Star Trek: The Enemy Within

Kirk: "I'll kill you."
Kirk: "Can half a man live?"

And it's the sci-fi/fantasy show staple: the evil double.

About Us: Josie Kafka

Here's the next installment in our silly "meet the writers" series.

What area of the world do you live in, and what do you do? (Because we all know you don't make any money doing this.)

I live in LA. I’m a mercenary: I’ll do anything that requires a smallish bit of intelligence, as long as it pays. Sound awful, I know, but it’s an improvement over the times when I would do anything for money, no matter how dumb.

NewsFlash: Dennis Hopper, 1936-2010

Dennis Hopper passed away today at the age of 74 from complications related to prostate cancer. Here is a great explanation of the course of his career (from his wild days to his less-wild days). Here's another one. And another one. Let's thank the man who brought the counter-culture to everyone else's attention. Rock n' roll will never die.

FlashForward: Future Shock

“It’s a math problem, right? How would it possibly tie all of those things together?”

The math problem of the week is how to get one train headed towards Chicago to crash with another train headed towards Detroit before the 10 year-old gets sick of doing word problems for homework. The easiest way to cause all the necessary FlashCrashes to happen at precisely the right time? Change the variables, change the constants, change the relationships of distance, rate, and time. Re-write the problem.

Doctor Who: The Hungry Earth

Amy: 'Oh please, have you always been this disgusting?'
Doctor: 'No, it's recent.'

To some degree, this whole episode felt like an homage to the Pertwee era. The return of the Silurians was the most obvious tip of that hat, but there was also the TARDIS landing in the wrong place, at the wrong time (as was the norm in Worzel's day); the mining plot, which shared many story elements with 1970's episode 'Inferno' (i.e. a team of science boffins, drilling through the earth's crust, attempting to mine its rare resources... etc); and the idea of brokering a peace between the Silurians and mankind was an idea first explored in the imaginatively named 'Doctor Who and the Silurians'. I guess, after 47 years, it's only natural that a show's going to repeat itself.

Lost: The End - Musings from a Non-Lostie

Unlike many of you on this site - writers and readers - I'm not a rabid Lost fan. I know, hard to believe those exist, right? I followed it obsessively the first season, pulled my hair out during the second, and then decided that the only way to enjoy it for what it is was to wait until each season was over, and watch the episodes all in a row. I never had theories on what the Island was, didn't get any of the number stuff unless people pointed it out to me, and had no clue what an Easter egg was - much less, tried to interpret from it. As I often say in my Glee reviews, I don't want to think when I watch TV, I just want to enjoy it.

Star Trek: The Naked Time

Spock: "We have three days to live over again."
Kirk: "Not those last three days."

This episode is so beloved by fans that later Star Trek series incarnations deliberately recreated it. And there's a good reason why: you learn a lot about someone when you get drunk with them. In this episode, we got drunk with most of the crew, and had a fabulous time. Well, except for the six deaths on the planet, Joe Tormolen's suicide by butter knife, and nearly crashing the Enterprise into Psi 2000.

Glee: Theatricality

Finn: "Don't you get it? ... We live in Ohio. Not New York or San Francisco or some other city where people eat vegetables that aren't fried."

I knew it was too much to hope for another smashing success like "The Power of Madonna", but man - "Theatricality" was just a mess. And not in a Lindsay-Lohan-entertaining hot mess kind of way.

Chuck: Chuck versus the Ring, Part 2

“Your brother does have a knack for getting into trouble. You’re going to have to protect Chuck, be there for him no matter what, because you’re his big sister. Can you do that for me?”

Part Deux started off with a flashback that we didn’t entirely need: Ellie’s care and concern for her little brother was not a mystifying part of her character. It’s the natural role of any big sister, and I’ll bet all the big sisters who saw this episode got just as choked up as I did. It does make her concern more complex, though: she’s not just watching out for Chuck, she’s honoring her father.

Chuck: Chuck versus the Subway

“It’s been brought to this committee’s attention that the Intersect is unstable, expensive, and—most of all—dangerous.”

Shaw has gone from CIA golden boy with a dark past, to Ring agent, to dead in the Seine, to super-scary manipulator of all levels of government. Shaw isn’t just back: he’s evil and, like the organization he serves, hell-bent on world domination. Or at least, hell-bent on mean revenge. Shaw returned from the dead, slipped into the CIA’s good graces and managed to wreck havoc on all of our heroes. Really, he caused an impressive amount of damage in just an hour. Here’s a tally:

Lost: The End --- Jess says ...

Note: Given that Lost is a show that invites multiple interpretations, Billie asked her guest writers if we’d like to provide our own perspectives on the recent finale and/or the series as a whole. I’ve put together some thoughts based largely on comments I posted on Billie’s Lost discussion group. If you read both, sorry for the repetition!

Lost: The End

Jack: "I'm fine. Just find me some thread, and I can count to five."

I was deeply moved; I cried and cried. Emotionally, it was an incredibly satisfying finale. But intellectually, I feel cheated, and mildly disappointed.

Why VD Doesn’t Suck

I didn’t like it any more than you did: The Vampire Diaries pilot was, as Billie said, Muppet Babies with fangs. High school only feels overwrought when you’re in it, and the stakes of this show were underwhelming, to say the least. Girl has vampire boyfriend. Vampire boyfriend has snarky vampire brother. Some friends with superpowers, and some friends without. The writing was pedestrian, the acting wooden, the plot redundant. We’d seen this and read this before. But then, somehow, it got better. Here are the top ten reasons you should join us for the Great Vampire Diaries Re-Watch of Summer 2010:

About Us: Billie Doux

Since summer is a relatively quiet time here on DouxReviews.com, we thought it might be fun to ask each other silly questions, get to know each other better, and share it with the readers. As Queen of the Site, I volunteered to go first. I'll be posting one silly interview a week until I run out of guest writers.

Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before

Kirk: "Did you hear him joke about compassion? Above all else, a god needs compassion."

In 1965, they made a pilot for a show called Star Trek. It was entitled "The Cage" and starred Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike, Majel Barrett as Number One, and Leonard Nimoy as Mister Spock. The network thought it was "too cerebral" (maybe it was the aliens with the big heads) but they liked the general idea and in an unprecedented move, ordered a second pilot. Jeffrey Hunter turned it down, and every part was recast – except for Spock. "Where No Man Has Gone Before" is the second pilot, and it really should have aired first in Star Trek's original run. It's actually pretty damned good.

Stargate Universe: Subversion

‘Subversion’ takes the story arc in some unexpected directions and leaves us with a pretty intense cliffhanger for the next two weeks (no new episode next week due to Memorial Day weekend). Plus, the detour into 24 territory presented some compelling issues to ponder and debate.

Fringe: Over There, Part 2

“Is that what this is about?”

This was a beautifully written, beautifully acted, beautifully directed, and beautifully scored episode. Sure, this was about the coming storm, rifts between realities, and the end of the world. It’s also about individual characters encountering each other and realizing things about themselves. I didn’t know a Fringe episode could make me cry. This one did.

FlashForward: CountDown

“I gave you a choice, and you chose the wrong path.”

The Bad Guy said that every option, every possible future leads to one point: what Mark saw in his flashforward. This episode took that idea and ran with it: even disparate strands suddenly got wound up in the big rubber-band ball of plot. Tracy, Jericho, Aaron—turns out, that actually matters. The entire arc of the show ran with the idea, too: characters suddenly found themselves, through occasionally unbelievable machinations of fate (read: writers) exactly where they were supposed to be, and then exactly where they weren’t supposed to be. Is this a good thing?

Doctor Who: Amy's Choice

Doctor: 'Look at you both, five years later and you haven't changed a bit. Apart from age... and size.'

I read an interesting thing on a Doctor Who forum last week. Someone made the comment 'The difference between a good episode of Doctor Who and a bad one is how much people want to talk about it afterwards'. There's probably some truth to that. When an episode's bad, many see it as a call to arms. Some find ripping into the writers/actors/production team a satisfying and cathartic way of expressing their displeasure. Others choose the more traditional route of identifying an episode's faults, and then proposing a potential fix. Whichever method you choose, the point is, dissatisfaction and confusion increase discussion exponentially.

Lost: What They Died For

Locke: "Maybe this is happening for a reason. Maybe you're supposed to fix me."
Jack: "Mr. Locke, I want to fix you. But I think you're mistaking coincidence for fate."

I decided to let go of my anger with "Across the Sea" and just let the last few hours of this show wash over me. Might as well enjoy it since this is it. If they don't tell us stuff, so be it.

NewsFlash: CBS’s Fall Schedule

It’s hard for me to get too excited about the CBS upfront. I don’t watch a single CBS show; here in LA it’s channel #2, so it usually slides off the channel guide before I even have a chance to look at it. And, now that the Ghost Whisperer has been canceled, Medium is their only genre show (although I have always wondered if perhaps the half-man of Two and a Half Men is a cyborg hybrid). Read on for some underwhelming news.

Hawaii Five-0 (Monday 10-11):

Official description: Hawaii Five-0 is a contemporary take on the classic series about a new elite federalized task force whose mission is to wipe out the crime that washes up on the Islands’ sun-drenched beaches. Detective Steve McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin), a decorated Naval officer turned cop, returns to Oahu to investigate his father’s murder and stays after Hawaii’s governor persuades him to head up the new team: his rules, her backing, no red tape and full blanket immunity to hunt down the biggest “game” in town. Joining McGarrett is Detective Danny “Danno” Williams (Scott Caan), a newly relocated ex-New Jersey cop who prefers skyscrapers to the coastline but is committed to keeping the Islands safe for his 8-year-old daughter; and Chin Ho Kelly (Daniel Dae Kim), an ex-Honolulu Police Detective wrongly accused of corruption and relegated to a federal security patrol, who is also a former protege of McGarrett’s father. Chin’s cousin, Kono (Grace Park), is a beautiful and fearless native, fresh out of the academy and eager to establish herself among the department’s elite. McGarrett vows to bring closure to his father’s case while the state’s brash new FIVE-0 unit, who may spar and jest among themselves, is determined to eliminate the seedy elements from the 50th state. Peter Lenkov, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are executive producers for CBS Television Studios.

Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park—that’s exciting! Alex Kutzman and Roberto Orci both work on Fringe, so that’s mildly exciting, as well.


Criminal Minds Spinoff (Mid-season replacement):

Official Description: Criminal Minds Spinoff stars Academy Award-winner Forest Whitaker in a drama about an elite team of agents within the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit who use unconventional methods of investigation and aggressive tactics to capture the nation’s most nefarious criminals. Unit chief Special Agent Sam Cooper (Whitaker) is a mentally and physically fierce natural leader who is not afraid to put his career on the line in order to stand by his convictions. Cooper strives to avoid political bureaucracy and has handpicked an eclectic group of profilers to work outside the confines of Quantico: Former British Special Forces soldier Mick Rawson (Matt Ryan), confident and handsome, works as a highly-skilled marksman with an undiluted eye for rooting out evil; John "Prophet" Sims (Michael Kelly), a former convict with a street-smart edge and a calm, Zen-like presence, who is determined to make amends for past sins; and Gina LaSalle (Beau Garrett), an attractive, tough agent armed with a cunning sense of perception. This exceptional group of FBI operatives is strong in their beliefs and steadfast in their mission to bring the country’s most dangerous criminals to justice.

I am only including this one because Forest Whitaker is fabulous. Well, and because I’m dying to know if "Criminal Minds Spinoff" is actually the name of the show. That’s like registering a business under the name "Manufacturer of Off-Brand Gelatin."

So: no genre here, and while I might check out Hawaii Five-0 for the first episode, I don't think I’ll start remembering that CBS exists anytime soon. What about you?

Glee: Dream On

Jesse: “That’s not a dream. A dream is something that fills up the emptiness inside. The one thing that you know that if it comes true all the hurt would go away.”

I enjoyed "Dream On", but I have to admit that I was kind of disappointed. This was the much hyped Joss Whedon directed episode. I don't know what I was expecting, but I had all these visions of the Buffy musical episode running around in my head. Joss, Neil, Glee - it should have been legen-wait for it-dary.

Star Trek: Charlie X

Charlie: "Are you a girl? Is that a girl?"

No subtlety or suspense at all. From the first moment the Antares party beamed aboard, the audience could tell there was something seriously wrong with castaway Charlie Evans.

Chuck: Chuck versus the Living Dead

Chuck: “The mission’s over, Dad.”
Dad: “It’s never over.”

The camera pans over low-lying, woodsy mountains. We move towards Mammoth Lake. The viewer is disoriented—this is not how a usual Chuck episode starts. We zoom in to a rustic, dilapidated cabin. It’s out of the way, but there are signs of life. From inside, an ominous sawing noise. We enter through the door, and the camera focuses in on an unseen man sharpening an axe on a whetstone. A new villain? A Deliverance extra on the wrong set? The camera pans up… The big reveal… It’s Scott Bakula!

Stargate Universe: Pain

‘Pain’ was a perfectly serviceable episode featuring “alien ticks” that caused hallucinations and wreaked havoc on some members of the crew. The action was reasonably engaging, but the most interesting aspect of the episode was the light it shed on the psyches of several characters. In particular, I was fascinated by the wide range of emotional states tapped into by the hallucinations --- fear, guilt, grief, anger, paranoia --- and the reactions of each character.

NewsFlash: FOX’s Fall Schedule

Glee, Fringe and Human Target, our favorite FOX shows, have already been renewed. But will the top network have something new for genre fans? Maybe—read on for more details about FOX’s fall lineup.

Terra Nova (mid-season replacement):

Official description: Terra Nova, an epic family adventure 85 million years in the making, is the new event drama slated for midseason from executive producers Steven Spielberg (Jurassic Park, The Pacific), Peter Chernin, Brannon Braga (24, Star Trek: Enterprise) and David Fury (24, Lost). The action-adventure series follows an ordinary family on an extraordinary journey back in time to prehistoric Earth as a part of a massive expedition to save the human race.

This sounds like an 8pm on Friday kind of show to me: the phrase "family adventure" makes me a little hesitant. Then again, it's got David Fury and Brannon Braga. And maybe saber-tooth tigers, too!


Ride-Along (mid-season replacement):

Official description: The new drama scheduled for a midseason debut is Ride-Along. From creator Shawn Ryan (The Shield, The Unit), the fast-paced series, shot on location in Chicago and starring Jason Clarke (Public Enemies), Jennifer Beals (Lie to Me) and Delroy Lindo (Kidnapped), will take audiences on an unflinching and unpredictable ride through the streets of Chicago to navigate crime and corruption with the most respected – and notorious – cops in the city.

It could be a new Wire, with a bit of Shield-level violence and man-angst thrown in. Or it could be a new procedural.


Lonestar (Monday 9-10):

Official description: Lonestar, a sophisticated and provocative drama set against the sprawling backdrop of big Texas oil, will premiere this fall. From Chris Keyser and Amy Lippman (Party of Five), writer Kyle Killen and directed by Marc Webb ((500) Days of Summer), the compelling series stars newcomer James Wolk as a charismatic and brilliant schemer who has entangled himself in a deep, complex web from which he can’t break free. He’s caught between two very different lives and two very different women.

I’m not sure why this sounds good—maybe it’s the Sawyer-esque hero. Or maybe I just needed something to round out this paltry list.

It’s hard to get too excited about this, but FOX’s schedule doesn’t have much room for newbies this year – they've had a successful run.

NewsFlash: NBC's Fall Schedule

It's the beginning of "upfront" week, in which the major networks debut their fall schedules – and set their ad rates. NBC leaked their upfront info early: we'll get many new scripted hour-long shows to join our friend Chuck (renewed for 13 episodes and set to premiere in the fall). Click for the genre-friendly version of the official press release, and let us know in the comments which shows you're looking forward to, which shows you'll skip, or whether it's just too early to say.

The Event (Monday 9-10, after Chuck):

Official description: The Event is an emotional high-octane conspiracy thriller that follows Sean Walker (Parenthood‘s Jason Ritter), an Everyman who investigates the mysterious disappearance of his fiancée, Leila (Sarah Roemer), and unwittingly begins to expose the biggest cover-up in U.S. history. Sean’s quest will send ripples through the lives of an eclectic band of strangers, including: newly elected U.S. President Martinez (Blair Underwood); Sophia (Laura Innes), who is the leader of a mysterious group of detainees; and Sean’s shadowy father-in-law (Gilmore Girls‘ Scott Patterson). Their futures are on a collision course in a global conspiracy that could ultimately change the fate of mankind. Ian Anthony Dale (Daybreak) and Emmy winner Željko Ivanek (Damages) also star in the ensemble drama.

I like the sound of a global conspiracy, although I'm confused about how the fate of mankind can be changed--that implies we know what the fate of mankind is...Do we know that? (Could someone clue me in?)


Undercovers (Wednesday 8-9):

Official description: Outwardly, Steven Bloom (Kodjoe) and his wife, Samantha (Mbatha-Raw), are a typical married couple who own a small catering company in Los Angeles and are helped by Samantha’s easily frazzled younger sister, Lizzy (Jessica Parker Kennedy). Secretly, the duo were two of the CIA’s best spies until they fell in love on the job five years ago and retired. When fellow spy and friend Nash (Carter MacIntyre) goes missing while on the trail of a Russian arms dealer, the Blooms are reinstated by boss Carlton Shaw (Gerald McRaney) to locate and rescue Nash. The pair is thrust back into the world of espionage as they follow leads that span the globe — and Steven and Samantha realize that this supercharged, undercover lifestyle provides the excitement and romance that their marriage has been missing

This is the J.J. Abrams Alias/Chuck mash-up we've heard so much about. The early time slot means this will be lighter fare than, say, Lost and Fringe. But do we need another happy spy show?

Law & Order: Los Angeles (Wednesday 10-11):

There's no official description for this one – do we really need it? In fact, the only reason this show is listed here in Genre Heaven is that I really, really want to review the pilot. L&O, in all of its incarnations, is a New York show. Can it really handle all the LA sunshine?

The Cape (mid-season replacement):

Official description: The Cape is a one-hour drama series starring David Lyons (ER) as Vince Faraday, an honest cop on a corrupt police force, who finds himself framed for a series of murders and presumed dead. He is forced into hiding, leaving behind his wife, Dana (Jennifer Ferrin, Life on Mars) and son, Trip (Ryan Wynott, FlashForward). Fueled by a desire to reunite with his family and to battle the criminal forces that have overtaken Palm City, Faraday becomes The Cape, his son’s favorite comic book superhero — and takes the law into his own hands. Rounding out the cast are James Frain (The Tudors) as billionaire Peter Fleming, The Cape’s nemesis, who moonlights as the twisted killer Chess; Keith David (Death at a Funeral) as Max Malini, the ringleader of a circus gang of bank robbers who mentors Vince Faraday and trains him to be The Cape; Summer Glau (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) as Orwell, an investigative blogger who wages war on crime and corruption in Palm City; and Dorian Missick (Six Degrees) as Marty Voyt, a former police detective and friend to Faraday.

Summer Glau? A "circus ring of bank robbers"? An average joe who becomes a superhero? What's not to love?

So, superfans? What do you think?

Star Trek: The Man Trap

Spock: "Something wrong, Captain?"
Kirk: "I was thinking about the buffalo, Mister Spock."

Why, oh why didn't they run the pilot first?

FlashForward: The Negotiation

“Questions get you killed, sweetpea.”

Demetri and Mark had a Big Talk this week. Actually, everyone had a Big Talk this week, but Dem’s and Mark’s was the most important: Was changing the future a bad thing? Is Demetri’s existence ruining everything? And, more importantly, how can you go back to the way things were, when you can’t erase the future that has now become the past? These are the big questions, and both Mark and Demetri were haunted by their love lives: can Mark and Olivia get past the Lloyd Simcoe problem? (Does Olivia even want to?) Will Demetri and Zoey make it, or are they not supposed to?

Fringe: Over There, Part 1

“I’m quite confident we don’t have much time.”

My friends, I think the storm is a-comin’. Our Fringe team finally made it to the other side, in search of the beloved Peter. Turns out, the other side is uniquely prepared to deal with such an invasion: Over There, Fringe Division has the public profile and man-power of ICE or Homeland Security in our world, because they have experienced what they thought were naturally occurring rifts in the fabric of reality, a la Walter’s (well, Walternate’s) bestselling ZFT guidebook to the apocalypse. This first half of the season finale was nearly all set-up for the next hour, so let’s take it one piece at a time:

The original, classic, really old Star Trek

I'm writing reviews of the original Star Trek this summer. Here's something of an introduction to the approach I plan to take.

I saw the original Trek many, many times when I was a kid, and I know it well. I swore I'd never review it. It's been done so many times, and it's such a daunting task, reviewing a beloved classic that started such a huge franchise. But the 2009 movie got me renting the digitally remastered version that came out recently, with re-recorded music and new, faithfully recreated special effects. And I just found myself writing reviews.

Vampire Diaries: Founder’s Day

“I came to this town wanting to destroy it. Tonight, I found myself wanting to protect it.”

Last week, I made a few predictions. What I didn’t count on was this show’s willingness to kill off so many people. Sure, I should have known: some of the early cast members have already died, after all, and in the course of one season, the vampires and the secret council have nearly destroyed the entire town (some with the goal of saving it). But still...color me impressed. Either way, let’s run down what I got right, and what I got very, very wrong:

Supernatural: Swan Song

Sam: "I let him out. I gotta put him back in."

I'm glad they didn't go for a big CGI fight scene extravaganza. It was like they were saying simply that this is where the story began, this is how it ends, and this is what it means.

Smallville: Sacrifice

Zod: "Krypton will rise again. And all humankind will kneel before Zod."
Clark: "I'll never let that happen!"

The continuing drama with the Kandorians and Zod has really been a bore. Add in Checkmate and the overly done mysterious element, and you have a season that doesn't work. Bring these two dysfunctional plots together, and suddenly there is cohesion... who'd a thunk it. Still the largest chunk of this episode took place in the Watchtower, continuing the slightly suggestive interplay between Chloe and Tess.

NewsFlash: Chuck, V, FlashForward, Heroes

We're finally getting some news about renewals and cancellations, and there's good news and expected news.

Chuck and V have both been renewed, and both for only thirteen episodes.

And FlashForward has been canceled. I'd had such high hopes for that show. Props to Josie for hanging in there and continuing to review it.

The rest of the renewal/cancellation announcements should be coming soon. We'll post them here.

Update: NBC has canceled Heroes. Another update: There may be a TV movie to sew up open plot threads. Stay tuned.

Lost: Across the Sea

Mother: "If the light goes out here, it goes out everywhere."

Yes, I got all of the mythology and symbolism and we know who Adam and Eve are now and what the stones are and where the donkey wheel came from. But did they have to give us a dozen more unanswered questions when we're so close to the finale?

Chuck: Chuck versus the Tooth

“I need you to believe that I’m not crazy.”

This episode had so many meta-jokes: Awesome’s love of (all 15 seasons) of ER; Monday night TV wasteland; Chevy Chase; the cable-news motif; “Merlin.” But the highlight of the episode was definitely the mere presence of Christopher Lloyd, who is the coolest septuagenarian working in TV today. It introduced an interesting dramatic twist to three seasons of blissful Intersectiness, too. What will this mean for our hero?

Doctor Who: The Vampires of Venice

Rory: 'You know what's dangerous about you? It's not that you make people take risks, it's that you make them want to impress you.'

It's been four years since Toby Whithouse last wrote an episode of Doctor Who. I know he's been busy with No Angels and Being Human, but after the unmitigated success of 'School Reunion' (one of my favourite episodes, ever), it's been a long and frustrating wait. After the debacle that was 'Victory of the Daleks' my expectations this week were low. So far this season, the only episode not penned by Moffat, turned out to be an absolute turkey. Thankfully, Whithouse's script was streets ahead of Gatiss' dreck: the story was solid, the vampires were frightening, and the humour was bang on the money. Even Rory made me chuckle. I take back what I said about him being the new Mickey. He's so not! Well... not so much.

Smallville: Salvation

Chloe: "Maybe your true purpose is to lead your own people."

The whole Zod and the Kandorian clones plot never quite worked for me. Was it the story? The pacing? Callum Blue not quite pulling off the bad as Zod? It's too bad, because it could have been quite cool. At least it appears to be over. And yes, Clark may have been stabbed with blue K before plummeting to the earth, but I'm fairly confident he'll survive. It's his show, after all.

Stargate Universe: Sabotage

Another very enjoyable episode with some tense action and a few nice character beats. I was somewhat apprehensive going into ‘Sabotage,’ because I had heard a bit about the basic premise with Dr. Perry and Camille back before the series even premiered. A lot of folks in the internet community took exception with some of the casting materials that were leaked during production for the episode, and there was quite a hue and cry about the writers being insensitive to both the physically challenged and lesbian communities. At the time, I took a wait and see stance, feeling it wasn’t really fair to cast dispersions or pass judgment on an unfinished product, particularly outside the context of the series as a whole. And now that I’ve seen the episode and the series to date, I think the premature backlash was much ado about nothing. I don’t know if the creative team adjusted the direction of the story after the internet firestorm, but I didn’t see anything here that should cause massive offense to anyone. In fact, my biggest beef with the episode is the seeming ease with which they resolved last week’s massive cliffhanger.

Glee: Home

April: "Will Schuester?!? I just had a sex dream about you!"

I was pleasantly surprised by "Home". To be honest, my expectations were low. Actually - I don't know what I expected. Whether you loved it or hated it, you have to admit that "The Power of Madonna" was a dynamic explosion of pop culture energy. How could they possibly follow that crazy episode?

FlashForward: Course Correction

“The future does have a way of fighting back.”

According to Lloyd Simcoe, any situation can be altered just by being observed. By that logic, the futures that people have seen—although they are just possible futures—are given more weight because they were seen. The viewed futures want to happen, even if it seems impossible. The universe has a way of course-correcting, in other words. Or ‘destiny’ has a way of happening.

Fringe: Northwest Passage

“It’s a long road to ‘I don’t know yet.’”

Please indulge me while I get a little ‘meta.’ This was basically an X-Files episode: a standalone in which our hero played G-man with local law enforcement in a rainy locale as they were forced to deal with the inexplicable. There were even some de rigueur autopsy scenes. The solution to the local mystery wound up being sadly explicable, but we got something more: in the procedural homage, Peter got a glimpse of real answers, and finally found what he didn’t know he was looking for.

Supernatural: Two Minutes to Midnight

Dean: "Good luck stopping the whole zombie apocalypse."
Sam: "Yeah. Good luck killing Death."

I love it when they surprise me. I was expecting fireworks and blood and action, and what did we get? A philosophical discussion over deep dish pizza.

Vampire Diaries: Isobel

“This is going in an interesting direction.”

Last week, we saw Stefan and Damon working through some of their daddy issues. This week, Anna dealt with her grief, and Uncle John played on Jeremy’s love for his dead father to convince him to join the Vampires Are Evil club. Elena, meanwhile, finally got to meet her birth-mother, the “monumentally disappointing” Isobel, Alaric’s vampire wife. Isobel was more than just disappointing: she was both actively and passively evil, and she caused some damage that certainly can’t be undone by the season finale.

Exit Through The Gift Shop

“The joke’s on... well, I’m not sure who the joke is on. I’m not sure there even is a joke.”

I knew almost nothing about this movie when I went to see it, and I knew even less about the street-art movement that it covers. But a few different people had recommended it to me: they all did so obliquely, refusing to tell me much about it, but urging me to experience it myself. So I dragged a friend to the ArcLight theatre on Sunset. I’m incredibly glad that I did. This review definitely gives away more than my friends did, but this isn’t a nail-biter plot. Anyway, as always, caveat lector.

Lost: The Candidate

Jin: "I won't leave you. I will never leave you again."

Okay, now I'm really upset. This was too much.

Doctor Who: Flesh and Stone

Doctor: 'I wish I'd known you better.'
Octavian: 'I think, Sir, you know me at my best.'

Doctor Who's really tapping into its fantasy roots this season. In 'The Eleventh Hour' the Doctor commented that Amy's name sounded like something out of a fairy tale. Couple that with Amy's gingerbread house, the Raggedy Man, the Byzantium's forest-like interior, and Amy walking through it like some kind of modern day Little Red Riding Hood, and the imagery was really quite striking. Is the Pandorica a fairy tale, too? How much do you want to bet that it isn't?

Chuck: Chuck versus the Role Models

“When these two spies first met, it was love at first fight.”

Okay, so this was a fun episode. But it was hard to get over my initial disappointment: after the wacky credit sequence, I’d hoped that the entire show would be from Morgan’s point of view, with a hackneyed voice-over and lots of shenanigans. We did get some shenanigans, anyway—it just wouldn’t be Chuck without them. And now that we’re in the point-two part of the season, we got hi-jinks in spy-land, BuyMore-land, and Africa-land. (Also known as just Africa.)

Smallville: Charade

Blur: "Our relationship puts you at risk. I know that we would do anything to protect each other. What if, one day, I'm too late?"
Lois: "But you don't understand. I don't care about the risk. When I'm working with you, I'm doing something good, something right."

Stargate Universe: Lost

‘Lost’ primarily focused on the efforts to rescue the stranded away team, but added depth to what could have been a fairly standard Stargate plot by delving into Greer’s backstory. Plus, it ended with a doozy of a cliffhanger, leaving three main cast members still stranded and with even less hope of rescue.

I was completely stunned by the ending. I fully expected that everyone would be rescued and returned to Destiny by the end of this hour. A “stranded team” cliffhanger is to be expected for at least one episode, but to sustain the jeopardy through a second episode? Now that’s surprising. I thought for certain that Eli would connect to the ship the second time, so when he didn’t and said “That’s it. We’re done,” my jaw was on the floor. Given how dire they made it seem if Destiny left the galaxy, I’m not sure how this situation will resolve. Perhaps our favorite insect aliens will be involved somehow.

FlashForward: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

“I envy that you believe in the possibility of good.”

Let’s talk about FlashBacks. This episode had three flavors: the flashbacks to Janis’s life, designed to help us understand more about her; the flashbacks to events we’ve already seen; and the flashbacks that substitute for effective exposition and that little-known art of acting and directing. Some were more effective than others. But that’s rather the way of it on this show, isn’t it?

Star Trek

Season 1 | Season 2 |
Season 3 |
Movie Reviews |
Related Links | Cast |

I saw every episode of the original Star Trek many, many times when I was a kid, and I know it well. I swore I'd never review it; it's been done so many times, and it's such a daunting task. But the 2009 movie got me renting the digitally remastered version of original Trek that came out recently, with re-recorded music and new, faithfully recreated special effects. And I just found myself writing reviews. It's a sickness, I know.

These reviews include commentary by Ben P. Duck, an old friend that I actually met through Star Trek. Thanks, Ben.

Season One

1.0 The Cage
1.1 The Man Trap
1.2 Charlie X
1.3 Where No Man Has Gone Before
1.4 The Naked Time
1.5 The Enemy Within
1.6 Mudd's Women
1.7 What Are Little Girls Made Of?
1.8 Miri
1.9 Dagger of the Mind
1.10 The Corbomite Maneuver
1.11 The Menagerie (both parts)
1.13 The Conscience of the King
1.14 Balance of Terror
1.15 Shore Leave
1.16 The Galileo Seven
1.17 The Squire of Gothos
1.18 Arena
1.19 Tomorrow is Yesterday
1.20 Court Martial
1.21 The Return of the Archons
1.22 Space Seed
1.23 A Taste of Armageddon
1.24 This Side of Paradise
1.25 The Devil in the Dark
1.26 Errand of Mercy
1.27 The Alternative Factor
1.28 The City on the Edge of Forever
1.29 Operation: Annihilate!

Season Two

2.1 Amok Time
2.2 Who Mourns for Adonais?
2.3 The Changeling
2.4 Mirror, Mirror
2.5 The Apple
2.6 The Doomsday Machine
2.7 Catspaw
2.8 I, Mudd
2.9 Metamorphosis
2.10 Journey to Babel
2.11 Friday's Child
2.12 The Deadly Years
2.13 Obsession
2.14 Wolf in the Fold
2.15 The Trouble with Tribbles
2.16 The Gamesters of Triskelion
2.17 A Piece of the Action
2.18 The Immunity Syndrome
2.19 A Private Little War
2.20 Return to Tomorrow
2.21 Patterns of Force
2.22 By Any Other Name
2.23 The Omega Glory
2.24 The Ultimate Computer
2.25 Bread and Circuses
2.26 Assignment: Earth

Season Three

3.1 Spock's Brain
3.2 The Enterprise Incident
3.3 The Paradise Syndrome
3.4 And the Children Shall Lead
3.5 Is There in Truth No Beauty?
3.6 Spectre of the Gun
3.7 Day of the Dove
3.8 For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
3.9 The Tholian Web
3.10 Plato's Stepchildren
3.11 Wink of an Eye
3.12 The Empath
3.13 Elaan of Troyius
3.14 Whom Gods Destroy
3.15 Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
3.16 The Mark of Gideon
3.17 That Which Survives
3.18 The Lights of Zetar
3.19 Requiem for Methuselah
3.20 The Way to Eden
3.21 The Cloud Minders
3.22 The Savage Curtain
3.23 All Our Yesterdays
3.24 Turnabout Intruder

Movie Reviews

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Star Trek: Generations (1994)
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) (not yet reviewed)
Star Trek (2009)
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
Star Trek Beyond (2016)

Related Links

All Things Star Trek: a complete list of everything Star Trek at Doux Reviews
Acknowledgement to the Works of Harlan Ellison
Leonard Nimoy, 1931-2015
Star Trek: Top Ten Episodes
Introduction to this summer's reviews

Cast

William Shatner (Kirk)
Leonard Nimoy (Spock)
DeForest Kelley (McCoy)
James Doohan (Scott)
George Takei (Sulu)
Nichelle Nichols (Uhura)
Walter Koenig (Chekov)
Majel Barrett (Christine Chapel/Enterprise Computer/Number One)

Smallville: Hostage

Lois: "Looks like we've got an audience with the Queen."

Naughty Martha Kent, using Kryptonite on her own son.