Monty Python's Flying Circus

This definitely falls into the Things I Should Have Watched By Now. Seriously. Monty Python? How did I even manage that?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not completely ignorant here. I had seen all of the famous sketches and Holy Grail and The Life of Brian. I did have background in Monty Python. I just hadn't managed to sit down and watch the episodes.



I first sat down and watch them during my internship this past spring. I didn't always have enough work to do and the work I did have was spectacularly dull and I had my own office. It was only sensible to start secretly watching Monty Python's Flying Circus.



But I stopped watching it in the madness of graduating and didn't pick it up again until after I finish the epic Stargate run. And that was stupid. I should have picked it up much sooner. Monty Python is still one of the funniest shows I've seen and I'm not sure anything will ever be able to compete. They pushed boundaries and crossed lines and changed TV as we know it today.



I mean, I'm a 22 year old American. I don't always get the references and I wasn't even alive when this was airing to have any cultural context for this show. Sometimes I think I'm missing out because of that, but EVEN STILL. Amazingly hilarious. Obviously. And if you haven’t sat down and watched these, do it.

Stargate Atlantis

I’ll bet you never saw this one coming.

…

Yeah. We all knew I would pick this up after I finished SG-1, if only because I have full access to all five seasons of this show on DVD. And we all know what a sucker I am for spin-offs. I’m a completionist.

Atlantis was fantastic. To be honest, I fully expected this show to be exactly like SG-1. Just… you know… in the Pegasus Galaxy instead of the Milky Way. While there are clear similarities – the core team, half of the villains, the self-mockery and sci-fi action goodness – Atlantis is inarguably its own show.

A show I really, really liked, in fact. The international cast of characters was amusing from the start (and Zalenka’s cursing in Czech is one of my favourite things) and having their base of operations in an alien city/spacecraft opens up a whole new set of challenges to the usual sci-fi mix. There was a sense of discovery in this show that wasn’t in SG-1, which I really liked. Earth is rarely featured as the setting of an episode and the baddies aren’t based on our own mythology, so there’s no frame of reference there. Everything is new. I mean, I love the mythology in SG-1, but having something new after ten seasons of mythology is nice.



Radek Zelenka

And there are new team dynamics! Which are my favourite thing ever, as you know. SG-1’s team sort of became a stereotype. Not a bad one, mind you, but each position on that team was defined by a specific set of expertise and character traits and it didn’t change when the team members did. Jonas filled the exact same place as Daniel. Cameron filled the exact same place as Jack. The main Atlantis team, at first glance, seems to follow those same positions, but it becomes very clear very early on that they aren’t the same people. I mean, naturally, John Sheppard and Rodney McKay are supposed to be the Jack O’Neill and Daniel Jackson of the show with the same tensions and banter, but the circumstances and personalities of the Atlantis pair are very different from the SG-1 guys. In fact, they tend to agree about things more often than not- they’re just argumentative and more neurotic than they’re willing to admit.



John and Rodney

Thankfully, Teyla and Ronin are very different from Sam and Teal’c, as well. This team could have gone very wrong if the writers tried to force the same character archetypes into this show. Teyla needs to be the voice of compassion and hope and common sense in the ways that Sam couldn’t. Sam was an officer in the military and was often limited by that position and, while Teyla was similar in the fact that she was a leader, she was closer to the problems facing Atlantis and it made those problems real and personal for the Atlantis expedition. And Ronin needs to be bitter and angry and jaded with the universe because Teal’c wasn’t. Ronin had nothing left to lose- he couldn’t have that same hope for his people or family or own self because there was nothing to have hope for. The audience knows that Teal’c is loyal to the SGC- there needed to be more risk there with Ronin because there wouldn’t be the same consequences for him.



Bros

Spin-offs need to have this kind of range. Photocopies don’t really work so well.

And while I love all that stuff I just rambled on about, I’m going to have to say that my favourite part about Stargate Atlantis is the Wraith.

Yep. The Wraith.

SG-1 had Goa’uld and Replicators and Ourai, and all those were all well and good for the bad guy department, but the Wraith are the coolest baddies I’ve seen in a long time. They’re actually frightening when they first reveal themselves. They’re not threatened by these new humans. In fact, their appearance is beneficial to them because they feed on human life. Like life vampires.

And they look like vampires. Real vampires. I like to call them punk rock Nosferatu. White-ish and green-ish sickly looking skin, long greasy white hair, facial tattoos, scary teeth, and a hell of a lot of black leather. Fantastic. Seriously.

Plus they have semi-sentient, semi-biological hive ships because they’ve evolved from insects and telepathically communicate across space and freak out their human prey with hallucinations. It’s pretty spectacular.

And I can’t talk about the Wraith without talking about my favourite character of the series. Todd.



Todd

We first meet Todd in a prison where Shepherd has been captured and held for ransom. He’d been imprisoned for some unknown but crazily long period of time and was starved so that his need to feed could be used as a method of torture and coercion. Despite being fed upon, Shepherd suggests they work together to escape before either of them gets too weak to get out.




“There is a lot about Wraith you don’t know, Shepherd.”

This is the first time we ever see Wraith portrayed as anything other than vindictive eating machines and, while I love Wraith who are completely evil all the time, I love ambiguous characters even more. Todd has a sense of honor and drive to prove that he isn’t some mindless animal that immediately drew me to him and I remember thinking that if we didn’t see him again in the show, I would be very disappointed.

Luckily I wasn’t and Todd became Todd (Sheppard has this habit of naming Wraith they encounter multiple times) and made hilariously inappropriate jokes for diplomatic situations and stole a dining table from some humans he fed on to decorate his ship and did some good things for the folks on Atlantis, but was mostly just a bad ass who did whatever he wanted. Seriously. I rewatch his episodes all the time. Sometimes just to hear his voice, which is one of the best character specific voices I’ve ever heard. He’s my desktop background. I’m obsessed.



Now that I’m done rambling on forever, the point is that this show is awesome and you should watch it. You know it’s awesome because I’ve dissolved into fanboyish rambling and pic spam.

Yeah.

And now I don’t know how to end this.

…

Stargate SG-1

I’ve been meaning to post this for weeks because I finished this series ages ago, but I somehow managed to not do it. I don’t know how this happens all the time. It’s just one of those things, I suppose.

I should point out here that if you’re interesting in what I’m currently watching in real time, you should follow me on Twitter.

I’m not sure if this should be counted towards my regular series write-ups or whether it should be classified as a Things I Really Should Have Watched By Now post. God knows I’ve watched enough reruns of this show; I really should have watched the whole thing by now. Unfortunately, due to some personal prejudice from way back in the Sci-Fi Friday days when Stargate took the prime spot over Farscape, I was unwilling to devote the time needed to watch the show.

I mean, it is ten seasons and three movies, after all.

But given my unemployment this summer and the unrestricted access to my mother’s Stargate DVD collection, I thought it was about time I buckle down and actually watch the show.

It was worth it for episode 200 alone.

This is a great series and, with the exception of the occasional spectacularly awkward situation that I had to mute¹, I enjoyed every minute of it. Seriously. The rate at which I plowed through this show was faster than my epic marathoning of Xena. That’s impressive.

The team dynamics drive the show and team dynamics are a particular weakness of mine. I love analyzing the power hierarchies and personality interaction and this show gives me plenty to work with. Mostly because it seems that no one is ever really in charge from one moment to the next. I mean, the dynamics between Jack and Daniel alone could make for an extremely long and detailed analysis. Add in Sam and Teal’c and you’ve got a hell of a power fluctuation as different situations call for different expertise.

The series also uses another weakness of mine – the integration of mythology. This show takes themes and entities from our own history and reworks them into new stories. Egyptian myths are manifested in the form of the Gao’uld and Norse myths manifest in an alien race calling themselves the Asgard. Hell, even Arthurian legend played a prominent role in the final season. The perfect combination of my favourite things. Aliens and ancient myths. Awesome.

It was especially awesome to finally see these episodes in context. The show’s writers did an exceptional job in writing episodes that were understandable as independent stories, which is how I’ve seen most of them in the past, but I really like having context. It’s why I have to start a show from the beginning. And why I like spin offs so much. And sometimes why I watch spin offs before the mother show.

This one is definitely worth watching. I know I’m late to the game, but it was well worth it. It’s full of adventure and excitement and self-mockery, which is something lacking in most sci-fi shows still on the air. Definitely awesome times.

Next on Things I Really Should Have Watched By Now is Stargate: Atlantis. Surprise, surprise. Which should be sometime this week because I finished it weeks ago. I’m just behind on posting these write-ups.





¹ Oh, my inability to watch certain awkwardness. You make television so difficult sometimes.

The X-Files

Huzzah! Another installment of Things I Really Should Have Watched by Now!

This time around it is the X-Files. I had somehow managed to never seen an episode of the X-Files. This is less of a TIRSHWBN show because I was very young when it was actually on, but it was on all of the time for nine years and for a great many years of reruns after that, so I don’t know how I missed it completely.

BUT because I am such a huge lover of science fiction and like to try and appreciate things that paved the way for the stuff I love today, I went into my Netflix, lined those nine seasons and two movies up in my queue, and got to watching.

Firstly, I’ll say that I really enjoyed it. Even at its worst, I was entertained. I thought Mulder was an interesting character in and of himself and that adding Scully’s skepticism to his hungry inquiry was a great match. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson worked very well together in the roles and I was glad to see that their renown was well deserved.

Unfortunately, my second point is a little less positive. While I enjoyed the entire series, I do think it should have ended earlier than it did. The overall conspiracy didn’t hold up over nine seasons and began to seriously deteriorate after the first movie. Also, the core of the show, which wasn’t the aliens or the conspiracy but Mulder and Scully’s relationship, began to deteriorate at the same time. Mulder was absent due to abduction and, later, his own exile and we lost that element of the show. They tried to patch it up by making Mulder and Scully lovers and then tried to replace it with Doggit and Reyes, but it never really returned to the relationship that drew us into the show.

Still, it was entertaining and full of science fiction goodness. Like many long running 90s shows, there were troped up episodes that amused me greatly and I could see how this show influenced the science fiction that had come afterwards.

Good times. On to the next thing!

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I’m not entirely sure if this is an “official” review post or if this is a Things I Really Should Have Watched By Now post. I mean, it’s going to be about The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The 1980’s television serial Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. So, you know… it’s a bit of a toss up, really.

First thing you should know about this program is that it’s short. Six episodes. It took me less than a day to watch them all straight through. So, if you are interested in this series at all, it won’t take you very long.

The second thing you should know is that it doesn’t just cover the first Hitchhiker’s Guide book. It actually takes pieces from a few of the books and arranges them into a somewhat linear fashion. There are always pieces left out – this is inevitable when adapting a book to a movie – but when I was watching this I didn’t feel that leaving those pieces out made the story any less entertaining.



I know this isn’t a series for everyone. To be honest, it’s a bit of a cult series. It’s very dated to the 80s, and frankly, the whole thing looks ridiculous. It has cheesey British acting of all sorts and terrible blue screen and Atari looking computer animations. I loved it, but there are some folks out there who wouldn’t be able to get through it.

But seriously, if you like the Hitchhiker’s Guide books and like a little 80s cheese every once in a while, watch this. I watched it on Netflix streaming, but I know there are places you can buy this on DVD. Some places may even have this for renting. I don’t know. But it’s brilliant.

Terminator

Back again with another installment of THINGS I REALLY SHOULD HAVE SEEN BY NOW.

Now…

Now it’s time for the Terminator.


Terminator

So, the only thing I knew before watching the Terminator was that Arnold Schwarzenegger was a killer robot.

It turns out, the only the thing that I needed to know was that he was a killer robot from the future and trying to kill Sarah Connor because her son leads the resistance against the machines that have taken over the world. And that was it.

While I love complicated storytelling, I love the simple stuff, too. This was simple and direct. You know, explosions and running and very dated animated robots. It was awesome.

Honestly, I really loved the old animation. I’m a sucker for outdated tech and stop motion that doesn’t hold up as time passes.¹ The Terminator’s limp can amuse me for hours and the crawling without legs was the highlight of the film.


Terminator 2: Judgment Day

I was immediately fascinated by the good guy twist on the Terminator. This model had been captured and reprogrammed by the resistance in the future and I think this movie did a great job of writing the Terminator as an actual robot. A lot of times, changing the loyalties of a robot causes a weird bit of humanity to seep into the character because they inevitably have to face some kind of contradiction that causes problems. The Terminator didn’t even blink. He just went with the flow and did as he was programmed. Awesome.

There was one really interesting bit that I found particularly fascinating. After Sarah Connor escapes and she, John, and the Terminator figure out what to do, she heads off to kill the man she thinks will cause the future devastation of the machine upheaval. There’s a moment where she has this guy at her mercy with the gun loaded and ready to fire and she realizes that she is becoming the Terminator.

Not literally, of course, but she was trying to kill this guy just like the Terminator was trying to kill her in the first movie. It was a great moment of realization and definitely a moment of noteworthy acting. Brilliant.

Of course, this movie being made years later had better animation, which was cool in its own right, and the story had evolved into the kind of universe with its own lore, which is something I always like to explore. I saw this movie as very different to the first one, but I liked it just as much.


Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Girl terminator? Weird, but not entirely unexpected. Also, she was a combination of the original Terminator and the new Silver Surfer looking model, which was not unexpected either. You always have to up your ante when you bring back the same type of bad guy.

John Connor was the primary focus of this one², which I was slow to get into, but once they get into the problem solving stages of this movie, I was all for it.

This movie ended with Judgment Day, which was REALLY cool. We saw in the previous movie that you can’t always predict how your actions will change the future and, although they had hoped that they had stopped the rise of the machines, there was always this little niggling of doubt you could see on the characters faces. I enjoyed the fact that that day seems to be a fixed event. Although the dates and times and causes may be different, the event had to happen. It forces the viewer to recognize that there are always consequences and they cannot be avoided. It makes us look at ourselves and how we are progressing into the future.

Brilliant.

I can see how this became such a beloved movie series and how it garnered the Sarah Connor Chronicles television series. It’s a universe rich with story telling, especially the time travel. I was pleasantly surprised to see a lack of paradox, which is a hard thing to pull off in time travel movies. These movies found their rules and stuck with them.

Awesome.




¹ Seriously, I watched Clash of the Titans whenever it was on Sci-Fi as a kid. Love it.

² Well, he’s essentially the focus of all the movies, but he’s grown up and his mother’s dead in this one.

Back to the Future

It’s another installment of Things I Really Should Have Watched By Now:

Back to the Future Edition!


Back to the Future

Actually sitting down and watching this movie made me realize that I have, in fact, seen this movie. I just never saw it in order. Fifteen minutes here, twenty there… It was just one of those movies that I never caught in time to watch the whole thing.

And MAN was it an awesome movie. It was so cool to sit down and put all the iconic things I’d seen before in context and, although there were some of those awkward scenes that usually send me reaching for the mute button on the remote so I don’t end up pulling my own skin off¹, the awesomeness of Michael J. Fox’s classic 80s kid performances managed to diffuse the awkward quickly. Which was good because I generally like having skin.



¹ I know, I know. I’m absolutely bonkers, but in general, scenes where one person is trying to pass as another really freak me out. I don’t know why.



Back to the Future 2

I was very excited to watch this one after finishing the first movie and I was especially excited to see that this movie starts off right where the last one ends. That rarely happens. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that happen before. Even though I know that they didn’t make the movie right after making the first one, it seems like no time had passed. Each actor was exactly the same characters. It was brilliant.

It was thrilling to see this universe’s version of the future. Their version of the past was clean and classic and ideal; so was their future. It was actually more stereotypical of the 1950s version of the future than the 1980s, and I found that very interesting.

And then, of course, we go back to the past, which was great because it was just like it was the first time. This whole movie was still fun and exciting after having watched the first one.



Back to the Future 3

Back to the Future does the Wild West! I knew immediately that this would be a lot of fun.

I was mildly disappointed that we didn’t get Marty’s obligatory strolling through the town sequence, but it’s understandable because this was almost before there was a town. We got to see the dedication of the clock which plays such an important role in the previous two movies, which was awesome.

The main new thing about this movie, however, is that the Doc gets a love story this time. I thought it was down really well. It was funny and charmingly awkward and full of science fiction-y fun. I thought Clara was a wonderful addition to the mythology.

AND THEN A TRAIN HEIST FOR SCIENCE. There has never been a better train heist, I think. Brilliant.

All in all, it was a wonderful ending to the trilogy and I’m so glad I sat down and watched these.

If you haven’t seen them yet, you definitely should.