A Labour Of Love

Yesterday morning I watched Turnabout Intruder, the very last episode from the 3 year run of Star Trek : The Original Series.With that I have completed downloading & watching the entire TOS series in chronological order. I started downloading it quite a while back, late 2009 I think. It has been a labour of love.

Although I was quite familiar with the series, I had last watched it while I was a pre-teen. I had loved and watched the movies many times but the series still remained much of a stranger to me. So I had set out to remedy this by downloading the episodes one after the other.

At certain points while watching the series I used to think that TOS was miles ahead of every other series at that point in history and even when you compare it with Scifi or even non-Scifi series made since then. Some of the concepts were very cool and quite dramatic; the idea of the status of humanity at the time of making the series was quite forward thinking and utopian in nature. And then ofcourse they had some really bad stories! Some of the fight scenes were laughable, some weapons or powers totally out there!

Often you would see Capt. Kirk and his crew meeting a planet that looks so much like Earth or Earth’s past. One or two such cases would have been fine but the way that this main concept was repeated & bandied about bored me at times. Still the show was groundbreaking and still is considered to be the ultimate Scifi series of all time, more than 40 years after the show was canceled.

May the original always shine on in our hearts and memories. I hope future generations come to watch & love the show as much as we do. Live long & prosper.

Stargate Universe : Episode 23 “Awakening”

Some of the crew are on the observation deck watching as Destiny approaches an unknown object in space. Young orders Adam Brody and Dale Volker to ready Destiny’s weapons. As they approach closer they can see that it is a ship and similar to that of Destiny, hence Ancient in origin. Even though at first it seems that the ships are on a collision course, as Rush notes, Destiny is going to dock with the other ship. Col. Young sends a team to enter the ship & explore.

With Scott & Greer leading, the away team boards the second ship. Eli, Brody & Walker follow up behind them. As the team explores, restoring power and consoles, elsewhere on the vessel, a pod opens, from which an alien hand reaches out. Meanwhile, Wray tells Young that a funeral service will be held for Riley later in the week. Young agrees to say a few words. Young walks into the control room, having been called by Eli. Eli informs him that, after checking and rechecking their findings, they have discovered that the seed ship has a sizable energy reserve, enough to dial the gate back to Earth. Rush tells Young that he needs to open certain conduits to set up a transfer, which can only be done from the seed ship. Young lets him leave. As Rush makes his way to the airlock, the Kino feed is suddenly cut off. Leaving it to Park, he moves to Rush’s console so he can open the airlock. Telford decides to join the away team on the second ship.

Volker, left alone in the control room of the second ship, comes in contact with an alien. As it stares at him, a scared Volker tries to placate it but is surprised when the alien creature collapses. Calling the others, they try to help it and it recovers instantly. The away team try to give it a bit of fruit but it spits it out. Rush recommends that they search for others of its kind. Scott, Telford, and Greer split up to search, leaving Rush and TJ with Dunning and one other soldier. Scott and Telford eventually end up running into each other, while Greer finds about a dozen more open pods in another room. He radios Scott and Telford to inform them of the discovery. Using the power drawn from the second ship, the crew try to dial Earth. Just after this the alien escapes from the humans.

The remaining aliens stop the power transfer and the gate shuts down. Telford stays behind to try to reroute power as the rest of the away team makes its way back to Destiny. Somehow the ships disengage from their docking position – Telford is stranded on the second ship, alone against the aliens. Young & Rush admit that they have no way to retrieve him. Telford tells him to take care of the crew and himself. Destiny jumps to FTL, and Telford calls over the radio to see if they’re still there. Now alone, he is confronted by the aliens.

Star Trek: TOS Women 12

The late Jill Ireland played Leila Kalomi, a female Human botanist in the 23rd century. While on Earth in 2261, Kalomi met Spock, a Vulcan Starfleet officer. Kalomi immediately loved Spock and declared her feelings for him, but Spock could not return those emotions for her. Even after they parted company, Kalomi still carried feelings for Spock.

In 2263, Kalomi joined Elias Sandoval’s colonial expedition to Omicron Ceti III, and served as the groups senior biologist. When the expedition finally landing on Omicron Ceti III a year later, Kalomi discovered the pod plants and the contagious spores which they released into the atmosphere. While these spores protected the colonists from the deadly Berthold rays present in the atmosphere, they also gave the colonists a sense of contentment and perfect physical health.

Three years later, in the episode This Side Of Paradise, the USS Enterprise arrived in orbit of Omicron Ceti III to try and establish the loss of contact with the colony. Spock and Kalomi were quickly reunited, and she used one of the pod plants to infect Spock and break down his emotional controls so that he could love her in return. The couple spent many blissful hours together on the planet’s surface, but the spores control over Spock was broken when Captain James T. Kirk was able to induce great anger in his first officer. Realising that she had lost Spock once again, Kalomi broke down in tears. She later evacuated with the rest of the colonists to Starbase 27. Spock wrote a poem, which elaborates on his feelings for Kalomi. It seems possible that he did return her affections, secretly.

The very sweet looking & beautiful Jill was married to David McCallum from May 11, 1957 to 1967, with whom she had three sons, including their adoptive son Jason McCallum Bronson, who died of a drug overdose in 1989. From October 5, 1968 until her death, she was married to actor Charles Bronson, in whose films she frequently appeared. Late in her life, Ireland wrote two autobiographical books, Life Wish (1987, about her experiences after being diagnosed with breast cancer) and Life Lines (1989, about her adoptive son’s drug addiction). Ireland died of breast cancer at the age of 54 in California.

Star Trek: TOS Women 11

The late Kathie Browne was a California-based actress who appeared as Deela in the TOS episode Wink of an Eye. Her character was Queen of the Scalosians, whose inhabitants had undergone acceleration in their bio-chemistry so that their hours were like normal minutes. Scalosian males were also made infertile due to the radiation sickness. The Scalosians hijacked the USS Enterprise in 2268. They planned to use the ship’s male crew as a gene pool so her species could continue.

Deela is quite taken by the handsome captain Kirk and tries to seduce him and bring him to her point of view. Wanting him as her consort, accelerated him to her level, causing him to vanish from the Enterprise crew’s view. Deela informed him that the Scalosians planned to cryogenically freeze the crew of the ship so that they would have a ready gene pool to populate their race. A large number of individuals were required for the plot to be successful since hyper-acceleration caused rapid aging and death if the subject became injured. Deela’s husband, Rael, became jealous of Kirk because he believed that Deela had feelings for him. Rael tried to kill Kirk, but Deela stopped him. Kirk, along with the help of Spock, was able to stop her plan and reverse the effects of the hyper-acceleration on themselves. Deela and her people however were returned to Scalos with their problems unsolved.

This episode caused some stir back in the late 60s as a scene managed to slip past the censors the scene suggesting that Deela and Kirk have just had sex. The captain is sitting on the edge of the bed, tugging on his boot, while Deela is busy brushing her hair. Nowadays ofcourse this wouldn’t create anything. However, Kathie Browne was a beautiful woman. She appeared in many films and TV shows such as Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, My Favorite Martian, The Wild Wild West, Fantasy Island, and Kolchak: The Night Stalker (with her husband Darren McGavin, to whom she had been married since 1969).

She died of natural causes in 2003 in Beverly Hills, California.

Moon

I do not remember hearing about this movie or watching a trailer before this Sunday. The story sounded very intriguing & the movie looked very interesting & dark that I just had to get me a copy of Moon. I’ve seen a few things with Sam Rockwell in it and had a passing interest in him as an actor. I did like him a lot in Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind & Galaxy Quest. But this movie looked like a whole new ball game for him as an actor and indeed for any actor. Moon was directed by first time director Duncan Jones who is the son of David Bowie.

Well what is the movie, set in the near future, all about? Sam Bell is a Lunar Industries employee working on the Moon, extracting helium 3 which provides for clean energy on Earth, leaving behind his wife & baby daughter (who he hasn’t seen yet as she was born after he left Earth). His contract is for 3 years, during which he mans the almost completely automated station base with only the robotic assistant GERTY (voiced by Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey) for company. On a daily basis Sam drives a Moon rover to retrieve the canisters of helium-3 from the automated harvesting machines. A blocked signal limits his contact with his family to recorded tapes.

Towards the end of his contract, he starts hallucinating and his health deteriorates. One day, 2 weeks before his 3 years are up, Sam crashes his rover and is knocked unconscious. He then wakes up in the base’s infirmary and GERTY tells him that he was injured. However Sam goes out a few days later and find the damaged rover – with himself inside! He brings the other ‘Sam’ into the base and confronts GERTY about this. After the older Sam recovers the two of them are wary of each other, each thinking that the other is a clone. Turns out that they both are clones of the original Sam Bell, who left the Moon for Earth after his 3 years were up. In order to ensure that the training skills will be saved, Lunar Industries used Sam’s genetic material and memories for the production of hundreds of Sam clones.

Each clone has a lifespan of just 3 years, which is why the contract is still known as the same. Towards the end of the 3 years, the clone’s health deteriorates and becoming ill they are told to get into the “hibernation” pod; believing they will be returned home, but are instead killed by incineration. And a new clone is ‘activated’ believing that he has just arrived at the base for the start of a 3 year term on the Moon! The older Sam then goes out in his rover and using an unblocked link seeks out his family – he finds that his daghter, Eve, is  now 15 years old and that his wife is dead. Eve stays with her father the original Sam.

A rescue team is sent to the base to ensure that, along with repairs to the harvester, only one clone exists at one time. The second Sam plans to launch the sick Sam back to Earth (on the reasoning that the sick Sam is the more deserving since he did the three years) in a helium delivery vessel, and proposing to place another clone body in the damaged rover to take the sick Sam’s place. However the sick Sam, aware that he is near death, insists that the healthy Sam go instead, while he returns to the rover to die, and with the new third Sam clone awakening to prevent the rescue team from becoming suspicious. GERTY permits the healthy Sam to wipe out his memory and reboot him. As the second Sam approaches Earth, newscast voice-overs begin detailing the consequences of his return: Lunar Industries’ stock price crashes; Sam’s clone gives evidence to an unidentified Board of Directors; and finally a radio talk-show host denounces the clone as a ‘wacko’ or an illegal immigrant and insists he be jailed.

What a fantastic looking and acted film. Great job by Sam Rockwell who pulls his role off with aplomb. This is a much watch film for anyone who just likes good cinema, forget if you are a Scifi fan or not. 9 outta 10!

An Intriguing Character From DS9

Followers of Star Trek and Deep Space 9 in particular should be familiar with the character Cmd. Michael Eddington. A recurring character, the Star Fleet Security officer was stationed to DS9 after first contact with the Dominion. This was done in part to increase Starfleet control of the station’s security operations, as Starfleet did not have full confidence in the current security chief, Odo. Ironically it was Eddington who ended up being a traitor and causing the Federation issues.

Eddington, who became disillusioned with Starfleet and the Federation, and joined the Maquis, was created as a Canadian but played by New York actor Kenneth Marshall. After joining the staff at DS9, he worked closely with Odo. There was an incident where he was ordered by an admiral to sabotage the Defiant when Capt. Sisko disobeys orders, but then helps the crew to complete their mission. Eddington also saved the lives of Captain Sisko, Major Kira, Lt. Commander Dax, Chief O’Brien and Lt. Commander Worf on an occasion. But he would show his true colours and defect to the Maquis after hijacking some equipment meant to be sent to the Cardassians. He would soon rise to become their leader and would soon be established as Sisko’s nemesis.

Sisko would be hell bent on bringing Eddington to justice, more so because the latter was an officer under his command. He would try to uncover all Maquis operations to get Eddington in a cell but kept getting thwarted. Finally it was an uncharacteristic ‘villainous’ move by Sisko which helped him to bring the wayward Commander in – Sisko destroyed the atmosphere of a planet where the Maquis had established a colony and threatened to do the same to more. In order to spare the other Maquis worlds, Eddington turned over the remaining biogenic weapons and surrendered to Starfleet for court martial. In this move, Sisko was playing out a fantasy of Eddington’s – Eddington was particularly fond of the novel Les Misérables. He saw himself as the hero, Valjean, pursued by the inflexible policeman Javert, whom Eddington envisioned as his former commander, Benjamin Sisko.

In the final episode to feature the commander, Sisko enlists Eddington’s help to find a small planet in the Badlands that houses deadly missiles. It turned out to be a ruse to save a few Maquis survivors from the Jem’Hadar who had aso uncovered the base on the planet. Sisko & Eddington worked together to save the Maquis personnel, among whom was Rebacca Sullivan, Michael’s wife. The Maquis were saved but at the cost of Eddington; injured he stayed back to cover the escape of the rest of the humans. At the end of the episode, Sisko pays a tribute to his former chief of security to whom he had a grudging admiration.

Eddington would be one of the most intriguing recurring characters in Star Trek history. Who would want to leave the utopia of the Federation & of Earth in particular and defect to the deary living & hiding of the Maquis? Eddington was one of those who didn’t like the fact that the Federation was held back by diplomacy to side with the Cardassians against the Maquis who, according to him, had nobler reasons for fighting the Cardassians.

“I called him a traitor once, but in a way, he was the most loyal man I ever met. He was a Maquis, right up to the bitter end.”

Predators

Directed  by Nimrod Antal and starring Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Walton Goggins, Danny Trejo, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Oleg Taktarov and Louis Ozawa Changchien, Predators brings back the franchise to where it truly belongs – set in the jungle. Producer Robert Rodriquez had come up with the script back in 1994 but had to wait till last year for the movie to be greenlit and out comes a worthy sequel to Arnold’s original Predator movie.

If you have seen the trailer then you will know that a group of humans – black ops soldier turned mercenary, a sniper from the Israeli army, a Mexican drug cartel enforcer, a Russian soldier, an RUF soldier, a Yakuza soldier, a death row inmate and a doctor – all find themselves parachuting from the air into an unfamiliar jungle. All of them are armed and trained to kill with the exception of the doctor and the inmate has no guns. Royce the black ops soldier (Brody) leads the team to find higher ground and as they reach there they see an alien sky and realize that they are not on earth.

Having found empty cages and a plant with a neurotoxic poison, the body of a maimed US soldier, they are suddenly attacked by alien wild beasts. Although they kill a few of them, the beasts seem to be getting the upper hand when a whistle blows, calling back all of the ‘dogs’ from the attack. This leads the team to believe that they are on an alien game reserve and are being hunted for sport or for training purposes. The Mexican is killed by an unseen force. The team then find a hunting encampment with a tied up alien Predator. Three large Predators decloak and attack the humans, killing the RUF officer.

They then run into Noland (Fishburne) a US air assault officer who was dumped on the planet but has survived for many years. Although he initially seems to help them with food & water, he tried to kill them. As the group escapes, Noland is killed by a Predator. The Russian Nikolai sacrifices himself to kill one of the Predators, while Hanzo (the Japanese enforcer) kills another and died himself in a sword fight. The inmate is killed by the 3rd and last remaining large Predator. Edwin (the doctor) is injured by a trap as he, Royce, and Isabelle head for the encampment. When Isabelle refuses to abandon him, Royce leaves them both behind and they are caught by the remaining large Predator. Royce frees the smaller Predator and heads for the ship as the two Predators confront each other. The larger Predator kills its foe and then destroys the ship as it takes off. Meanwhile, Edwin paralyzes Isabelle with the neurotoxic poison on his scalpel and reveals that on Earth he was a psychopathic murderer, and feels that he fits in on this planet among the monsters. Royce appears, never having boarded the ship, and saves Isabelle by stabbing Edwin through the throat.

The doctor is fitted with bombs to booby trap the Predator and Royce kills him. He & Isabelle are the only two remaining on the planet but as the day breaks, they see more prey being parachuted down to the planet’s surface.

Very good action adventure type movie. Brings the Predator back to the jungle just like the original one did and it thrives in that element of hunter & prey. 8 outta 10!

Beam Me Up

About time too! I was wondering where the sci-fi questions had gone off to!

Ever since the Star Trek original series, transporting yourself from one point to another has been an obsession with those of us who are followers of scifi. Imagine what classic moments were created when the transporter was working to it’s optimum and it took Chief Engineer Scotty to fix things, albeit after one of his famous lines “I can’t do it captain. I just don’t have the power!”

Ofcourse in the TOS series and the movies that followed them, Scotty always did manage to get the power. And he’d beam your ass back to safety just in time!

What about accidents in teleportation? Anyone remember the movie The Fly? I’ve seen the later version, in which a poor Jeff Goldblum gets merged with a fly, as it wandered aimlessly into the pod along with Jeff, and out came a disgusting creature that was half fly and half human. Disgusting!

Ok I’d first want to be teleported to the place where all my dreams will come true. Like the Nexus – no not the WWE heel faction, but the Nexus as in Star Trek VII Generations. Where you can’t die and things are just as you want. You feel love, joy and happiness and all that you ever want is given to you. You can ‘live’ out your life the way you chose to be and the way things happen is as per your heart’s desire. Not a bad place to be eh?

Ok, so beam me up Scotty! And I ain’t coming back!

Stargate Universe : Episode 22 “Aftermath”

Dr. Rush is able to unlock the bridge of Destiny but doesn’t tell anyone that he has access. He is also able to fix systems on the ship with relative ease and which stupefy the rest of the scientists on the ship. He can control Destiny’s stops and directions. As he relaxes on the bridge, unobserved by anyone else, his mind brings him visions of his wife, who begins to debate with him. Furthermore, she believes he has no intention of sharing this information with the rest of the crew.

Camille Wray talks with Ginn, the lady who killed Dannic. Ginn tells Wray about how she came to be forced to join the Lucian Alliance, as on her homeworld, the Alliance are feared warlords. Two years ago, Ginn was forced into serving the Alliance at gunpoint, with the threat that her family would be killed if she didn’t comply. Wray reaches the conclusion that Ginn had no choice but to serve. As food rations are made even more smaller to accommodate the Lucian Alliance team who decided to stay onboard the ship, the crew begin grumbling. To leave them on a planet or to keep them onboard is debated by Wray & Col. Young.

Rush decides to stop at a planet, marked in a red X on the system, ignoring the hallucination of his wife who doubts the wisdom of it. The crew needs food and they have to search the planet for it. The gate on the planet does not seem to work, so Rush tells the crew that they have to take a shuttle to the planet and get the gate working again. A team of Scott, Greer, Riley, Vanessa James, Dunning, Dale Volker, Park, TJ and Eli are to go down to the planet. Riley has plotted a course to the gate, and Scott launches after being given confirmation by Young. Due to volcanic activity & turbulence caused by reasons unknown to the crew, the shuttle loses power and crashes down. As the come to, they see that Riley is pinned to his console and he can’t move his legs. The efforts of the group to move the console off  him are in vain as he screams in pain.

As they can’t fly the shuttle anymore, finding & repairing the gate is top priority. They find the gate buried under rocks & gravel and dig it up. Riley won’t b able to make it as they dial the gate and connect to the Destiny. Young goes to meet the team on the planet and speaks to Riley. The injured Riley begs to be killed so he doesn’t have to suffer anymore. An emotional Young uses his hands to suffocate Riley and lets him pass away in the shuttle. Telford and Wray present Varro with the list of prisoners to remain on the ship. There are nine in total, Varro, Ginn, and Simeon among them. The rest are sent through the gate to the planet, while Destiny goes back into FTL. A large gathering is held in Brody’s bar, where Greer leads a toast to Riley. As the episode ends, Destiny comes out of FTL and moves towards a large object in space right ahead in front of it.

Star Trek: TOS Women 10

As promised, I’ve got not one but two hot women of the 60s for you today. And that’s  because, the episode Spock’s Brain has a smaller side role for Sheila Leighton, who plays ‘Luma’, the second in command of the Eymorg and the only other speaking role of the Eymorgs (the main character being Kara).

Luma was encountered by the landing party from the USS Enterprise in 2268 as they attempted to search for Spock’s brain. She was startled by their sudden appearance in their underground complex and attempted to stun them, but she was stunned first by Captain Kirk. Kirk then attempted to interrogate her for information, but she was unable to help because she only had the mind of a child.

While I’m so happy for the eye candy, the episode is ridiculous and perhaps indicative of the campiness and explains why TOS was canceled. I mean, TOS had some really great episodes, storylines and concepts. And then they also had crappy stuff. Spock’s brain is removed and he is still alive. Ok, I’ll take it that it was done by a highly advanced medical technique and therefore possible. But then, with a neural stimulator connected to a remote control Dr. McCoy is able to make Spock walk and do things. Like a robot. It’s laughable – and the fact that Bones kind of gets ‘revenge’ on Spock by literally making him do his bidding. Imagine Jerry doing something like this to Tom in that loveable cartoon.

Anyways, Sheila had a very short career in tv. She also made appearances in some shows that were popular at the time and the disappeared. A very funny scene is when the almost ‘bimbo-esque’ Luma declares ‘Brain? I do not know this brain?’. I actually laughed out loud. Oh Sheila, I still have the hots for you the way you looked over here back in 1968.

Star Trek: TOS Women 9

Ok Star Trek & Sci-fi fans and….anyone else who love women, today I have a double treat. Not one but TWO hot women of the 60s who guest starred in the Original Star Trek series. This angelic looking babe to your right is Marj Dusay, a tv actress active from the 60s onwards. She starred as ‘Kara’ the leader of the Eymorgs on the planet Sigma Draconis VI. She was responsible for stealing the brain of Commander Spock in 2268. She and her people although living in a technological society do not understand it, and are controlled by a central control system that enables them to perform tasks associated with their advanced society. “The Great Teacher” however was losing power, and Kara connected Spock’s brain up to it to supply power to the central control system.

Kara appears on the Enterprise bridge at her own will and with the power of a device tied to her arm, subdues the crew of the ship. We then see her place her hand on the forehead of an unconscious Spock. Off camera, she operated on Spock and removes his brain and then leaves the ship; the now helpless Vulcan lying on the operation bed. Kirk and his team go out in search of Kara and her species and find them with just hours to spare to save Spock’s life.

On the ice cold planet, the away team discover that the men are savage & primitive and controlled by the women who live in a sophisticated and technologically advanced underground habitat. Although at first captured, Kirk and his men manage to get away and get Kara to tell them how the knowledge is passed on to her – wearing a device on her head temporarily transfers great knowledge to her and that is how she managed to operate on Spock and remove his brain while leaving him still alive. McCoy uses this device plus his own medical knowledge to save Spock and restore his brain back where it belongs.

Marj Dusay, now 74 years old, known for her roles on American soap operas. She is especially known for her role as “Alexandra Spaulding” on Guiding Light, a role she has played on and off since 1993. She also appeared on Santa Barbera for 2 separate seasons.

Stargate Universe : Episode 21 “Intervention”

Season 2 started almost 2 months back and I’ve been downloading all the episodes and watching them within a couple of days that they are shown in the US/Canada. Torrent is a heaven sent for fans of this & other shows which aren’t shown in India. Anyway, I hope that those of you who do get this show on your tv channels are engrossed in what I think is the best tv show in the last few years. I like this a lot more than BSG but not as much as I love Stargate Atlantis and the Star Trek shows. But I think that over time SGU will be lauded as one of the best shows ever on tv.

So when we revisit the crew of Destiny, TJ is unconscious and hallucinates that she is back on the planet where some of the crew stayed behind on. Robert Caine greets her and TJ sees that she is not pregnant but has delivered her baby girl. However, in reality the shot that hit her cause a lot of bleeding and her baby died.

Chloe finds that her wound has mysteriously healed and that she is no longer bleeding. Eli lets Scott & Greer in through the airlock. Meanwhile while Telford recovers, Kiva however dies from their gun fight and Dannic takes over command of the Lucian Alliance. Sympathetic Varro has Camile Wray, Dale Volker, and two others use the long-range communication device to call in doctors to treat the wounded. What follows is a big struggle for control of the ship with Dannic willing to use force to get his way. However when Dannic tries  to kill Telford for his defiance, Ginn shoots him in the back first, killing him.Rush & crew gain control of Destiny once again and frees all the rest, The sympathetic Alliance personnel are allowed to stay onboard the ship while the remainder of Kiva’s team are moved to an uninhabited planet.

Blast From Television’s Past

Torrent has opened up lots of viewing options & avenues for me. I’ve been downloading a few older series like Andromeda & Stargate SG1 early seasons. A few weeks ago I had completed the download of the original Battlestar Galactica and Galatica 1980 series both a big part of my childhood. Also the original V – miniseries, second mini series and the canceled 1st season. That one too brings back a lot of memories of growing up. Along with Star Trek : TOS these tv series represent a part of my childhood as well as for many others I’m sure. Watching them again and saving them for further viewing bring me back some of those  happy moments as a kid and innocence that we had during those wonderful years.

I was chatting with my sis the other day and we were discussing some of the old tv series that we used to enjoy as kids (she’s 40 and I’m 34, so we are talking 80s & early 90s). Gimme A Break, The A-Team, Knight Rider, Full House..etc were all discussed. What are the shows that you are most nostalgic about?

Here’s the opening credits of V the series.

What’s Good To Watch On The Laptop

This post is being typed in cafe Coffee Day’s Shenoy’s junction branch but I can’t post it live from there as the cafe doesn’t have a wifi connectivity nor do I have a 2G or 3G USB stick with me.

It seemed like such a bright but not too hot day and with such beautiful sunshine after all that rain in the last few days it seemed like such a shame to spend all of it indoors. Funnily enough, although I had spent all of yesterday inside the apartment and throughout the day the only strenuous thing I did was to go and make a couple of cups of coffee and maybe a cold drink of Tang late in the evening. I had realized that I hadn’t kept up to date with the start of the second season of Stargate : Universe and a quick check let me know that they were 4 episodes into the season. 4 episodes! Yikes, I soon searched for torrent files of the new episodes and started downloading them immediately. This is a really good season and I am obsessed with it, as you can tell with me posting a detailed look at each of the 20 episodes of the 1st season. This along with a few others are the only good ones that I like amongst the latest tv series.

Then there was the 11th & 12th episodes of Caprica. This is a weird format that they are following for their show, much like the creators of the new V reboot series. I don’t know about you but showing 10 episodes, followed by a break of a few months and then the remaining 10 is not my idea of keeping your audience happy. And as in the case of V, 4 episodes, a big break and then the rest. Also why can’t the minimum number of episodes of any good scifi series be 20? I love the Star Trek franchise with their 25-27 episodes per season. So much to look forward to and to share. The Stargate franchise has kept each of their series to 20 per season but that leaves a lot of gap for us fans to wait for. Atlantis was a prime example; although this series was cancelled towards the end of the 5th season, meaning that they had to wrap up the storyline and give the series a conclusion all too quickly.

I loved this series but only came to start watching it as the series was ending. I happened to find the first 3 seasons of the show in a dvd store and bought them on impulse (having never watched the parent series SG 1 but being a big fan of the movie Stargate which I also own on dvd). Within the first episode I fell in love with the show and the characters and the actors who portray them. I did impatiently download the 4th & 5th seasons via Torrent. It was a series which I felt didn’t get it’s due and had a lot of promise. With 20 episodes in each of their 5 seasons of existence, it’s just 100 episodes long. Now compared that to SG1 which had 10 years and twice as many episodes. Now I have only watched the 1st season and about 6 episodes of the second season of SG1 but I prefer Atlantis a whole lot more. Don’t get me wrong, SG1 is an excellent show – it’s just that I love Atlantis a whole lot more.

So it’s much later in the evening now, about 6:30 pm, and I’ve finished watching episodes 12 of Caprica‘s season 1 and episode 2 of Stargate Universe‘s second season. Tonight I will watch episodes 3 & 4. Who needs tv & cable? All I really need is a fast broadband connection and good people around the world who record and upload latest episodes of the best tv series.

Stargate Universe : Episode 19 “Incursion, Part 1 & 2”

As we start the episode we find out that Col. Young had a plan to get Col. Telford back from the brainwashing. The deprivation of oxygen releases the hold that the Lucian Alliance had on him. Young explains the situation to the crew. The gate room is sealed and all nearby corridors are put under guard. The civilians are told to stay in their quarters if and when the invasion occurs.

The Lucian alliance evacuates from their stronghold & enter the agate room of Destiny, watching by the crew. Over the intercom, Young informs the Alliance forces that they are surrounded and locked in, and that he can vent the atmosphere at any time. He demands they lower their weapons. Kiva has Telford confirm that Young can do this, then has her men open the doors using devices which override the locks. The Alliance forces move out from the gate room and begin their assault on the crew. In the ensuing fight, both sides take hostages, Eli & Chloe get separated from the rest of the crew.

Chloe gets a bullet in her leg and so relies on Eli to carry her part of the way. The two parties try to negotiate for exchange of hostages. Meanwhile Telford acts as a spy for the Destiny crew while trying to keep it away from Kiva and her team. The standoff between the Lucian Alliance and the Destiny Expedition continues, but a problem arises which threatens the safety of both groups as we start the continuation of Incursion and the final episode of season 1. TJ, a hostage, being a medic is made to tend to the wounded Lucian soldiers. The Lucian Alliance chose a poor time to dial in. The team shows him a sensor scan of a nearby binary pulsar: a rotating neutron star and a white dwarf orbiting a single point in space. It is emitting high levels of gamma radiation and x-rays. Furthermore, the white dwarf is stripping off material from the neutron star and creating an accretion disk, which it plows through during its orbit every 46 minutes, 37.4 seconds, creating an even greater radiation burst.

Meanwhile a Lucian agent Varro, shows that he is a decent man even if he is with the alliance and talks to TJ while she treats his wounds. The science team has devised a plan to protect the ship. The shields on the side of the ship facing the pulsar are severely depleted, but the shields on the opposite side are much stronger. By rotating power from one to the other, it will buy the time they need to fix the FTL drive. Without access to the primary systems, however, the emitters have to be reset manually on the outside of the hull. Scott and Greer prepare to go outside the ship. Telford is caught by Kiva as he helps the Destiny crew and they both shoot each other. Shooting in the infirmary wounds TJ, threatening the life of her unborn child. Young has to surrender to the Alliance to buy time for Scot & Greer; the soldiers and civilians are separated and put in rooms. Dannick who now assumes command, thinks he has to deal with the problem by executing all the military personnel.

As the episode and the season ends, we see a defiant Col. Young refusing to kneel down in front of Dannick and his men. What will happen to Scot & Greer? Will TJ & her baby survive? And Telford, Chloe & Eli? Stay tuned for season 2.

Destruction Of An Entire Species With A Thought

I just finished watching one of my favourite Star Trek: TNG stories. In the season 3 episode The Survivors, the Enterprise responds to the distress hail of the Federation colony of Delta Rana IV. Apparently they were under attack from an alien species that hadn’t yet had any contact with the Federation. As the crew reaches the planet, they find a planet totally destroyed and a devastated landscape – with the exception of a few acres and a house that still stands. Lt. Worf scans the surface and finds two humans, elderly botonists in their 80s, Kevin and Rishan Oxbridge.

While Rishan is welcoming, her husband is aloof and seems suspicious of the Starfleet officers who make up the away team. They accept the offer of a replicator but refuse to take refuge on the Enterprise much to the surprise of the crew. Meanwhile a piece of repetitive music plays in the mind of Counselor Troi, blocking her telepathic abilities and stressing her to point of a breakdown. An alien warship appears and attacks the Enterprise twice; the first time it’s weapons seem well below the capabilities of the Enterprise and the second time it is more deadly. This surprises the crew an Captain Picard urges the Oxbridges to return to a starbase along with his ship. Rishan & Kevin stand by their decision to stay back. They say that the aliens, known as the Husnock, attacked the colony and they alone did not fight back while the rest of the colonists did. Perhaps that is the reason for them being left alone.

Picard is not convinced and says that the Enterprise will remain in orbit as long as the elderly couple are alive. Moments later the alien vessel attacks the planet and destroys the Oxbridge’s house and the Enterprise senses no life signs. However, as Picard had expected, within an hour or so, with the Enterprise pretending to leave orbit, the house mysteriously appears back in the same pristine condition as before. The couple have also appeared  back, alive and well. Picard has the two of them beamed onto the bridge and demands the truth.

Kevin Uxbridge makes a startling confession – he is in fact a Douwd, an immortal being with vast powers. He met his Human wife many years before and decided to live as a Human with her. She joined the colonists in fighting the alien Husnock raiders and was killed. Though a devout pacifist, in a moment of anger towards the invaders for taking his wife’s life, he annihilated the entire Husnock race. Stunned at his “sin”, Kevin recreated Rishon and their house, and sentenced himself to exile on the ruined Delta Rana IV. He used the fake warship as a ruse to try and keep the Enterprise from finding out the truth. The music in Troi’s mind is also his creation; her empathic powers were also threatening to reveal the truth.

Picard confesses that the Federation is not qualified to be his judge in the matter, and allows him to return to the planet. He states that there is no punishment that can fit his crime. As the Enterprise departs, Picard indicates that the Douwd should be “left alone”.

Star Trek: TOS Women 8

As I watch the episodes of Star Trek: TOS for the first time since I was a very young kid, I realize that they had some really repetitive and for this Sci-fi & Star Trek fan atleast, very weak premise. You know, the Enterprise rendezvous with either another star ship or Star Fleet members who haven’t been heard of in a while or have been out of communication after their last mission to a planet whose inhabitants haven’t yet reached warp drive capabilities. As soon as the crew beam over or beam down, we see a very Earth like setting, usually early to mid 20th century or much older. The missing Starfleet people are either dead or held captive by the inhabitants of that planet. And there is a corrupt former captain! And the inhabitants are very human like! And they have been influenced by some aspect of Earth culture, which we have long abandoned by the 23rd century, and the Enterprise crew has to intervene as they are caught in the thick of things.

It’s Roman or Nazi or American culture and it gets very repetitive. I prefer the other episodes. Anyway, the episode I saw this afternoon features a culture on a planet which is much like old Earth, but with some roles reversed. Chinese or Native American looking Kohms (or communists) and outwardly savage Yangs (Yankees) who look like European origin North Americans but with Native American similarities in culture. Amongst the Yangs are two who are caputured – Cloud William, a leader and Sirah, played by Irene Kelly.

Sirah was an inhabitant of the planet Omega IV and part of a cultural faction on that world called the Yangs. In 2268, she was captured, along with Cloud William, by the Kohms. The Yangs were at war with the Kohms, who were being helped by Captain Ronald Tracey in violation of the Prime Directive. While Captain Tracey was trying to trick Cloud William into executing Captain Kirk as a heretic and blasphemer, Spock used his telepathic abilities to cause Sirah to acquire a captured communicator and activate it. As a result, Lieutenant Sulu transported down with a security team and arrested Tracey, thus fulfilling the Yang superstition that “good must always overcome evil”.

One look at Irene as Sirah is enough to bring out the primal urges in me. Red hair, busty, curvaceous, long legs….need I explain? Red hair and big bust is enough for me to go gaga but that whole cave girl, tribal chick look gets me hot & bothered. Granted all she seems to do in the episode is scream and then is forced to bring the communicator over to Spock by his mental powers. Still, she fits the bill.