Name: Shakira
1085. The Bajoran and the Beast
REVIEW: The Ro story tries to subvert the usual "Beauty and the Beast" Trek plot by not making the "beast" a villain, but it feels off. On the one hand, it's got its creepy moments that are continually deflated by there not being any danger at all from the old man. It's like a non-mystery. On the other, it tries to flashforward Ro through her own version of Duet, which just isn't credible given the length of the story. As for the Riker stuff, well... Yesterday I compared it to the Friedman novels Reunion and Saratoga. Today I can confirm that it has the EXACT SAME premise as those novels. A bit predictable.
Name: Isis
Skills: Eat 4, Sleep 7, Mischief 8, Wit 7, Inspire Jealousy 6
1084. Friends and Other Strangers
REVIEW: As I've said before, I like it when the comics (and novels) are used to fill in the gaps in continuity. We've heard about Riker's Altairian mission a few times before, but never its specifics. Friedman uses that gap to introduce us to Riker's former crew (as he does for Picard in Reunion and Sisko in Saratoga), and I like how (again, as usual) he attempts to make the guest crew feel like a good alternative to the Enterprise's. I hope to discover more on these characters as the story develops. The Ro Laren stuff also holds interest, setting up a mystery, but also exploring her personality. And she's one of my favorite ancillary TNG characters...
Name: Selina Kyle
Golden Age costume:
Lee Meriwether:
Animated series:
New Look Catwoman:
Skills: Eat 3, Sleep 6, Mischief 10, Wit 9, Putting the moves on Batman 8
Jim Balent:
Halle Berry:
1083. Just Desserts!
REVIEW: I think the plot synopsis is indictment enough, but I guess I should pad things out more. The issue comes off as preachy. Not only does Picard get morally superior with the Utalabrians, but a couple pages are given over to Crusher giving a lesson on what allergies are. And with such accurate scientific information, it's odd that the rest of the story makes absolutely no sense. We're to believe the Enterprise can fire "medicine bolts" and that a young boy and a giant star-creature use the same cure? Pass.
Name: Greer Grant
1082. The Choice / Cry Vengeance / Out of Time
REVIEW: In "The Choice", Friedman gives me two things I like - a story that fills in a gap in Trek lore, and more Ro Laren! The details of her court-martial, muted on the show, are believable and don't make Ro out to be the bad guy, and her solution in the present is classy and shows her growth. Top notch art from Gordon Purcell here as well. The art on Cry Vengeance is even better, what with frequent cover artist Jerome Moore on board. Unfortunately, Chris Claremont's story makes use of his every tic. There's needless voiceover, a ninja chick with unexplainable powers (Jamie hasn't aged a day because of Vulcan yoga!), word bubbles that are so numerous they obscure the art, and continuity so opaque as to make me give up in frustration. Debt of Honor was a fine graphic novel, but trying to give it a TNG sequel is just messy and indulgent. Out of Time is a short little interlude that makes a natural connection. It's not Ship of the Line, but is cute as an instance of TV's Frasier needing a psychiatrist's help.
Name: Pussy Galore
1081. Brother's Keeper
REVIEW: I've been a strong critic of Howard Weinstein's writing, but Brother's Keeper features none of his usual tics and is a pretty effective Geordi story. On the series, I never managed to connect with Geordi. He was Data's straight man and none of the stories focusing on him specifically were much good. Here, the friendship that defines him is put at risk, and consequently, the story is charged with emotion. Weinstein even reverses the usual plot point about a pushy admiral who might want to take command of the ship. The art is better than usual and the characters all look and sound like they should. And great final scene, making something inevitable a little more special.
The theme of this week's buys is people fighting the supernatural on tv. I got the Sarah Jane Adventures Series 2 and for really, really cheap, all seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I've probably watched less than a season of Buffy over the years, but I've never disliked it, and recent Whedon discoveries like Firefly and Dr. Horrible made me jump at the chance of getting all seven seasons essentially for the price of a single season of Star Trek. Why not.
DVDs: Flipped Spooks/MI-5 Series 1, and even with only 6 episodes, I thought it was an engrossing success. After that shocker in episode 2, I was hooked for life. As the series is still going on, I think it's gonna cost me a pretty penny to get up to date. And it was lovely to catch Hugh Laurie (House) and Naoko Mori (Torchwood) in "before they were stars (to me)" moments. There are tons of extras on the discs, with clever "you are the spy" menus that make them all seem like Easter eggs (I eventually found that the skip button could release me from watching the overlong animations). In addition to commentary tracks, there are all sorts of featurettes, interviews and hidden credits (the show airs without credits... ooh, secretive!).
Our Hong Kong movie showing this week was Infernal Affairs 3, at once an immediate prequel and sequel to the original film, whereas IA2 took place so long ago, it really just stands on its own. Tony Leung and Andy Lau are back and in great form, though sadly, the characters of Wong and Sam are very minor players this time (which is fine, given they got starring roles in the previous installment. People talk about diminishing returns, but there are still some great scenes and awesome stylistic touches (the dual psych appointment for example). The DVD does have fewer features though, with no commentary and only a short (but good) featurette to call its own.
Big Finish Doctor Who audios: My, how that ipod is proving useful! Wanting to find out a little more about new companion Hex, I decided to listen to a few more 7th Doctor stories. The first of these was the quite strange Dreamtime by Simon Forward, which made impressive use of Australian mythology. I didn't always understand what was going on, but strong sound design and sufficiently interesting images made it a winner overall. It basically starts with the TARDIS landing on Ayres Rock flying through space on a small asteroid and goes on from there. Good because it was so unusual, though I was disappointed the "clutch" aliens weren't actually the Chelonians from the New Adventures (they're Forward's creations from The Sandman, which I skipped, but will go back to soon).
Then came Live 34 by James Parsons and Andrew Stirling-Brown, one of those audios that actually uses the audio format in a clever way. Gone is the Doctor Who theme, and instead we get a series of radio broadcasts (on Live 34) that tell the story of impending revolution on a colony world through news items, interviews, and investigative reports. It's a fun experience that unfortunately (and perhaps necessarily) devolves into long exposition in the last chapter. Still, lots of nice touches, from sound dropping out to censored words, as well as a real live news presenter lending his voice to the faux radio station. As someone who used to produce similar radio news programs, I can vouch for the fact it actually SOUNDS like such a broadcast (until the last bit at least) and I could tell just what was going on behind the scenes in the studio just by experience.
I don't know what kind of episode Edward Young's Night Thoughts would have been on tv, but it was commissioned for Season 27, which never happened. I guess it would have turned out something like Ghost Light. While I appreciate the attempt at a moody, thoughtful horror story, I've got to call this one a failure. Despite the atmosphere, nothing really happens for two chapters, and then the whole thing turns into melodrama that had me turning my eyes into my head. The only thing worse than the ham-handed revelations was the time travel physics on show that are so far past nonsense that they plunge head first into drivel. But at least something happens in the last half.
Simon Guerrier's The Settling is Hex's first foray into history and of course, he tries to change it by preventing a massacre. It's a great vehicle for his character, using his compassion and self-doubt to good effect. And is that a crush on Ace he's nursing? Fun dynamic. While I'm a fan of pure historicals, and I like that the audios do routinely go down that route, as a North American, this one lost me in parts. I'm afraid Oliver Cromwell is not as big a historical figure here as he is in the UK. Made me learn more about history, which I suppose is the whole point! Also, top marks on the very evocative music. Very nice.
Switching gears, I listened to The Sandman, Simon Forward's story that ties into Dreamtime (yeah, I got them in reverse). Though it has an intriguing premise, with the 6th Doctor consciously being an entire species' bogeyman, the various aliens' voices are just plain annoying. For the same reason that I find Dalek stories a little trying - screaming distorted voices - I had trouble with this one. Anneke Wills (60s companion Polly) plays one of those voices, but you can't tell it's her, nullifying any cool factor her participation might have generated. Good ideas, good imagery, irritating execution.
Someone Else's Post of the Week
Doctor Who's Character Sheet is up for discussion on Hero Press. Make sure to click the link to the pdf to read all the wonderful "Traits" your favorite Time Lord has. This is making more and more excited about the upcoming role-playing game!
1080. Some Assembly Required
REVIEW: Bart and Carol are quite the comedic double act in this, and that comedy is well balanced against real drama and epic-level story elements. The real focus is on Carol, a character that hasn't gotten a lot of development yet, and it does her a world of good. She's not that likable at first, but by the end, you're definitely on her side. She's all the more human for it. And while I do like the engineers, their dialogue does tend to spin into technobabble. The cultural experts speak my language for a change, and the Keorgans make for an interesting and fun ethnological puzzle. They're really the opposite of the Children of Tama from Darmok. And there are actually two cultural puzzles here, as the computer is an AI from another mindset entirely. It all leads to a huge climax. Great fun.
Here we go. The penultimate chapter of a story starring Spaceknights working for an Empire that looks nothing like the Galador from Rom, fighting Dire Wraiths that look nothing like the Dire Wraiths from Rom, recently escaped from Limbo though they never call it that... You know the drill by now. Why the words "Limbo" and "Neutralizer" aren't allowed is a mystery to me. Or maybe Starlin has something against Caribbean dance competitions.
To make things worse, the Dire Wraith(s) have turned two more planets against Galador, including the Pah Ree who originated the bomb in the previous panel. The Pah Ree. And Limbo sounds too stupid, I suppose. It's very distracting, but then, Starlin revels in distracting me:
Advice: If you're going to replay Arthurian legend in your space opera, don't have the characters talk about Arthurian legend. There's hitting the nail too squarely on the head, and then there's THIS.
Yeah, that's what I said. Tristan is convinced that if they do take part in the battle, he can lead them to the Dire Wraith using his precog abilities. Why exactly the Knights feel the need to patch their brains into Tristan using Scanner's telepathic abilities, risking her brain damage, isn't clear. They just stay behind Tristan anyway. How can they concentrate under the full brunt of his emo genes?
And he leads them right to... the Wraithknights!
Ok, let's see that battle then be done with it.
1079. The Truth Elusive
REVIEW: The ending of this arc hinges a bit to much on leaping to conclusions to be truly satisfying. Picard pieces together everything based on the Ferengi's behavior, and that's a fair deduction. That the Galor and Warbird leave without any fuss is a disappointing as it is fortuitous however. The rookie's conclusion that they must be in the alternate universe, however, is based on technobabble and frankly poor use of the wasted "Darwin's Planet" concept. I liked Geordi being shown to be an able leader, peacemaker and engineer, but otherwise... meh.
Just spoiling the poster for my Kung Fu Fridays through December and January. We'll be missing some dates because, well, the holidays (but what kind of holidays will they BE without Kung Fu, I ask you), but that's still 7 full nights of Asian cinema in my living room. The first Friday of December will be a Best Of night, featuring the best fights we've seen since the beginning. Fun for those who couldn't make it every time. After that, a special theme: Asian Tour.
1078. The Deceivers
REVIEW: In the second chapter, both heroes (Geordi and Picard) get their moral dilemmas handed to them, with some low-level action occurring near the end as alt-Geordi makes his move and Riker boards the Cardassian derelict looking for clues. With four major powers and an alternate universe in play, there's plenty of coolness to go around, and the art stands up rather well. Skelton is becoming more skilled at his particular, collage, style with every issue.
