Tenebrae

Yeah, a £ an episode is fairly reasonable... when you look at that as £175 total for 7 seasons though... but then, you're not likely to think "time to buy ALL seasons of Voyager - I really need to watch them BACK TO BACK!". Best to wait for Bluray though - then you'll probably get it in a single disk, probably.

BSG has shown a predilection for NOT doing what people expect. Sometimes it works out... sometimes it doesn't but I'd say that BSG probably needs to up the pace a little bit because in previous instances of build up - Gaius trial - they kind of built it up and then it was an anti-climax. I know I've extolled the virtues of Galactica many times but I've never exactly shied away from calling it when it's faltered... and while I'm all for sci-fi that doesn't need the crew to fight generic alien race #323-97 over the course of the years... and I won't deny that the drama in BSG is often compelling - well, sometimes a man just wants to see a lot of things explode! And it really feels like we've had a dearth of action since the exodus from New Caprica.

I caught up with season 2... it was OK... I suppose they made an effort to change it from beasties of the week, at least but I'm not sure that they really gave enough depth to the story arc... I mean, it was obvious pretty much from the outset that Leek and Cutter's ex were working together - although, they'd ultimately double cross one another... I'm still not really sure what I have to say, they DID carry guns considerably more in this season but really, they seem to spend as much time without them as with... and granted, they probably wouldn't be the most effectively against every beastie - something the size of an elephant is going to need, say an elephant gun? - but it's better than walking in with jeans and a t-shirt and hoping for the best. Of course, I suppose they're trying to make them distinct from the military... so if they were all running around with guns... it might make it look all a bit sg-1 and so on. I think it's hard to actually pin down the similarities to other shows... currently my thinking is Walking with Dinosaurs meets Sliders with maybe a dash of SG-1 and Buffy thrown in. They didn't go anywhere with the altered universe thing... to be honest, the modest alterations made were somewhat contrived... big base of operations, one person's personality changes... big woop.

Yeah, I spotted Billie. I wonder how that's going to go... To be honest... I think that this could have been a single episode... it felt there was unnecessary toing and froing. Some nice action though.

What's with the Spock fixation anyway? Surely it's more about the dynamic between Spock/Bones/Kirk than the individual characters.

I think they're probably just worried that once he learns to fly... uh... they'll have to make him Superman or something. It would essentially mean he had to hero more seriously rather than exclusively saving Lana and Chloe.

Wow... that really couldn't have set more alarm bells without the use of the word "reimagining". It sounds like they're saying they'll do what they want and dumb it down enough for the person who goes "ooo, explosions!"

Given the fact the pahwraith were just fiddling with stuff on the station to kill the prophets, it seems fairly reasonable that you could kill them by conventional means. The Prophets aren't Q... they're clearly vulnerable... and it seemed as if Kira was always worried about stuff damaging the wormhole and hurting the Prophets... but I guess she wasn't a scientist. And yes, the last thing we need is another "trapped in the" situation... Odo would have to be an important part of the story... I'm not sure what you'd do with Sisko (I know he came back in the book re-launch but I'm not sure that sits well).

Probably because it's superhero in nature and I think that's broadly classified differently to sci-fi - despite the obvious parallels. I don't know why I still watch it... It stopped being good pretty much the second season 3 ended and just became... well, rubbish. I've little more to say about it - other than I hope it ends sooner rather than later.

It's fairly easy to plot out... basically, the Great Link gets healed by Odo but they're fairly pissed the Federation were going to happily commit genocide - validating all their fears about Solids. They kill off the Prophets and fly through the wormhole - blow the hell out of a totally unprepared and still recovering Alpha Quadrant and manage to take most Federation space in a matter of weeks... personally, I think that's a pretty plausible scenario given. Then you have the team thrown together... I suppose the issue becomes - how DS9 is important... and how the crew come together... and you probably have to have some way for the team to close the wormhole or effectively guard it... combined with them beating the Dominion.

Naturally, opinions vary but I've seldom heard people articulate particularly compelling arguments against BSG other than "I didn't like it"... but I suppose all some people want out of sci-fi is a bunch of women in catsuits, aliens of the week and a few rounds of fisticuffs and space battles without the necessity of engaging the brain - yes, I'm being a little facetious. I suppose a restart of the Dominion war could work... a lot of my problem with it was how the Prophets were basically called in to win the day whenever necessary because really, the resources the Dominion have are vast... As far as we know, they pretty much run the show in the Gamma quadrant... and from a standing start with the Cardassians they held their own against two and then THREE of the Alpha Quadrants major powers. By the end of the war, it's fair to say that the Klingons were stretched thin, Cardassia was literally in ruins... and neither the Federation nor the Romulans were in great shape... I'll assume the Brin weren't tip top either. So, essentially - all the Dominion needed to do was walk through the wormhole (preferably after killing Sisko's instawin wormhole aliens) with a big fleet that they probably had lying around and just lay waste... I suppose that would probably lead to a guerilla warfare movement or something... or possibly the situation Bashir and his super genius friends came to - with the Dominion winning but a rebellion on Earth eventually freeing the Alpha Quadrant etc.

Not to start another tedious name calling between B5 and DS9 fans but it's fair to say JMS pretty much wrote the first sci-fi telenovel, DS9 did it... but not nearly as well. Still, better than the usual standalone fair we got.

Typically, genius in TV land tends to be of two varieties. There's the save the day type of genius - Data pushing a few buttons to stop the universe exploding, Macguyver making a particle accelerator out of a shoebox, Carter talking a problem into submission etc. and then there's the "take over the world genius" who can invent pretty much anything but always forgets to just shoot people when he has the chance. That's mostly because it's hard to write someone who is smarter than you are... although, last time I checked there were apparently 7 distinct forms of intelligence. I think that Dr. Who is pretty uneven when it comes to 2 parters... it often feels as if they just drag out the first episode... I rather liked the Sontaran design and their attitude. It's somewhat surprising they've got the boy genius with them... I'm guessing there will be a double cross there... I've just not decided whether it'll be by him or them.

As said - the problem with a DS9 movie (as with a Voyager one or even another TNG one now) is that, they managed to wrap things up pretty conclusively. With DS9, they pretty much turn out the lights... the Dominion were defeated, ditto the Pahwraith, Sisko went off to hang out with the Prophets, O'Brien was going back to Earth, Worf was going to be an ambassador, Odo was going to the great link... That's half the cast away... Obviously, you could bring them back or strike off in a new direction... but yes, a mini-series would be better for that because it would be difficult to get things going in even 3 hours without rushing.

I didn't realise this was a two parter... so I was thinking "wow, this is slow!" I kind of liked the genius kid, the Sontaran redesign made them interesting. Nice to see the Doctor school them. Yeah, I'd rate it a good episode. Clone Martha was sexy... but if a girl in goo ISN'T... she's ugly. The RTD obsession with companions seeing their families is so tedious.

A friend of mine wrote an article for a fansite about the idiocy of a creature with an external brain... and a giant master brain under the ice. Or possibly how evolution was just having a laugh... it seems fairly idiotic than any race could develop like they could naturally.

And both of them are actually fairly boring, massively over-rated fanboy favourites (Spidey and Wolverine)! Yes, it's really about mindset... and of course, some people won't like either.

I don't know... occasionally these shows pick up obscure "Best guy running away from an explosion" type awards. But there you go... it's a time passing show, not one of earth shattering awesomeness.

Hmm, what was the fatality rate like for red shirts vs. yellow in TNG - given that they swapped security/engineering with command and generally, people in engineering and security are the ones to die - think all the people that died every time Geordie had a coolant leak, Tasha Yarr etc.

Serves you right for using filthy IE in the Firefox age... but then, you're still using the java chat client so, it's about as surprising as a sunrise.

That's such a lie, TFMF - the price of all the Star Trek DVDs could buy you a car to cross Africa and you know it.

Hmm... that doesn't really seem to be what I was expecting. Pretty much nothing in that trailer hints at the fact time travel is going to be a big factor... I'm guessing they're using the old trick of overplaying the action, when actually that's about half of the big space battles right there and the rest of it will be them mincing around in the past, trying to fix things and then getting home and kicking ass, etc.

Yeah, he had about one line, then gets assimilated - then floats off into SPACE! The final frontier. As Amnot says, he was basically there to take one for the team... presumably as he's a named character people would think that his death was more significant than some Billy Redshirt getting blown away randomly etc.

The Cally thing was pretty predictable... or at least, the skinjob sending her out the airlock... pretty much the moment she appeared, that was obviously going to happen. I'm sort of surprised she didn't blow them away, rather than just getting ready to blow herself out an airlock. Starbuck is still nuts - check. To be honest, I'm finding the Cylon storyline to be by far the most interesting... the four on Galactica are... I feel going to be a slow burner. I find Ziggy's ambivalence to be amusing, saying that God will look after their immortal souls... but they're just machines. But yes, a fairly solid episode.

Spot the irony. To be honest, I'd hardly say that Star Trek is intellectual... it certainly hasn't been in its recent history. It likes to THINK it is, sure... but it's generally better at being pretentious. And yes, both have been of questionable quality in the last few years.