Month: January 2007

FOX 31 => Video of Space Debris

Amazing video of a meteor breaking up this morning.

Update 2007-01-05: This is a Russian rocket booster burning up on re-entry.

Technorati Tags: Astronomy, Blog, Science

Captain Jack Harkness
by Catherine Tregenna

Jack and Toshiko visit the 1940’s when everyone was happy and gay.

Synopsis
Jack and Toshiko go to abandoned music hall because of reports of 1940’s music. They are transported, apparently via the rift, to 1941 where they meet Capt. Jack Harkness.

It gets confusing at this point, so I shall refer to them from this point forward as TJ (Torchwood Jack) and RJ (RAF Jack).

TJ explains to Toshiko that he’s been in 1941 before and that he stole the identity of RJ who was killed in battle. RJ is due to die tomorrow.

For some poorly explained reason, Toshiko has calculations to open the Rift but half of it is at Torchwood, the other half in on the laptop she carried with her into 1941 and both halves require a piece of equipment to complete the Rift Machine that Torchwood doesn’t have in its possession. She hides the necessary calculations for the others to find in the Future.

They find most of the equation, except for a few numbers scratched out by the mysterious, time-traveling Bilis Manger.

Back in 1941, TJ is really saddened by the impending death of RJ. RJ brushes off the girl he’s been seeing for the last few weeks, but TJ convinces him to go after her because every night might be he last. He goes, but then returns because he’d rather spend the night with TJ, instead.

Owen also finds the missing piece to the Rift Machine and, with the incomplete equation, opens the rift, but not before Ianto shoots him.

RJ leads TJ out onto the dance floor as the rift opens, but before TJ can leaves, he gives RJ a last, long passionate kiss.

Analysis
Mostly a waste of screen time.

No wonder RJ died the next day. If, in 1941, an RAF Captain had been groping and kissing another man on the dance floor in front of his crew, other military and the local girls, they’d have killed him themselves. Perhaps things were more different in 1940’s UK than in the US, but I doubt it. Seriously, at this point, it’s pretty damned clear they’re really trying to force this gay thing down everyone’s throat. In this episode it reached an new plateau of epic absurdity.

This story has no other purpose than to bring about the TJ/RJ intimacy, therefore, it was a waste of time. It did setup a couple pieces for the finale, which was aired immediately afterwards.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Review, Torchwood

Invasion of the Bane
by Russell T Davies & Gareth Roberts

I promise, I am not going to review every episode of the Sarah Jane Adventures. Nonetheless, I will at least go over my reactions to the premiere “teaser” episode which aired at New Year.

Overview
Sarah Jane Smith, former companion of the Doctor and owner of K9 (Marks III and IV) is now a loner, investigating alien visitors to Earth. Just as she investigates the Bane invasion (by way of soda pop) of Earth, she encounters her new teenage neighbor, Maria, who becomes embroiled in the mystery and “Luke” an artificial human boy who Sarah Jane later adopts.

Analysis
It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

We meet up with Sarah Jane after she’s met David Tennant’s Doctor. She’s lead an “ordinary” life since the Doctor left her on Earth, but her meeting with Doctor #10 reinvigorates her and she begins investigating aliens. She knows about the secret organizations who deal with aliens, but she feels there’s a better way, without the guns blazing, and so she sets about operating freelance in the alien contact field. (How little she apparently learned while traveling with the Doctor.)

The show is clearly aimed at a younger crowd, but, atypically, Maria doesn’t seem to be that annoying. Her incredibly annoying friend Kelsey is, though. Hopefully, she’s just in it for the pilot. Luke is a bit of a non-entity, but then he is only a few hours old.

K9 is, if you hadn’t heard, going to be in his own animated series, which (along with rights issues) presented a problem for the show which was easy to solve: They got rid of K9 by sending him to a black hole. Problem solved. To compensate, Sarah Jane has got an attic full of alien technology, including a vaguely Time Lord looking computer called “Mr. Smith” and a sonic screwdriver concealed in lipstick.

That does sound pretty bad, doesn’t it? Really, it wasn’t as bad as that.

The story wasn’t too complicated, nifty looking CGI aliens come to Earth, take over 98% of the population using soda and slick advertising and are defeated in a typical Russell T Davies deus ex machina fashion with a convenient intergalactic cell phone. Nothing new to see here.

While I’m not crazy about the inclusion of kids, I do appreciate what they did for the character of Sarah Jane. At the end of School Reunion, it seemed that Sarah Jane’s life had really been ruined by the Doctor. She seemed sad and rather unfortunate. Of course, the goal was to give something for Rose to think about but it left Sarah Jane in a darker place than perhaps seemed fitting for such a beloved companion.

At the beginning of this story, she is still the same person, but she’s given herself a new sense of purpose. The adoption of Luke and friendship with Maria brings her to a place in life where she’s obtained some of the things she thought she’d forever lost her chance for.

If the Sarah Jane Adventures are remembered for nothing else, at least we won’t think of the aging Sarah Jane as a little old lady living along with 30 cats. That can’t be a bad thing.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Doctor Who, Dr Who, Review

The Runaway Bride
by Russell T Davies

The Doctor gets a new “temporary” companion in time for Christmas.

Synopsis
The Doctor has just said “goodbye” to Rose Tyler, trapped in another dimension. He turns from the console only to see a bride, standing, rather impossibly, in the TARDIS. She proves to be more than abrasive enough that the Doctor decides to put her back in her place and time, but, typically, the TARDIS doesn’t land on target. (At least it lands on the right day.)

The Bride, Donna, catches a cab while the Doctor is trying to get money. The Doctor see the Santa robots from last year’s Christmas special and realizes Donna is still in danger. The cab driver is also a robot and is abducting Donna. The Doctor uses the TARDIS to chase her down the highway and rescue her.

Next, he gets her to her wedding (which everyone has rather callously decided to have the party without her), just in time for the Santas to attack again. Once again, the Doctor saves the day. Somehow Donna has been infused with an incredibly ancient (and supposedly non-existent) type of energy, which is what allowed her to arrive in the TARDIS and allows the Santas to track her.

Donna works for a company that is affiliated with Torchwood. His investigations lead him to a secret (abandoned) Torchwood base under the Thames Barrier. Inside, they discover a hole to the core of the Earth, and a giant Spider Queen, last of a voracious race of archnids who had terrorized the universe billions of years ago. They were all but wiped out by the Time Lords.

Donna’s fiance proves to be a conspirator with the Spider Queen and soon shows his true colors. Donna must be dropped into the pit where a ship full of eggs was placed just as the Earth started to form. The energy in Donna will revive them and send them swarming across the universe to eat everything.

The Doctor saves the day again by draining the Thames into the hole to the core of the earth, killing the baby spiders. The military rolls the tanks in and destroys the Spider Queen and her spacecraft which has been zapping London.

The Doctor offers the heartbroken Donna the opportunity to be his next companion, but she refuses and off the Doctor goes.

Analysis
The initial reviews that came about The Runaway Bride were not good, and I was set to be disappointed. Fortunately, they were completely wrong. This has to be one of Russell T. Davies’ best scripts for Doctor Who.

Without the Doctor/Rose lovey relationship, the Doctor is at his most traditional. The story is basically an action story without being bogged down with too much emotional rubbish, although it does deal a bit with the Doctor’s feelings about loosing Rose.

From a technical standpoint, as with an RTD script, it doesn’t pay to think about the “science” too much. It’s hard to imagine the technology of the spider ship being so powerful that it could withstand billions of years as the grain of sand that made the pearl of the Earth. The pressure alone would have to destroy it, but if not, how come the Queen’s ship was so easily destroyed by a conventional tank?

Then we have the question of draining the Thames. Wouldn’t it just fill in from the oceans? The whole in the basement of Torchwood wouldn’t be big enough to drain the Thames faster than it could fill. (In case you’re wondering, I estimate the hole must have held approximately 44,800 cubic kilometers of water, which is just a drop in the bucket to the Earth’s 1.3 billion cubic kilometers of water.)

Having not to long go seen Inferno, I can’t help wondering why this Earth core drilling project didn’t destroy the world, nor why at least isn’t there an up-welling of magma? Still, Doctor Who has rarely been a series too concerned with continuity.

Overall it was an enjoyable romp (more so than last year’s), but the entire Who fandom must have breathed a sigh of relief when Donna turned the Doctor’s offer down. Donna was annoying and stupid throughout the entire episode. I’ve never been a fan of the Catherine Tate show, because I don’t find it very funny, but now I realize perhaps I don’t like it because I find Catherine Tate annoying.

As last year, previews were shown for the upcoming season. It looks good, but then previews are always designed to make it look best.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Doctor Who, Dr Who, Review