Caprica

Review at Player Affinity

Star Trek: First Contact

So this is the best of the four films by reputation, and I do have to say I'd agree. It's still not one of the best movies in the whole franchise, and really just a pretty competent action movie. It features Picard's greatest foes, the Borg, attempting to rewrite the history of humanity. After facing defeat in a large space battle, they propel themselves back in time to the week when Zefram Cochrane makes first contact with Vulcans and thus inserts humanity into the galactic picture. Their goal is to prevent this from happening and at the same time assimilate the planet before the people know how to defend themselves. Luckily for the Enterprise, they are able to follow them into the past and attempt to stop them. Apparently, the Borg lack the same grip on the logic of time travel that Picard did in the last movie, which is that it would be easier to prevent something from happening if you went back farther than a few minutes beforehand. Skynet figured it out, why couldn't they? Time travel has a tendency to mess up good storytelling, especially when the characters simply don't think it through.

Besides these and some other issues, it's a pretty entertaining movie. There's a good variety of solid action scenes. James Cromwell shows up as Cochrane, and the depiction of one of the most important humans in history as a grizzled drunk just trying to make some money is kinda funny. It is weird how they picked someone who looks nothing like the guy from the original series, but it can be forgiven I guess. And it's fun to see Picard act with vengeance and fury, even if it means he's wildly different from the person he was for seven years on television. One of the reasons I started this whole thing was to see him shoot up a nightclub with a machine gun, and it was pretty glorious. I'm not sure I liked the addition of a queen into the whole Borg ecosystem, but she's probably the most successfully menacing villain in any of these movies, so I'll give it a pass too. Not much to say about the rest of the cast - Data has a somewhat interesting subplot if one that I'm a bit tired of hearing about, and by this point Deanna seems like a completely different person, as if Marina Sirtis is the only one who didn't bother to remember what her character was like. Not a great movie, but not bad either.

Star Trek: Generations

We're finally drawing to the end of my planned exploration of the Star Trek franchise. Before it's over though, I have to get through the last four films, which range in fan opinion from pretty good to downright awful. I've seen all of them, and while I didn't hate any, I didn't think any were particularly great either. We start things off in thoroughly mediocre fashion with Generations, the only film to feature both James Kirk (and the only original cast members willing to slum it with him) and Jean-Luc Picard. Unfortunately, they don't do a whole lot with the opportunity, with Kirk relegated to an ignominious death scene at the beginning and a shoehorned role in the plot's climactic (by default) moment. Most of the film is just an average TNG episode stretched out to feature length without a whole lot justifying it. It wasn't too bad really, as I spent most of the time mildly bored instead of really bothered by anything. "Not terrible" isn't really the best endorsement, though.

There were a few things I enjoyed. Data's experiment with an emotions chip was pretty funny for a while, until the plot really got going and it had shockingly little importance to any of the significant events. That was just sort of weird. Malcolm McDowell is a fun actor, and he does a solid job as the movie's villain at the same time that Picard and his crew fail miserably to counter him in a well reasoned way. To be honest, I'm struggling with finding good things about the movie... as I said, it's not egregiously poor, but there's so little about it that was memorable or interesting that it's hard to be even neutral on it after the fact. At least Picard acted like Picard the whole time, which becomes a huge issue in the sequels. They destroy the Enterprise to add some drama in an overly long crash scene and also to give an excuse for a rebuilt ship in future films that accommodates the wider aspect ratio, at the same time Picard is entering a strange alternate reality where the two captains finally meet. As I said though, it's not the most exciting result ever, as the big action finale is a few old dudes beating each other up. They pretty much dropped the ball, which honestly describes all these movies pretty well. Well, no matter. It's hard to be too disappointed by it when the last Trek film was so awesome.

Television Update 4: Straight-to-DVD Finales

A few shows that have recently ended or been in danger of ending have seen episodes or even feature length movies be put out on home video instead of the airwaves, at least in the USA. Here's what I think of them.

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan


Edward James Olmos, who directed this movie, claims it won't be the end of the Galactica saga, and he's not talking about Caprica. In any case, it felt less like a real film and more like a very long, somewhat informative filler episode, giving a lot of background on what was happening with the Cylons in secret in the beginning of the war, within the context of what we know from the end of the series. Cavill and Simon have the biggest roles, with the former orchestrating nearly every move made within the walls of Galactica in the first couple seasons, and the latter having a genuinely intriguing character arc, adding some purpose to a model which was hardly used at all during the regular run of the show. The new footage is heavily interspersed with clips from earlier episodes, although the new perspective was enough to prevent it from feeling like a recap show to me. Not great really, but had some interesting nuggets.

Dollhouse - "Epitaph One"


Because of filming two pilots, the season order got a little screwy for Dollhouse's first season. Only the first twelve regular episodes ending up airing in America, with an extra thirteenth filmed cheaply and shoved onto the DVD. Epitaph One could have been the last episode of the series until it was somehow picked up for a second season, and it jumps into the show's future, showing an apocalyptic world torn apart by the organization's apparent poor business practices. It's pretty fascinating, though it will probably end up becoming frustrating when the show eventually does get canned before the plot can really get this far along. Despite some real clunker episodes, it's brilliant, original science fiction like this that makes the show worth watching every week, although unfortunately there won't be another new episode until December.

Prison Break: The Final Break


I believe this was originally intended to be the show's final two episodes, but they ended up packaging them together into a separate movie, which honestly feels like the right decision. It just doesn't really jive with a series ending, feeling more like a little bonus adventure that's not really relevant to the story arc. I guess it really is the ending anyway, but oh well. It features one last jail break, this time from a women's penitentiary. It fills in some details missing from the ending montage in the series' final episode, and provides an adequately tense and interesting story, although it seems weird that they are able to get in so quickly after the series' other two breaks both took at least a dozen hours of television to pull off. Prison Break was always a second tier series to me, and this does little to change that, but has a nice send-off for the characters.

Virtuality

Moore's other pilot-turned-movie was advertised as such because FOX didn't pick it up as a series, and the only shot it had at that happening was doing a good job in the ratings, and being a new science fiction property without any big names and airing on Friday night, it failed to do so. What did FOX expect? There was supposed to be a decent ad campaign behind it but even I didn't know when it was airing, and for all intents and purposes they left it to die. I'm not too broken up about it, because as a prospect for a series I'm not sure how they could keep it interesting for more than a season or two, but as a simple introduction to a bunch of characters and possible conflicts I mostly enjoyed it.

The problem is it doesn't work as a stand-alone movie because it leaves too many plot threads dangling, and it probably wouldn't work as a series because there's only so much you can do with a realistic mission through space and no fanciful elements like extremely quick space travel or aliens or anything. The premise is fairly interesting; a space crew that's being filmed for a huge reality show is faced with a decision as they near Saturn - return to Earth which is rapidly experiencing a decline in living conditions or continue on with their ten year mission to a nearby star. Given that it was supposed to set up something long running, it's fairly obvious which will be picked, but there are decent reasons for both and some amount of tension and drama to the whole proceedings. Happening alongside all this is some mysterious figure who keeps popping up unexpectedly in the virtual reality simulations the crew uses to unwind and killing them repeatedly. I like seeing a sci-fi story that's mostly grounded in reality and most of the cast is pretty good, but in the end all Virtuality does is begin to tell a story that will most likely never continue, making it little more than an interesting failure.

Caprica

Ronald D. Moore, a big name in the world of science fiction television, has recently had a couple of series pilots aired or released as movies. One's going to continue on as a show and the other probably isn't. Caprica is the former, and it's a prequel to Battlestar Galactica, although one far enough in the past that there are very few recognizable characters and we don't know what's going to happen beyond the broad strokes already established, while still feeling like part of the same universe. It has a different feel from Battlestar, setting itself up as more of a family drama with the familiar themes of artificial intelligence and using technology to bring back lost loved ones instead of an epic war in space.

I honestly was slightly bored the entire time I was watching this. No single element failed too bad or was responsible for my disinterest, it just didn't come together in an exciting way for me. There was some interesting scenes, and I was intrigued enough by some of the ideas and story threads they set up for the series to give it a shot when it starts airing next year. There's a lot of cool places they could go with it, I'm just worried the sources of conflict will be a little too pedestrian after the apocalpytic war that could wipe out humanity in Battlestar. I'm a little fuzzy on the exact timeline and when things really hit the fan, but if that's something Caprica could explore, that would be a lot of fun.

Battlestar Galactica - Season 4

After a season which some fans thought had too many one-off episodes, the fourth and final pretty much told a continuous story of the ship and its crew's last days as they searched for Earth and an end to the conflict with the Cylons. Thanks to that damned writers' strike there was over half a year of waiting in between the first and second halves, which makes my memory of what happened earlier pretty fuzzy, though I remember being entertained by it all at roughly the same slightly diminished level as season three. There's not a lot of action these days, with large dogfights in space kept to a minimum, though there's still plenty of tension and drama.

I guess the movie Razor was part of this production cycle? It was all right. The Face of the Enemy webisodes were pretty blah, though important for Gaeta's character.

The second half of the season proper was even talkier than the first, although it kept me interested with moments of tension, surprise, and the joy of finally seeing threads created long ago brought to their conclusion. A two part mutiny story was one of the most intense couple hours of television I've seen, and what they do with Starbuck through the whole thing is equal parts baffling and incredible. Most of the rest of it was not quite thrilling, but peppered with enough interesting nuggets to easily keep me going towards the finale, which seems to be dividing the fanbase but I found pretty enjoyable. After a nice setup and pretty exciting battle fought across multiple scenes and scales, there's a nice, long period of wrap-up as the strange quasi-religious imagery that has permeated the series finally sees some resolution and the characters all see their stories end in a mostly satisfying way. There's a couple "what the hell?"s along the way and the final scene was a strange way to make sure the viewer got the message that I thought was obvious, but in the end I was satisfied with it as the ending to a great part of science fiction history.

Battlestar Galactica - Season 3

I felt that the third season of one of the better shows on television was a bit of a step back, but it was still successful for the most part. The main problem was the descent of the mood. Battlestar has always been a bit heavier and more realistic than most science fiction, but it's always had a more playful side, with intriguing human interactions and big space battles. The large Cylon fleets are absent for most of this season, as a lot of the conflict comes from within; more supply problems, unhappy workers, and the trial of Gaius Baltar. The relationships shift from simply interesting to more depressingly melodramatic, and in general the mood of the show is just much bleaker.

Despite the stylistic shift, it's still a good show. While New Caprica was more of a small arc than a complete change in the way the series works, it was still very well done and had rippling effects throughout the season. A lot of characters faced major changes, and they definitely don't go without casualties. They really go deep with a few characters, and by this point they're some of the best there are. Starbuck's constant mind changes can get annoying, but her story is great and where it will go after that finale has me already waiting for the final season's premiere in a couple months.

Battlestar Galactica - Season 2

The second season of Battlestar Galactica falls right into stride with the first season, providing entertaining and often exciting space-based drama and action. The show's greatest success might be how convincingly it pulls of the setting without it ever seeming cheesy. It's just a matter of fact. They strike a good balance between the battles against Cylon and the other troubles the fleet faces like resource troubles and political backstabbing, and romance is a much bigger part this season, and it's handled with a little less awkwardness than a lot of shows seem to end up with.

The special effects are always great, but the show's most interesting aspect is the plot, which always manages to add some new wrinkles when you don't expect it. I always seem to prefer shows that allow the status quo to change wildly without trying to keep everything the same all the time, and the show isn't afraid to skip forward in time or kill off some characters. The discovery of another Battlestar makes tides through the fleet, and the shift as we realize humans don't always see eye to eye is very nice. The political workings near the end lead to the show being turned on its ear unexpectedly in the finale, and I greatly look forward to jumping right into season three and seeing how this will turn out.

Battlestar Galactica - Season 1

I never saw the original series, so I can't say how much the new version owes to it or even how much of the plot is the same. All I can say is that what Battlestar Galactica is is one of the most visually impressive and interesting shows on television. Briefly, 40 years earlier, robots called Cylons, created by the humans of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, rebel and start a war, eventually being pushed back. During the miniseries which kicks off the show, the Cylons use new models that look and act exactly like humans to infiltrate human society and create an opening, allowing them to land a devastating blow, wiping out the vast majority of civilization and the military. Only one battleship, the Galactica, and about 50,000 humans survive. The attack was so effective that the Secretary of Education, 43rd in line of succession, has to become president.

The first season of the show focuses on the large scale space battles, delicate subterfuge, and complicated personal relationships involving the remaining humans. Anyone could be a Cylon, and some don't even know it, leading to a great sense of mystery and suspense. Evil robots aren't the only problem either, the setting is taken seriously, and the crew has to worry about fuel, water, and ammunition in addition to the constant threat of discovery as they search for Earth, the fabled thirteenth colony. Not even all the humans can stick together, as they're suspicious of each others' true natures and an old terrorist (or freedom fighter as some would call him) has a distressing amount of loyalty among some of the survivors. The core cast of characters is quite strong, and it's interesting to note how important women are in a male dominated sort of entertainment. The president and best pilot in the fleet are women, and the two most prominent of human-looking Cylons are two. There are multiple copies of each model, each with their own consciousness, and of those is currently locked inside the mind of one of the humans, and it's very interesting to see how she helps him and wonder where her allegiances really are. The end of the season is quite the cliffhanger, and I'm ready to jump into the second.