The Dream Quest of Unknown Me

Just finished watching the Doctor Who Easter special "Planet of the Dead" (it's on YouTube). It was very special indeed - a wonderful action adventure ep with some nice special effects and a terrific cast of characters. I especially liked Lady Catherine de Souza and her backpack stuffed with so many handy items and Malcolm Taylor, the brilliant scientist attached to UNIT. I hope milady returns though it might be a bit awkward if she's paired with young Doctor #11. Tennant is certainly going out with a bang. Next up is "The Waters of Mars".

I watched the premiere of "New Amsterdam" last night and thought it might have promise... if they improve on their inconsistencies. The hero was a Dutch soldier who, in 1642, saved the life of a Native American girl who then rewarded/cursed him with immortality of a sort (he would become mortal again when he met his one true love). He often drops hints in his conversation that he's been around for awhile eg. he told an AA meeting that he's been sober for 15,495 days, but everyone thinks he's joking. Apparently, unlike the hero of  the novel Forever by Pete Hamill that the series has been accused of plagiarizing resembling, he is not confined to Manhattan, having been to Buenos Aires and Normandy.

However there were 3 big oops for me in the pilot.  First he had a sort of heart attack and was taken to the hospital where he "died" then recovered and walked out. The hospital never checked his ID nor noticed he was a cop with a badge and a gun. Surely that's the first thing checked out for insurance purposes and to notify the next of kin? Later it turned out that he was once a famous furniture maker. He made a beautiful desk and when his friend (and possible son) took it to a gallery, the people there didn't seem to be able to detect that it was newly made. Then at the final flashback when he recovered from the immortality rite (and why didn't the NA shamans use it on their own people?) the camera pans to some teepees in the background. Now I'm certainly no expert on NA but from what I've read, teepees of this type were the product of the dwellers on the Great Plains like the Sioux and the Cheyenne as several buffalo hides were needed in their construction. Also prior to the acquisition of the horse in the late 18th century, they were unable to wander very far, certainly not to Manhattan. The series makers probably thought that all Native Americans were alike and simply wanted a generic symbol that we would recognize as NA :(

He also joked about having 609 girlfriends! Now if this is true, he's had more than one a year, as it's only been 366 years since he was gifted/cursed. Maybe he had to go through so many in his quest for his one true love but it makes him out to be not very nice (we met one old girlfriend who stated that he just left her one day). With the mystery and the flashbacks "New Amsterdam" comes across as a derivative of "Highlander" and "Forever Knight" (he even mentions vampires in such a way that could be taken to mean they exist in this 'verse). I am certainly not in love with this show or its hero but I'll continue to view it as long as there's nothing better in that timeslot (on Thursday though Fox is trying it out opposite "Lost" so I may end up taping it if I feel like it).

Well it appears that the Milton Fine/Brainiac (James Marsters) story arc is finished on "Smallville" which means I probably won't watch it any more. Last night they introduced Jimmy Olsen as working at The Daily Planet, seemingly the same age as Clark Kent. Now back in the day when I was reading the comic books Jimmy Olsen was the young cub reporter and Clark Kent was the older, experienced chief reporter. Jimmy Olsen should be a freckle-faced kid running around with Lana's kid sister Lucy. Comic book canon is so easily ignored even by the people who create it which is one of the reasons I gave up reading comic books years ago.

I know that a lot of people out there love "Supernatural" and I must admit that the leads are incredibly handsome but the show is a throwback to the early days of television when women were either victims or villainesses. Few, if any, of John's colleagues that the boys have encountered are female. The show, for all the eye-candy, leaves me feeling excluded as if demon-hunting was exclusively a male perogative and best left to the menfolk. I had enough of that sort of mindset on TV shows when I was a kid so I'll continue to be only an occasional viewer of the show.

A long time ago one of my favorite TV shows was The Persuaders. It was a sort of dramedy version of "The Odd Couple" with an uncouth Danny Wilde (Tony Curtis) and the very couth Lord Brett Sinclair (Roger Moore). Well I was young and naive and had crushes on both characters who ran after women continuously. I am now watching the DVDs and I now see them as the most slashable characters I have ever seen on TV outside of characters who are meant to be gay. I have no idea if anyone else thought this way back then and as the show was on before the first slash fanfic in 1974, I doubt there were any fan stories depicting this but oh the possibilities.


*Consilio et prudentia (sneaky is best): old school motto of Lord Brett Sinclair ("Greensleeves" ep 11).

A couple of days ago dolnmoon had a "List 10 Fictional Characters You'd Do". I decided that since it's my lj I'd post 12 since I couldn't make up my mind who to delete. ( List here )

Just read that the WB and UPN are merging (read here). Not that I really care but it might have had an impact on BtVS/AtS if it had happened a few years ago. The only show I watch these days on either of those channels is "Smallville" and only when James Marsters is on--BTW any news on Prof. Fine/Brainiac's return?

Well the strike is still on though there's hope on the horizon. Another wee plus is that I've gone into several stores that I usually ride past--nothing sensational but fun all the same (in the vein of making lemonade out of lemons).
Yesterday on Park Avenue (a very exclusive part of NYC) I walked past a discarded Xmas tree and it's not even Xmas! All I could think of was that someone had bought it to make an apartment Xmasy then left for a long vacation in Palm Beach or Aspen or Bermuda throwing out the tree so they wouldn't return to a pile of pine needles. There's nothing sadder in the days after Xmas than walking past all those trees lying on the sidewalk waiting for the garbage trucks. Ever since I read Twilight Time I keep thinking of what Xander said about Xmas trees: “You know, they aren’t really. Live, I mean. I mean, they look alive and everything, but they’re actually dying right there before your eyes. It’s kind of nasty to think of. There’s something kind of heartless about cutting a tree down, hauling it home, decorating it up while it’s dying, and then after the holiday’s over, you just throw it out to finish dying somewhere where you don’t have to look at it fall apart.”


One more thing: on Tuesday "Bones" was a repeat so I watched "NCIS" and found out that Jethro Gibbs is an ex-sniper. Well so is Seeley Booth of "Bones". Thanks to the wonderful world of television programming we now have the only 2 (I don't think there are there any others)ex-snipers on TV going up against each other. I know who I want to win.

Now that "Threshold" has been cancelled there are only two "incursion" shows left and "Surface" is now on hiatus until January leaving the fate of little Nim (yes it appears dead but we know that in SF/fantasy dead isn't always dead) up in the air until then. "Invasion" just kicked into high gear with a glimpse of a "light" critter. The question that arises is it the actual invader or just a biomechanism used to create duplicates for the true invaders?

Horses and bears and Walt oh my...what is going on in "Lost"? I keep thinking of the TOS ep "Shore Leave" where the crew visited a planet that was an alien amusement park and all their secret desires came true. The Losties appear to be on a Shore Leave island in the Pacific version of the Bermuda triangle. I like the theory that those mysterious numbers are co-ordinates of that island. And lastly I must admit that everytime I hear the name Dharma I automatically think where's Greg?

I'm now officially in the holiday season mood as last night TNT aired "A Christmas Story" which is my favorite holiday movie. It's sweet and sentimental yet Shepherd's ascerbic wit keeps it from being cloying. I also like (carryovers from my childhood) "March of the Wooden Soldiers" and "Mr Magoo's Christmas Carol" which IMHO is the definitive version as far as I'm concerned *g*.

Came across an ad in today's Daily News which had a store that doesn't have sales clerks but "sales counselors". Since the store was selling high-tech stuff I guess counselors might be necessary but it still looks weird or maybe, since I haven't bought anything high-tech in a while, they're now commonplace.

For my friend stretfordditto and other fans of Georgette Heyer I came across this today: A Heyer of a Slayer, Book 1 (warning WIP).

I've been watching "Surface", "Invasion" and "Threshold" and it occured to me that it would be far more interesting if all 3 were facets of a 3-pronged incusion by some diabolically clever aliens. In "Threshold" the characters are government agents that are at times ruthless in order to cover up the invasion and in the other 2 ruthless government agents are involved in covering those invasions up. Also water/the ocean plays a part in all the shows. If only the networks were that clever letting the 3 shows intertwine to really hook us in *sigh* I don't actually love the shows as none of the characters truly grab me (except maybe Nim--does he count?) and I'm afraid one or all the shows will be cancelled before I know what's really going on!!! I still remember years ago the frustration when "Prey" was suddenly cancelled leaving the Adam Storke character in a cage, me with no answers and Deborah Messing free to become Grace *g*
These shows have some BtVS crossover fanfic potential as I can picture Graham, Riley and Sam becoming involved. This is especially true for "Surface" as Nim and his kin could be considered demons. In the past ignorant superstitous humans would've called any non-human a demon regardless of where it came from--outer space or another dimension. Maybe demons are actually aliens.

Did anyone else guess where Sun lost her ring long before she found it in last night's "Lost"? Chekhov's Law strikes again.

If JM isn't in tonight's "Smallville" for at least more than the 15 seconds he was in the season premiere I'm going to...well I don't know what I'm going to do but I wish I could teleport to the producers and read them the riot act. I'm suffering from JM-deprivation!!!