Next Generation turns 20!

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation. So sit back, enjoy a Romulan Ale, play some of that three-dimensional chess and remember the series that brought Star Trek back into the mainstream. It was the only Trek series I ever truly liked.

Smallville Season Premiere

MILD SPOILERS


The 7th season of Smallville premiered last night and I actually watched it. I haven't watched Smallville too much since the 3rd season. I have caught an episode here and there and sometimes watch the premieres and finales. Which is what I did last night.

It was the conclusion to the Bizarro Superman story from last spring's finale. I enjoyed the episode and it was pretty cool seeing a Bizarro. The fight was outstanding, albeit a little short.



It was nice to see them play up the yellow sun's effect on Clark but I felt it was played too straight. I never really thought that Clark's powers are triggered by the sun but rather he is a giant solar battery that stores the energy and that kicks in his powers. Sorry...geekout.


The whole thing with Chloe's death was boring and I wonder how they are going to explain that to the town. "Hey! Isn't that Chloe? I thought she was dead?"


Supergirl...Supergirl...Supergirl...we'll see.


I think I may try to watch a little bit this season since it may be the final one and I would like to see Clark go from Smallville hero to the man who is Superman.

who watches the watchmen?

After years and years of people talking about making it (Terry Gilliam and Darren Arronofsky both tried), it looks like the Watchmen movie is officially happening because the first week of filming has been completed. Director Zach Snyder (300) has posted the first of his production video blogs over at the Watchmen movie site. Exciting.

If you don't know about the highest regarded, literary graphic novel of all time, you can read about it on wikipedia. Just don't read the spoilers if you've never read it.

nananananana....

BIONIC WOMAN

I watched the new Bionic Woman series last night and don't know how I feel about it yet. It is not quite a much watch show but I probably will give it a couple more episodes to see where it goes. I like the way the film is shot and produced and it sure does look pretty. If anything it has Katee Sackoff all glammed up and looking quite different than her normal Starbuck self. And Aaron Douglass (Chief from Battlestar Galactica) as well as Mark Sheppard (Lampkin from BSG) were in it too.

I guess I liked everybody in it except for the main actor, Michelle Ryan. I didn't feel like she had a good enough quality to be a lead character.

And is it too much to ask to put the old sound effect from the original? Nananananana...

KID NATION

I watched the second episode of this show last night and I don't care what anybody says...I love this show! The kids are so cute and they are on this train wreck of a reality program! How can you not watch. Watching them kill chickens - and the little girls with the "Pet Hospital" for other kids' stuffed animals were the 2 highlights of the show for me. And that little Jared kid is absolutely insane and I can tell that the producers absolutely love him.

We could be HEROES

SPOILERS ABOUND

So Jenn and I finished watching the season premiere of Heroes last night. We started watching it Monday night but I fell asleep about 15 minutes into the episode. Already off to a bad start.

I didn’t watch this series when it first started last fall. Despite constant remarks from friends saying that since I am a comic book fan, I would love this show, I never got around to watch it. About half way through I tried to pick up on an episode that was designed to bring readers up to speed. Couldn’t stand it.

Then Jenn borrowed DVD copies of episodes from a guy at work and we trudged through them. Not great but not terribly awful. The acting is pretty poor and the plots and characters are things that I was reading in comics 20 years ago. Nothing new or exciting.

So that is how the new season is for me. Not exciting. I don’t care about the Latino siblings fleeing to America. I don’t care that Captain Sulu is dead. And I saw Peter's amnesia coming from a mile away. I may keep watching just because so many of my comic friends talk about it, but it is not exciting me at all.

When does Lost and Battlestar start? Oh yeah…February… :(

Phonogram: Rue Britannia

Last night I finished Phonogram: Rue Britannia, a comic by Kieron Gillen (writer) and Jamie McKelvie (artist) that approaches the idea that music is magic and it defines who we are.

I passed on the series when it came out in monthly, single issue form but after hearing so many positive things about it, I couldn’t pass up the trade paperback collection of the series. And I am glad I didn’t.

To get an idea for what the book is about - Kieron Gillen’s pitch for the series was thus:

“Music is Magic.
You know this already. You’ve known this from the first time a record sent a divine shiver down your spine or when a band changed the way you dressed forever. How does something that’s just noises arranged in sequence do that? No-one knows. It’s just… magic.
Everyone knows that. It’s just that some realise that it’s more than metaphor.“

The story follows a character named David Kohl, a British man in his early thirties who was big into the Brit Pop music scene of the mid-90s. (Brit Pop was music from bands like Oasis, Blur, Radiohead and The Boo Radleys.) Kohl is a phonomancer, a magician of sorts who use magic to control their lives. It's a modern fantasy.

I was a fan of Brit Pop myself and while I do not get all the references in the story, I do see what Gillen is trying to do. He is saying that music defines who we are as people and, even though our tastes may change on what kind of music we like, it is important to see the importance of our musical histories.

I never liked Kula Shaker either.

Phonogram: Rue Britannia is published by Image Comics. It is 150 pages for $14.99 but you can get it for cheaper on Amazon or InStockTrades.

Recommended For: People who Love Music, Modern Fantasy Fans, Anglophiles

Back in Black...

okay I am going to try this again. I am going to try to get some regular material on here as often as I can. Reviews of movies, TV, comics, books, music. Ramblings about pop culture news. Could we start again please?