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selenakSo, thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cavendish I've started with the fourth season of Enterprise, and thanks to kernezelda I started with the new Dr. Who.
Unfortunately, the first Enterprise ep of season 4 managed to hit one of my pet peeves in Sci-Fi and Fantasy.
Let's put it this way: what does the original series episode Patterns of Force have in common with the Voyager two-parter The Killing Game (I think that was the title) and now the Enterprise episode Storm Front? That's right. Nazis. Used in that way beloved by the genre, as those Really Bad Guys (tm) whom the Bad Aliens Of The Week model themselves after/ally themselves with, while Our Heroes get to be the persecuted brave resistance fighters. Nobody ever bothers to explain why ruthless Aliens (tm) who want to win would model themselves or ally themselves with the side that LOST THE FREAKIN' WAR. The TOS precedent was even stupider, because there we were asked to believe a Starfleet officer actually had that glorious idea of modelling an alien society after the Third Reich. The Voyager episodes asked us to believe that the Hirogen, a race adicted to hunting who think of themselves as the ultimate in warrior bravery, would choose a holodeck scenario in which they embodied the universally decried villains of the 20th century. And this Enterprise episode asks me to believe that the newest bunch of ruthless aliens would ally themselves with Hitler in 1944. In 1944. When Germany was busy losing the war, resources were breaking down left, right and center, and the combination of Stalingrad and the unfortunately unsuccessful assassination attempt ensured Hitler never got out of his bunker anymore. Right. And why? Because said aliens need resources to build a transmitter. Yes. That makes sense.
Now the frustrating thing is that you could use these scenarios in a way to disturb viewers and shake them up and make them think. In the Enterprise case, let the Aliens ally themselves with the powers who actually have resources at their disposal in 1944. Which would be the Allies. Let them offer help to defeat Germany quickly and completely. And then, after that first empowering use of futuristic technology, let them offer Roosevelt and Churchill the power to wipe out Stalin while they were at it. Let the Enterprise crew stumble into THAT, let them deal with THAT. Restore the timeline... but that means one more year of WWII and of the concentration camps. And of course an ongoing Stalinistic Soviet Union.
But no. Instead, we get yet another replay of Operetta Nazis Versus Our Brave Heroes, because hey, who doesn't want to stop Nazis from invading North America?
The first Dr. Who episode, however, turned out to be delightul. A brief summary of my Whovian knowledge: saw two Tom Bakers (nice), one Colin Baker (dreadful), two Sylvester McCoys (intriguing; loved Ace), and the dreadful movie with Paul McGann (boo, hiss! Not at Paul McGann, at the script) . So I am neither an expert nor a total ignoramus.
This first episode, Rose, managed to get the basic premise across anyway. At first glance, the ninth Doctor is a good variation of the character, and I like Rose. As important is that this newest version captures the Britishness of the show (looking at you, dreadful movie), and the moving plastic puppets are just the right mixture of creepy and silly. And the show doesn't pretend that it's still somewhere in the 70s/80s; bringing in the internet and a conspiracy theorist was just the right amount of modern day. Speaking of the conspiracy theorist, loved the twist on Mickey's and the audience's expectation by letting him be a jolly family man (who happened to be right about the Doctor, of course). And the victim of the plastic dolls. Alas. Reminds me of Blake's lawyer dying in the B7 pilot, in a way; on British sci-fi shows, this kind of thing happens. Whereas Mickey the boyfriend, on whose death I'd have bet anything, schooled by genre tv as I am, made it out alive.
Now I'm eager to watch more of the Doctor, and will fight against my pet peeve in the Enterprise case, for hopefully that scenario will soon be done with and never appear again. In the meantime, fanfic for other stuff.
BSG:jennyo it seems has discovered Battlestar Galactica and wrote "The World Can Wait", a good story about Laura Roslin and Lee during Colonial Day.
Alias: And my dear Andraste wrote "Edge of Darkness", an excellent take on what those First Generation Spies were up to during seasons 2 and 3. Sloane, Jack and Irina in dark times. I love it.
cavendish I've started with the fourth season of Enterprise, and thanks to kernezelda I started with the new Dr. Who. Unfortunately, the first Enterprise ep of season 4 managed to hit one of my pet peeves in Sci-Fi and Fantasy.
Let's put it this way: what does the original series episode Patterns of Force have in common with the Voyager two-parter The Killing Game (I think that was the title) and now the Enterprise episode Storm Front? That's right. Nazis. Used in that way beloved by the genre, as those Really Bad Guys (tm) whom the Bad Aliens Of The Week model themselves after/ally themselves with, while Our Heroes get to be the persecuted brave resistance fighters. Nobody ever bothers to explain why ruthless Aliens (tm) who want to win would model themselves or ally themselves with the side that LOST THE FREAKIN' WAR. The TOS precedent was even stupider, because there we were asked to believe a Starfleet officer actually had that glorious idea of modelling an alien society after the Third Reich. The Voyager episodes asked us to believe that the Hirogen, a race adicted to hunting who think of themselves as the ultimate in warrior bravery, would choose a holodeck scenario in which they embodied the universally decried villains of the 20th century. And this Enterprise episode asks me to believe that the newest bunch of ruthless aliens would ally themselves with Hitler in 1944. In 1944. When Germany was busy losing the war, resources were breaking down left, right and center, and the combination of Stalingrad and the unfortunately unsuccessful assassination attempt ensured Hitler never got out of his bunker anymore. Right. And why? Because said aliens need resources to build a transmitter. Yes. That makes sense.
Now the frustrating thing is that you could use these scenarios in a way to disturb viewers and shake them up and make them think. In the Enterprise case, let the Aliens ally themselves with the powers who actually have resources at their disposal in 1944. Which would be the Allies. Let them offer help to defeat Germany quickly and completely. And then, after that first empowering use of futuristic technology, let them offer Roosevelt and Churchill the power to wipe out Stalin while they were at it. Let the Enterprise crew stumble into THAT, let them deal with THAT. Restore the timeline... but that means one more year of WWII and of the concentration camps. And of course an ongoing Stalinistic Soviet Union.
But no. Instead, we get yet another replay of Operetta Nazis Versus Our Brave Heroes, because hey, who doesn't want to stop Nazis from invading North America?
The first Dr. Who episode, however, turned out to be delightul. A brief summary of my Whovian knowledge: saw two Tom Bakers (nice), one Colin Baker (dreadful), two Sylvester McCoys (intriguing; loved Ace), and the dreadful movie with Paul McGann (boo, hiss! Not at Paul McGann, at the script) . So I am neither an expert nor a total ignoramus.
This first episode, Rose, managed to get the basic premise across anyway. At first glance, the ninth Doctor is a good variation of the character, and I like Rose. As important is that this newest version captures the Britishness of the show (looking at you, dreadful movie), and the moving plastic puppets are just the right mixture of creepy and silly. And the show doesn't pretend that it's still somewhere in the 70s/80s; bringing in the internet and a conspiracy theorist was just the right amount of modern day. Speaking of the conspiracy theorist, loved the twist on Mickey's and the audience's expectation by letting him be a jolly family man (who happened to be right about the Doctor, of course). And the victim of the plastic dolls. Alas. Reminds me of Blake's lawyer dying in the B7 pilot, in a way; on British sci-fi shows, this kind of thing happens. Whereas Mickey the boyfriend, on whose death I'd have bet anything, schooled by genre tv as I am, made it out alive.
Now I'm eager to watch more of the Doctor, and will fight against my pet peeve in the Enterprise case, for hopefully that scenario will soon be done with and never appear again. In the meantime, fanfic for other stuff.
BSG:
jennyo it seems has discovered Battlestar Galactica and wrote "The World Can Wait", a good story about Laura Roslin and Lee during Colonial Day. Alias: And my dear Andraste wrote "Edge of Darkness", an excellent take on what those First Generation Spies were up to during seasons 2 and 3. Sloane, Jack and Irina in dark times. I love it.
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no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 09:49 am (UTC)There are a couple of things that drove me nuts with irritation, but overall --- oh, it was fantastic. *g*
Keep watching!
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Date: 2005-06-19 10:01 am (UTC)Thank you for the rec *g*.
So glad to hear you enjoyed Rose - as far as I've seen, it just gets better from here on in. The end of the world! Zombies! Charles Dickens!
no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 10:09 am (UTC)Sad Dr Who geek moment: the "moving plastic puppets" are actually the Autons and were used in the first episode of Dr Who#3 (Jon Pertwee).
no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 10:23 am (UTC)So. Yes. Big thumbs up to the Doctor. Also, Billie Piper? Rather good actress and can actually show that, by mid-season. I know, I was as susprised as you. :)
no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 11:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 11:13 am (UTC)I ran a gaming scenario once in which our brave time travellers were going back to 1907 to try to stop Hitler. They initially planned to kill him, and then realized the only way to really change history was *gasp* to make him happy. In 1907.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 11:49 am (UTC)Good to see, somebody else has already started an attempt to convert you *g*
The new doctor's just adorable!
My initial plan was to mail you a surprise parcel including all 13 episodes of the new doctor as soon as my download of the final episode has finished ( it's currently at about 30% and will probably be ready by tomorrow morning)
I guess, now I need to come up with some other illustrious scheme to say "Thank You" for the lovely Buffy tapes which have arrived at my place just yesterday.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 12:32 pm (UTC)The rest of the season does not have any, promise ;-)
Anyhow, glad to see the DVD's have arrived.
DR. WHO is really worth watching, imho, and today it will be the season final ... *sniff*
no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 12:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 12:40 pm (UTC)F.
PS.: Glad that the Enterprise DVD has arrived. And reading Selena's review, I do promise: there are no more NAZIS throghut the season.
)
no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 12:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 12:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 12:42 pm (UTC)I just saw the second episode, and yes, it continues to be excellent.
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Date: 2005-06-19 12:43 pm (UTC)(BTW, I think that would have avoided the Holocaust, but not WWII. A second war was sadly sort of inevitable, given all other circumstances. The holocaust was Hitler, though.)
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Date: 2005-06-19 12:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 01:00 pm (UTC)I must admit further that I did not show this episode to bimo, but started with the second. Maybe I shold have manipulated your DVD ;-))
F.
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Date: 2005-06-19 01:05 pm (UTC)Watch your eps, missy. *points*
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Date: 2005-06-19 01:09 pm (UTC)I had 'Because we want to!' ringing in my head for a long time after Billie was on the Smash Hits Award Winner's Party several years ago, dressed like thingammy watchsit from Titanic. Nightmares, I tell you. And then she married Chris Evans. *palmface* I have to confess, I wasn't expecting much from her other than a spoiled pop princess. But she went off and got some acting lessons, and they really paid off. She was rather good in this remake of the Canterbury Tales the Beeb did a while back, but it's in DW that she's had a chance to stretch her wings, acting-wise.
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Date: 2005-06-19 01:10 pm (UTC)And it's unbelievably good!
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Date: 2005-06-19 01:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 01:39 pm (UTC)Though I have less history with the Doctor than you do, the series gives out the necessary character background without data-dumping on the audience. It is fun, moving and extremely entertaining. Episodes stand up to repeated viewing.
I watched the season finale last night (stayed up 'til around two o'clock to finish downloading/watch) and enjoyed it a great deal. I'll watch it again today, to pay attention to some plot points I need to think on a little more.
I'll upload it to yousendit tomorrow.
It's been lovely 'pimping' this and Blake's 7 to the friendslist.
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Date: 2005-06-19 01:59 pm (UTC)Try to avoid spoilers for the last episode. It's really better to go in unspoiled I promise.
I shall start on Enterprise once I've got over the Doctor Who finale!
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Date: 2005-06-19 02:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 03:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 04:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 04:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 07:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 07:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 05:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 03:45 pm (UTC)I agree with you; Star Trek generally has a tendency to pull its punches far too often. On the other hand, S4... well. Storm Front is the new head honcho, Manny Coto, wrapping up all the left-over junk from the previous season, really. The Alien Nazis were already there - but no more! Honestly, it gets a lot better. The Brent Spiner episodes come up soon, then the Vulcan arc, and both are really very good.
Also, yay Dr Who! I have the finale to watch this evening :) Write reviews! (if you have time / energy)...
LOL
Date: 2005-06-21 07:10 pm (UTC)She would have drowned in Doctor Who! I was going to do the same! Well, it wasn't really going to be a surprise parcel, as I actually told her about it in advance... The only reason I haven't already sent it is that I was away for the weekend and could only download the last ep yesterday, and also I got into some legal trouble (was involved in an accident) and had/have a lot of work at uni. Good thing, I suppose - otherwise Selena would have ended up with several copies of the whole season. *g*
On the other hand, she could then have started converting everyone she knows by sending *them* surprise parcels... ;-)
Re: LOL
Date: 2005-06-23 07:25 am (UTC)Why is it that I now have this vivid image of Selena walking to her mailbox, opening it, and out comes a Tardis-load of "Dr. Who" related material...
The universe is a funny thing and sometimes really works in mysterious ways *g*