Not long ago I posted my dissatisfaction with the first three episodes of Eureka and, moreso, voiced my disdain at the concept behind the fourth episode, I do over. Firstly, any TV show or movie with a wedding in it automatically makes me want to puke and, secondly, just how many times has the GroundHog day thing been done. So, it was with the expectation of the worst that I sat down to watch the latest Eureka episode. Here is where I eat humble pie. I do over was a great episode.

The storyline follows Carter as he continues to relieve the wedding day of Allison and Stark, piecing together the puzzle of his daily time loop as each day progresses. Fortunately, there really wasn’t a lot of wedding in the episode, it was 90% Carter as he struggled to unravel the time loop mystery and as he struggled to deal with his slow physical break down with each time reversal. I’m not going to go into the storyline, you can read that here. Instead, I’m going to comment that my fears that Eureka had degenerated have now been put on hold. The episode had all the traits of the season 1 and season 2 quality that originally put the series in my good books. Read the rest of this entry »

In February 1990, over 18 years ago, the 63rd epsiode of Star Trek: The Next Generation aired, titled Yesterday’s Enterprise. In Yesterday’s Enterprise a time rift is opened and the Enterprise C emerges 22 years after the date of its disappearance. Upon emerging, the timeline completely changes, and the crew of Enterprise D become a military crew, in the middle of a decades long war agains the Klingons. As Guinan’s unique abilities lead Picard to believe the arrival of the Enterprise C has somehow created an altered reality, it is determined the only way to avert the war against the Klingons is to send the Enterprise C back to where she came – in the middle of a losing battle where the ship and her crew will be destroyed. This episode has a 9.5 out of 10 rating on TV.com’s Summary of Yesterday’s Enterprise and for good reason, it is one of the better Next Generation episodes. I watched it again yesterday more than ten years since I last saw it, and loved it just as much. If you’ve never seen this episode grab it now, it is well worth a watch.

Enjoy a scene out of Yesterday’s Enterprise (don’t watch this if you don’t want a spoiler because this is the end scene!): Read the rest of this entry »

On 7 May 2009 the eleventh Star Trek movie will hit the big screen, simply titled ‘Star Trek’. On one hand I’m not really that eager, partly because most Star Trek movies have been pretty average, and partly because once again movie studios are looking to ‘prequels’ for their inspiration. I thought they would have learned from the dismal reception and performance of Enterprise – going back in time is never as exciting to the fans as going forward in time. Well, possibly, because on the other hand, the director is J.J. Abrams who directed the pilot to Lost and also Mission Impossible 3. Mission Impossible 3 was easily the best of the MI’s and, well, the pilot to Lost was brilliant.

Actually, now I have to go back to the other hand. No movie is any good, no matter how great the CGI is or no matter how talented the actors are, without a good story. Read the rest of this entry »

In March it was announced that Sci Fi had given the green light to Caprica, a two hour pilot for a new prequel series to the current hit, Battlestar Galactica. If you’re already a fan of Battlestar Galactica, this was great news, particularly in light of the fact that it is also common knowledge that the current season of Battlestar Galactica is the last. Now, the trailer is out.

Athough most of the trailer looks more like a modern day drama than a prequel to Battlestar Galactica, my mouth is watering. It is scheduled to air in December on the Sci Fi channel, although rumor has it that it may be held off until 2009 – not surprising given the Sci Fi channel’s decision to hold off the last half of Season 4 of Battlestar Galactica until 2009. I imagine they want to screen Caprica at the end of Battlestar to ensure the audience is kept for the new pilot and, hopefully, the new series. Or, just maybe, they’ll finalise Battlestar before December of this year, and retain the December 2008 premiere for Caprica. Here’s hoping on that one. Read the rest of this entry »

Season 1 of Eureka was excellent. Season 2 of Eureka was excellent. The Sci Fi channel were calling Eureka their number one science fiction show and, if you ignored the existence of Battlestar Galactica, I thought it was a fair call. At least, the ratings made it a fair call. Then, after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, came season 3.

Having just watched the third episode of season 3, “Best in Faux“, I’m left wondering – did they change writers? There was a writers strike after all, so perhaps yes, perhaps they did. We know the writers strike apparently lead to Eureka being commissioned for 21 instead of 13 episodes for season 3. Perhaps the rush to produce more quantity has led to the unfortunate side effect of less quality. It seems the only possibility, since a quick check shows its the same writers. It’s the same actors, it’s the same characters, and its the same writers. But somehow, the show isn’t the same.

Eureka currently isn’t what it used to be. Instead of a nice, cohesive and ongoing storyline spread with enjoyable character driven humor, it now seems to be a try hard comedy with impossible to believe scenarios. After looking forward to Eureka for almost a year, I have to say, I”m quite disappointed. I also have a friend who had listed Eureka as her favorite television show for its first two years, but like myself, has watched the first three episodes of season 3 and asked, “What’s going on?” Read the rest of this entry »

This December Fox will release The Day the Earth Stood Still, a modern take on the immensely popular 1951 film of the same name – and this is one movie I can’t wait to see. Although the director of the film, Scott Derrickson, isn’t a name yet associated to any movie of epic brilliance, and if I were to take into account that the writer, David Scarpa, has only one movie under his belt (The Last Castle), I might be concerned. But this remake stars Keanu Reeves. Whatever your view on Reeves, his movies are in the history books as some of the best ever. The Matrix Trilogy is easily one of the greatest trilogies of all time, and acts as one of the greatest philosophical works of all time – the name ‘Neo’ is now a household name. Reeves’ portrayal of the Buddha in Little Buddha was brilliant and proves he is an excellent actor, Constantine was cool and especially so if you’re a Hellblazer comics fan, and contrary to many an opinion, I also think A Scanner Darkly had a lot to offer. Add that to the ‘all round nice guy’ persona he has in real life and I’m quite happy to watch a Keanu Reeves movie. Keanu Reeves will play an alien named Klaatu.

The script for the 2008 remake seems to have been kept largely under wraps. There’s probably leaks out there, but quite honestly I’m not going to look for them – its under wraps for a reason, and that’s not to spoil the film! From what I hear, the new movie will follow very closely to the storyline of the original and, perhaps to a larger extent, to the short story ‘Farewell to the Master‘ that the original was based upon. In the original storyline, a spaceship lands in Washington DC and the alien Klaatu emerges. He declares he is on a mission of peace and goodwill, stemming from the fact that people of other planets have become concerned about the development of atomic weapons on Earth. Read the rest of this entry »

Originally (and still) a major Stargate SG-1 fan, I must admit I was a little disappointed when the first season of Stargate Atlantis began to unfold. Although I had waited for it with eager anticipation, for some reason it just didn’t seem to hit the spot. Now, it is without question that I say Stargate Atlantis is currently the best science fiction show on television, and is the most entertaining sci-fi show currently in syndication. Yes, I know Battlestar Galactica takes the sci-fi cake, but its not currently on TV…

Episode 5 of Season 5 is the latest episode in this brilliant series, titled ‘Ghost in the Machine.’ If you don’t want to read spoilers, you probably shouldn’t continue from here. The episode begins with the Atlantis team losing power in their Puddle jumper and being placed in a seemingly disastrous position of burning up in the atmosphere of a planet as they helplessly drift down. Suddenly, without their own intervention, power is restored and they are able to return to Atlantis. Soon after the same power failures begin on Atlantis, before they realize the consciousness of their previous commander, Doctor Elizabeth Weir, has somehow taken control of Atlantis’ computers. This is bad, because Weir is a Replicator. Read the rest of this entry »

Terminator 4, aka Terminator Salvation, is set to be released first in Australia on 4 June 2009. With Christian Bale cast as John Connor, this is definitely one movie that has shot to the top of my must sees of 2009. Here’s the plot summary:

Set in post-apocalyptic 2018, John Connor is the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright, a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet’s operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind.

In addition to Christian Bale, who I probably don’t really need to mention played Batman in the recent blockbaster The Dark Knight, the character of Marcus Wright will be played by Australian actor Sam Worthington. Worthington’s most recent movie is Rogue, a cool little scare flick about a monster crocodile that is stalking a group of stranded tourists in outback Australia. We’re told Worthingtons character is a Terminator. The script is pretty much under wraps, but right now I’m thinking Worthington is a good casting choice. Though not a behemoth of a muscle man like Arnold Schwarzenegger, he does have a cool squarish face suitable for the role. Here’s hoping he’s liquid metal, but that might be hoping for too much. Read the rest of this entry »