Warp Section

I don’t know anyone that is excited over Fantastic Four’s next movie, except those looking forward to seeing Silver Surfer, unfortunately I don’t have a Silver Surfer image, but I do have a peak at their new ride thanks to 20th Century Fox for releasing the image.

One thing I noticed is that the car-like vehicle only has three seats. Is it really supposed to be that way? Jessica Alba is looking really good though.

Plot Spoilers:

Doctor Doom was melted and frozen solid by the Fantastic Four and then shipped to Latveria at the end of the first film. Tim Story has confirmed that Doctor Doom will make a dramatic return in this movie and “he will be back in full DOOM, not like we had him in the first film.”

Actor Ioan Gruffudd has confirmed that Julian McMahon will be back for the sequel.

Tom Rothman, Chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment, has confirmed that Galactus will also appear in the film.

via Wikipedia

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Star Trek: The Animated Series has finally made it to DVD, and for around $50 USD you can buy a copy for yourself. The animated series ran from 1973-75 and features voices of nearly the entire original live-action series including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, George Takei, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols and Majel Barrett.

Including all 22 episodes, the show won a daytime Emmy in 1975 for Outstanding Children’s Series and includes the Peabody award-winning episode, “How Sharper Than A Serpent’s Tooth.”

Bonus Features:

• “Drawn to the Final Frontier: The Making of STAR TREK: THE ANIMATED SERIES”
• “What’s the STAR TREK Connection”
• Show History

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As of the end of this season we will no longer be seeing Dr. Carson Beckett, also known as the actor Paul McGillion as a regular character.

Executive producer N. John Smith confirmed last week at Collectormania that Dr. Beckett will be leaving, but not killed off. He will disappear in the second half of the current season. It is also hoped that he will return for future episodes much like Aiden Ford, actor Rainbow Sun Francks did during season two.

“I think each character is beginning to find the different layers and sometimes the darker side of the characters,” McGillion recently told Eclipse Magazine. “I can tell you one thing for Beckett as a character in the second half of the season, there’s a lot of major plot lines that are developed throughout with Beckett in mind and I think the fans will be in for some big surprises.”

I don’t want him to leave. I think he has some great wit and personality. I was really enjoying his character, and that he has been given more and more on screen time. If you feel like I do, check out the Save Carson Beckett website and show your support.

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It only seems like superheroes are experiencing a stretch of massive popularity. It’s happened before, you know. I grew up in the 70s and 80s watching Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk, the Bionic Man — and Woman, Superfriends, and Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. Good times, my friends.

The came the backlash. The Greatest American Hero was probably best known show of the time to take the whole concept of superheroes and turn it on its ear (Let’s take some unlikely noob and give him superpowers–without any instructions. Hilarity!). Lesser known but no less irreverent was Misfits of Science. This was the original “Heroes.”

You knew what you were getting with the opening credits: An old, ratty looking TV set is airing a corny performance by a jazz pianist singing, “Those misfits, misfits of science. Those wild and crazy scientific guys…” An unseen viewer reaches over to turn the channel. But the channel won’t change. The knob breaks off. Then the disgruntled viewer kicks in the TV screen in an effort to get that song to stop. The whole thing shatters, then we get the real theme song: 80s rock at its finest with the cast credits and show clips.

So, what you were getting was cheesy. Yet zippy. It was awesome.

I’ll confess I don’t remember too many details. A DVD set does not seem forthcoming on this one, so I can’t go back and check if my memory isn’t making more of this show than it deserves. But I do remember how much fun it was. After years of superhero shows that took themselves very seriously, this really was a group of misfits. They couldn’t always control their powers. They argued. They did things like use Gloria’s teke to cheat at roulette. They drove around in an ice cream truck as their disguise. I wouldn’t be surprised if the film Mystery Men owes something of its origins to the Misfits.

Actor resume trivia: the show featured Max Wright (the dad on Alf) as the non-superpowered lab supervisor/father figure Dick Stetmeyer, and Courteney Cox (of Friends) as telekinetic Gloria. And Kevin Peter Hall (Dr. Elvin Lincoln, who could shrink himself to a height of 7 inches) really was that much taller than everyone — he also played bigfoot creature Harry in Harry and the Hendersons.

Misfits of Science on TV.com

The Misfits of Science Wiki (thanks for the photo!)

UPDATE: Here’s a weird bit of serendipity: Tim Kring, creator of Heroes, was a writer on Misfits of Science. Seriously. You can’t make up stuff like this.

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Season 3, Episode 12

Another episode of Stargate: Atlantis has made its way to Canadian television. This time we bring back a “character” from a past episode that helped save McKay’s life: a whale-like creature.

NOTE: If you live in another country and don’t know how to illegally download the episode, you might not want to read this yet.

Doctor Carson Beckett, Ronon, and Sheppard return from an expedition on the Atlantean planet in a jumper. They find that the navigation is off, and they have to visually find the Atlantis base.

Walking through the corridors of Atlantis, Teyla sees a ghost, that mumbles something, but Ronon, who is with her, sees nothing.

McKay gets all excited at the appearance of his friend, the whale-like creature which is circling Atlantis. After looking at the scanners, they realize there is more than one whale out in the waters, actually many whales are converging on Atlantis.

Later they realize that the whales are putting off a frequency that has a negative effect on people. They are causing the ghost-like figures to appear and they are trying to relay a message. It takes a while but as usual McKay figures it out. The whales are letting the Atlantis base know that the sun is going to release a wave of plasma and radiation that will head for Atlantis. It happens every once and a while, and last time the Atlantis base extended its shield, saving most of the planet.

The problem is though that the base does not have enough power to extend the shield, thus all animal and plant life on the planet will be destroyed if they can’t come up with some brilliant plan.

This is where the episode takes a huge turn away from what I consider the stereotypical “Dr. McKay will fix it”, and it ends up that Sheppard is the one to come up with the brilliant, though dangerous plan.

They take the Daedalus and position it between where the explosion is going to happen on the sun and the planet. They use the Atlantis ZPM to increase the ships shield power. They then deflect the explosion thus saving the planet and everything on it. The whales stop circling Atlantis and everything is great.

The episode is pretty much your standard fare for Atlantis. I think the areas of the plot that deal with the whales is a little silly but otherwise it is a decent episode. I don’t feel like they are in any real danger though, and that is where much of the excitement of the series comes into play.

I give Echoes a 3 out of 5.

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Since Sci-fi-spy gave us all the answers in the last post, I’ll try to provide some questions:

7. Did Nicole/Jessica’s dad have some sort of bi-polar disorder himself?
He seems a little Jekkyl/Hyde in the episode, and he’s clearly a little afraid of what he might do.

6. Is the writer a superman fan?
It seems likely, given this is a show about, well, heroes. Two references in this episode: the “Great Scott!” by Hiro and the glasses on/glasses off look of Sylar.

5. Is the name “Gabriel” an angelic reference?
From wikipedia: “In Biblical tradition, he is sometimes regarded as the angel of death, the prince of fire and thunder, but more frequently as one of God’s chief messengers.”
Sylar is no angel, but the death, fire, and thunder part sounds fairly accurate…

4. Is Nathan Petrelli evil?
He seems to be going to a lot of effort to stymie Peter’s efforts, including throwing black paint over the future-predicting work that Peter tried so hard to get. He’s definitely in denial about his powers, and seems willing to go to any ends to have a “normal” life.

3. If Hiro can’t change the past, how did he end up in the picture with the waitress?!
Methinks this was a slip-up by the writers. Really, time-travel is a hornet’s nest of a plot device. If physicists and philosophers have been struggling with it for centuries, I’m not surprised if even good writers screw up now and then. But that’s just nit-picking. The overall message is clear–you can’t change the PLOT, and that’s what’s important.

2. How did Peter Petrelli know about Nathan’s flight?
The writer’s have tried to show us that Peter mimics the powers of others, but his dreams seem to have a certain psychic tone. Was he in contact with someone? Does he have powers of his own?

1. What will result from the Sylar/Peter meeting? What, if anything was absorbed?
Peter and Sylar share similar powers–”vampirism”(?) vs. mimicry–and similar attitudes about them. Both seem to have some deeper connection to the other heroes. These two are the yin and the yang. Whatever happens in Heroes will happen through them.

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The latest episode of Heroes, six months ago, is about, well, what happened six months ago. If you remember correctly, this is the exact amount of time that Hiro jumped in his attempt to save diner waitress Charlie who was killed by Sylar. The writers jumped all over the opportunity to both stay in the continuity of the adventure, from Hiro’s perspective, and at the same time give us a glimpse as to what the rest of the pack was up to before anyone had started to piece together Isaac’s paintings. But was the episode any good?

The episode is very different from what we’ve seen so far. Instead of the heroes coming to grips with their powers, we are seeing them coming to grips with who they really are, as individuals. We find out that Claire, for instance, didn’t start out the snotty cheerleader we first met her as. Eden wasn’t so helpful and caring, she was more of a party girl willing her way through life. Horned rimmed glasses man and quiet guy were still sinister in their seeming knowledge. Matt was still uninterestingly drawn, but at least now we know it was dyslexia, and not stupidity, that was causing him to fail his detectives exam. Did we really need to know all this though? The good news is, this is just the padding for the really interesting story. The story of a character named Gabriel.

When Mohinder’s father Chandra first comes to New York, Gabriel Grey is the first person he finds from his list of potential specials. Gabriel is a watchmaker with an interesting ability; he can tell what is wrong with a watch just by listening to it. His pet project, and the center of symbolism for his story, is a rare German watch he is carefully restoring. It’s inner machinations are abnormally complex, a quality it shares with Gabriel himself. While he seems a down to earth, talented, clock-smith, inside Gabriel is something very different. He has always known he is destined for greatness, even though there has never been any sign of it in his life.

When Chandra tells him that he has no detectable powers Gabriel flies into a rage, stealing a post-it with the name of another local ’special’ that Chandra has yet to contact. Later, Gabriel completes his watch in a story move rich with symbolism, for Gabriel has also finished something else: the inner persona has come to the front, the rage to be different, to be special, to have destiny. When the special from the post-it-note walks in, Gabriel chooses to hide behind the name of the watch manufacturer, Sylar. In the presence of specials, Gabriel’s, now Sylar’s, true gift emerges as he ‘hears’ what is different within the mind of the special. He understands the genetic gears behind this specials ability, and with the help of a bash to the head he is able to get an even better listen, and somehow possess that clockwork within himself.

So we know the story of Sylar, and this is really the saving grace of the episode. The characterization is necessary, but had we turned back the clock to study the minutia of our characters lives, the episode likely would have found itself on the back-end of fans favorites.

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This series is a spin-off of the new Doctor Who, following the adventures of Captain Jack Harkness, who we met in the episode “The Empty Child.” He’s a great character — vivacious, dashing, sexy. He’s a time traveling human with a mysterious past, and a one-time companion of the Doctor. I can see why the BBC is backing an entire series with him in the lead.

The show hasn’t aired outside the BBC yet. However, I’ve seen the first three episodes of Torchwood, and I’m afraid I’m not impressed. This has lots of echoes of other shows. Remember Friday the 13th? The TV series where an antique shop owner and his assistants have to retrieve items they’ve sold over the years because they’re horribly cursed? Well, same thing, but it’s alien artifacts this time. And when I see Jack, Gwen, and the others marching down the street in their leather trenchcoats and stylin’ clothes, I’m reminded of Angel — another spin-off that left me a bit cold. Jack’s brooding mysteriousness invites further comparison to Angel. As much as I like Captain Jack and the chance to learn more about the enigmatic Torchwood Institute, the show hasn’t surprised me yet.

I might keep watching to get more tantalizing hints of future crossovers with Doctor Who. And I want to know what happened to Jack after his last Doctor Who episode, “Parting of the Ways.” What’ll happen if he ever meets the Doctor again? But so far, Torchwood lacks the great writing and zing of its predecessor.

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So we have the paranoia, the “Others” in the form of Jonah and his gang, and now we even have the screechy violin music, which lets us know that something mysterious is happening. But I feel like Jericho is slipping. Do Jake and the mayor really believe that the “enemy” would bother to drop poisoned food? They’d just spray some DDT or poison the water supply. And if you have enough supplies to be dropping them in Jericho freakin’ Kansas, then the rest of the world is in a heck of a lot better shape than the U.S.

This week we also saw Jonah’s daughter sneak into her father’s super-secret compound and drive out through–and I mean through–the front gate. The mystery may be building with Vietnam era Russian planes dropping Chinese food with American chutes, but the believability keeps dropping without the benefit of air resistance.

And I’m all for character development, but I’m starting to wonder who Jericho thinks its audience is with the soap opera-esque series of love affairs* and “romantic tension.” On the plus side, it keeps my wife watching, but the scene with DC-woman repeatedly telling farmer-Stanley “shirt off” is laying it on a little thick for my taste.

*Jake Green and the school teacher (and Emily?), Eric Green and his awkward wife/girlfriend issues, the angsty Dale and his little girlfriend, and now farmer Stanley with the DC IRS agent

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The Flash aired a year after Tim Burton’s Batman, and the influences of the film on the show are massive. Flash’s Central City has a dark, dripping, gothic look to it, not as over the top as Burton’s Gotham, but still there. Pay special attention to the art deco civic murals that seem to adorn every building. Danny Elfman even does the theme song. Even the camera angles–from street level looking up, cutting across streets at angles–and the cartoony look of the villains owe something to Burton’s Batman.

Watching the pilot episode on DVD some seventeen years after the show aired, I forgot about the Burtonesque feel of it. Or maybe in 1990, blown away by Batman, I thought all superhero shows should look like that. I still really like that style, but with the distance of time I can now see it for what it was: a trend, probably best left behind.

The story in the pilot episode is simple, even formulaic. A freak lab accident involving lightning and chemicals grant Barry Allen the power of speed, which he learns to control with the help of Dr. Christina McGee. He’s reluctant to accept his powers at first, but when his brother is killed by a motorcycle gang wreaking havoc throughout the city, he dons the red suit and seeks justice. A formulaic story, but well done in this case. It doesn’t try to be any more clever or complex than it is, and therefore doesn’t muddy the waters.

This time around, the thing I really enjoyed about the show is the characters. They have snappy dialog, good chemistry, and real human depth. They have families and feelings. This doesn’t feel like a show about a superhero so much as it feels like a show about a regular guy who happens to acquire a superpower and has to figure out what to do about it. (Sound familiar? Maybe that’s one of the reasons I haven’t gotten into Heroes. It just doesn’t feel all that new to me.) John Wesley Shipp and Amanda Pays are lots of fun to watch, and I look forward to delving into the rest of the episodes on the DVD set. Future episodes include Mark Hamill as the Trickster, and he seizes the role with obvious relish, seeming to use it to finally lay the specter of Luke Skywalker to rest.

A funny side note: Barry works in a police department crime lab and gets no end of grief from his beat cop father–and the rest of the force–about not being a “real” cop. That sort of storyline never would have happened in a world with CSI.

The Flash on TV.com

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