chase.  (Side-note:  There’s a lot of bird references in this show with crows, black swans and now geese.)  As riveting as the interrogation scenes were, it was rather mind-numbing to watch them actually go to Indio to the restaurant and chase a petty drug dealer.  However, Alda, for all her resistance to answering their questions, was actually a fount of information.  Alda was the one that ultimately gave us two significant clues.  The first was about the “black swan” theory.  She explained that a black swan is something so out of the ordinary that it is used to describe events beyond the realm of the ordinary.  The second clue she provided was regarding the Sufi parable about an old man and a young boy with a candle and the old man asks the boy where the light comes from —  and the young boy blows out the candle and tells the old man, “if you tell me where the light went, I will tell you where it came from.”  The black-out and the reveal that Lloyd Simcoe was involved with it were the “black swan moments.”  As for the significance of the Sufi parable, perhaps that was to illustrate that it does not matter how the black-out occurred and that they needed to focus on the why it happened. For Alda told Mark, “you’re ignoring the most profound question:  why?”  It is not “who” or “how” that really matter, but the question of “why.”  Like with the boy and the candle, the disappearing light is not the point.  The point is that it happened.  Thus, accept it and address the more pertinent question. 

Continue reading article at:

http://scifitvzone.com/2009/10/22/flashforward-black-swan/

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Spotlight on Lou Diamond Phillips

In SciFiTVZone, TV Watchtower on October 17, 2009 at 7:04 pm

Starting his career innocuously in the mid-1980’s, working as nameless punks or thugs, Lou Diamond Phillips got a break in 1987 on “Miami Vice” and that same year lightening struck with a break-out role as Ritchie Valens in the film “La Bamba.”  He quickly followed up that astounding and critically-acclaimed performance with an even more eye-opening performance as Angel Guzman in the film “Stand and Deliver” along side Edward James Olmos.  (Side-note:  It is fascinating to see that both Lou Diamond Phillips and Edward James Olmos ended up in two pivotal sci-fi television series nearly 20 years later — Edward James Olmos having portrayed Admiral Adama on the Syfy series “Battlestar Galactica” and Lou Diamond Phillips now appears in Syfy’s “Stargate Universe.”)

Riding the wave of instant popularity and box-office success, Lou continued his streak by appearing in the films “Young Guns” and “Young Guns II,” thereby solidifying his role as a young Hollywood heart-throb.  Then through the 1990’s, he tackled a wide-array of roles ranging from playing an outcast in “Sioux City” beside Salli Richardson-Whitfield (“Eureka”), a tortured military soldier in “Courage Under Fire” with Denzel Washington and Meg Ryan, and a medical officer in the sci-fi film “Supernova” with James Spader and Robin Tunney.  Perhaps tiring of the grueling pace of feature film, Lou agreed to tackle a television series and headlined the gothic-horror “Wolf Lake.”  Alas, audiences did not take to the idea of having werewolves living amongst us in modern society and that series ended after only ten episodes.

Not one to rest on his laurels or kick-back, Lou threw himself into an even more ambitious work schedule tackling no less than 8 feature films and 20 television roles in the span of 7 years.  Most notably, he appeared in the second season of “24” (along side his “Young Guns” co-star Kiefer Sutherland) and then did a quick stop-by in the critic’s favorite “Jack & Bobby” to make an appearance as Jack’s father which inspired him to one day become the U.S. public defender.  He also appeared in the television mini-series “The Triangle” with Eric Stoltz (who stars in the upcoming sci-fi series “Caprica”) as the sole survivor of a Triangle-event which left him trapped in a different timeline.

Then in recent years, Lou has made regular guest appearances on the mathematical drama “Numb3rs” as Agent Ian Edgerton and also made a brief appearance earlier this year in “The Beast” (the Patrick Swayze undercover FBI drama).

With such a varied and extensive career under his belt, it is a wonder that Lou has had any time to sleep in the past two decades.  But, being driven and ambitious, he quickly latched onto a new break-out sci-fi series “Stargate Universe” in the ambiguous role of Col. David Telford.  His casting on the show was no less surprising than some of his co-stars as “Stargate Universe” has tried to distinguish itself as the darker, edgier version of its predecessors.  The casting of Lou Diamond Phillips is a testament to that vision as he is an actor who relishes the most challenging and diverse roles available.  It will be intriguing to see where Lou goes both as his character, Col. David Telford in “Stargate Universe” and in his professional career.

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Review of “Stargate Universe – Air”

In SciFiTVZone, TV Watchtower on October 13, 2009 at 12:32 am

Survival at no matter the cost

“Stargate Universe” is the second spin-off of the successful sci-fi series “Stargate SG-1” which ran for an astounding ten seasons.  Unlike the original “Stargate SG-1” which was based on Earth, or “Stargate: Atlantis” which was based on a portable city on another planet, “Stargate Universe” is focused on a rag-tag group of survivors who find themselves trapped on an alien ship traveling on the outer fringe of the universe.  Fearful of using the barely functioning Stargate aboard the ship as it may lead their attackers back to Earth, they must rely on each other to survive until they can find a way to safely return home.

 “Stargate Universe” tackles the ambitious premise of trying to straddle both prior incarnations of the franchise, while establishing its own identity.  In breadth alone it feels larger than its predecessors.  The size of the cast is daunting as the viewer tries to figure out who is who and what role each plays in this micro-universe.

 After watching all three parts of its pilot “Air,” a few faces have begun to stand-out.  The most recognizable is Dr. Nicholas Rush (Robert Carlyle) who is the scientific genius who everyone defers to simply because without him, they will all die.  Next is the recently recruited video geek/guru Eli Wallace (David Blue), whose fantasies came true when they beamed him up onto their ship and invited him to be a consultant to crack an alien code.  Then on the military-side, there is 1st Lt. Matthew Scott (Brian J. Smith) who seamlessly takes charge after the Icarus base attack.  Following Scott, there is 1st Lt. Tamara Johansen (Alaina Huffman), a medical officer, who seems more concerned about her affair with her superior, Col. Everett Young (Justin Louis), than anything else.  Last, but not least, there is the waif-like ingénue Chloe Armstrong (Elyse Levesque) who was accompanying her high-ranking father, Senator Alan Armstrong (Christopher McDonald), at the time of the attack and she is literally caught in the cross-fire of military and scientific agendas as her father sacrificed himself to give them all a fighting chance at survival.

Continue reading article at:

http://scifitvzone.com/2009/10/13/stargate-universe-review-air/

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Review of “FlashForward – 137 Sekunden”

In SciFiTVZone, TV Watchtower on October 12, 2009 at 4:24 pm

Do the ends ever justify the means?

When ABC first debuted the new television series FlashForward three weeks ago, the world sat riveted in front of their TV sets. It was an adrenaline rush that left the audience breathless for more. Based on the book of the same name by Canadian science fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer, the series version of FlashForward began with the calamitous events that occurred on a seemingly normal day when the entire planet came to a stand-still. For 2 minutes and 17 seconds, virtually every human-being blacked-out and fell to the ground. It was a world-wide disaster as airplanes fell out of the sky, cars collided, and a multitude of horrific events occurred because there was no one conscious. But FlashForward is not merely a disaster show. It is about what happened during those mysterious 2 minutes and 17 seconds, for everyone was not simply unconscious, they were given a glimpse of their future. They were able to see exactly where they would be in 6 months – what they were doing and who they were doing it with. The real story driving the series is whether each will see their vision of the future come true. For some, that is horrifying and for others, it is everything they’ve prayed and hoped for.

Initially, the central characters are an FBI agent, Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes), his partner, Demetri Noh (John Cho), his boss, Stan Wedeck (Courtney B. Vance), and Mark’s wife, Olivia Benford (Sonya Walger, better known as Penny from Lost). They are the characters that we are first introduced to and whose flashbacks we experience. It is also Benford who first clued in that there may be a conspiracy afoot, as his flashback revealed to him that he was investigating the flashforward event in relation to something called the Mosaic Collective. For his partner, Demetri, he had a more alarming realization: he did not experience a flashforward vision, which led him to believe that he may not be alive in six months. Then for Benford’s wife, Olivia, her vision was perhaps the most disturbing of all as she saw herself having a romantic liaison with another man – a man she had not even met yet. For all of these individuals, their visions have not brought them peace and comfort in what lies ahead. To the contrary, they will do everything they can to prevent their visions from coming true.

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http://scifitvzone.com/2009/10/12/flashforward-137-sekunden/

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