The Doena Journal

Deutsche Version | CW 07

Chuck 3×08 Chuck vs the Fake Name
Chuck sad. The path of the hero is a lonely one.
I think Chuck made the right choice (even though it was cruel to her) but I’m also sad that Hannah is gone (at least I assume she won’t be there in the next episode).
What I personally would love to see would be an episode where Team Bartowski has to hunt random bad guy into a mall and Hannah is in one of the lanes. Casey is running behind bad guy, Chuck comes from the side, does one of his dorky moves and brings down bad guy. Casey cuffs him and when the Mall Cops arrive, Sarah IDs herself as CIA - with Hannah witnessing all this from afar and finally understanding (yes, I know the scenario is a lot like the one in Smallville’s Promise, but I loved that scene, too).
PS: Is it just me or does “Sam(antha) Lisa” not really roll off the tongue?

How I Met Your Mother 5×16 Hooked
Barney’s history of jobs for attractive women was very funny but the episode as a whole wasn’t as memorable (in fact, having it watched two days ago I’ve already forgotten most about it).

Smallville 9×14 Conspiracy
This is an episode I have some issues with. And all these issues are connected to Chloe, my once favourite character of the show. But since the Doomsday/Brainiac arc she has changed.
While it’s technically true that Clark has lost his moral compass at times, it’s always been when he was under influence of something (e.g. Red K) but I can’t remember him doing anything immoral when he was “normal”. He might not have done what was necessary (for example: before and during Zod’s first appearance) but that is a big diff from doing what’s morally right.
And why she is blaming him for the disaster that was Doomsday is beyond me; I’d say Clark is one of the least guilty in that whole affair.
I fear that when Zod finds the tracers in the ID that this will be the reason he convinces his people that Kal-El and the Earthlings are not to be trusted and he will use them against him.

The Big Bang Theory 3×16 The Excelsior Acquisition
Also an average episode. Granted the bit with the Restraining Order was funny but overall it was pretty predictable.
And let’s face it: DC also has it’s share of identical-initial-names: Lex Luthor, Lana Lang, Lois Lane, …

Two and a Half Men 7×15 Tinkle Like a Princess
This was a good sad episode that showed the door isn’t closed. And yet Charlie remained Charlie (with the church and afterwards). I like it that there’s hope after all (even though only he viewer can see it right now).
I also liked the opening theme spoof with the growing Jake - they either used it for the first time or I just didn’t notice it before.

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Deutsche Version

Since everybody seems to be starting to count at zero instead of one the first decade of this century and millennium is now over. So it’s time to recap these past ten years and take a look at the TV Shows it has given us.

Let me give my résumé at the beginning: Of the four decades I know TV Shows from (70s - 00s) this was without question the best decade for us TV junkies. When you read my review you might say in the end “Hey what about <insert your favourite here>?” (e.g. The Sopranos, Dexter, The Wire, Six Feet Under, …) but that’s exactly my point. This decade has given us so many outstanding shows that it was impossible to watch them all. Also, everybody has a different set of favourite genres but I’d say that every genre got their fair share of excellent series in the last years.

But let’s face it: There’s rarely any series (if there’s one at all) that could keep up the quality and it’s appeal for its entire run. Some had a bad year in between, some fell short at the end. But even in these “bad years” they had more quality episodes in it than entire shows from previous decades. So all the shows I am going to name have of course aspects that can be criticized and I invite you to do so.

For me the most outstanding characteristic of this past decade’s shows is that they are more often than not more about the “journey” of the character(s) than the actual events. It’s not the character who shines a light upon the unfolding events but it’s the events that shine a light upon the character and his development. I have to say that shows (hereby excluding comedy shows that work with stereo- and archetypes) that don’t have a real character development don’t interest me at all. But if the character development is interesting I might even watch shows from genres that usually don’t interest me at all.

If the character development is interesting enough I might even set the fact aside that my second favourite characteristic is missing: A real story-arc. The first TV Show in my TV universe that had a real story-arc, was Babylon 5. Later Star Trek: DS9 did the same albeit not in that quality and complexity. But these shows were two of the rare exception in the 90s (another famous exception would be Twin Peaks, but I never watched it). It seemed that viewers weren’t interested in either developing characters or story-arcs.

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Deutsche Version | “Xena: Warrior Princess” Marathon | Season 1: Disc 2

1×01 Sins of the Past

Synopsis: Xena has left her old ways behind and even intends to bury her weapons and armor when she “encounters” a group of mercenaries who try to kidnap a group of young women from a nearby village. The mercenaries belong to Draco, an old acquaintance of Xena’s who plans to march into Xena’s home valley. She has to protect her home village and at the same time that young girl who’s now following her: Gabrielle.

My Opinion: If you already know the character from the Hercules episodes then you have no problem understanding this pilot episode. If you don’t then the writers gave you a glimpse into her old life by using Draco as proxy since it is made clear that Xena was much like him. And it’s also a good introduction to Gabrielle and her greatest talent: Her mouth. Xena wears now her final costume which changed slightly during and after the Hercules episodes. I think it’s a good introduction to the show.

1×02 Chariots of War

Synopsis: Xena gets shot by an arrow when she tries to help some villagers who were under attack by a local warlord. One of the villagers invites her to his house until she’s healed. Meanwhile Gabrielle waits in another town for her return and makes the acquaintance of a young man who happens to be the son of said warlord and is supposed to become his father’s successor.

My Opinion: Sometimes this show is a bit clichéd. For example you can always tell the absolute bad guys by their deliberately ugly teeth. But that doesn’t mean that nice teeth indicate a good person, it just indicates a main character for the episode. And while the warlord has quite a number of scars, his son is pretty good looking (with blue eyes and all).
I liked it that they expanded on Gabrielle’s character trait to let her talking be her greatest strength/weapon.

1×03 Dreamworker

Synopsis: Gabrielle gets kidnapped by a group of Mystics who want to marry her to the God of Dreams, Morpheus. For this she has to lose her blood innocence and has to kill a man (but she doesn’t know that). In order to save her, Xena has to enter the Dreamscape where she not only encounters the people she killed but also her old self.

My Opinion: “You look bigger”. I really liked it how Gabrielle got rid of her enemies without killing a single one of them and I liked it how Xena faced her old self and came to the acceptance that she is part of her and always will be. And I love these contact lenses(?) that colour the entire eye totally black. That looks awesome every time someone wears them (e.g. Lyta Alexander in Babylon 5).

1×04 Cradle of Hope

Synopsis: Xena and Gabrielle find an abandoned baby that has become victim of a prophecy that says that the child will one day sit on the throne of the local kingdom. But they also encounter the granddaughter of the famous Pandora and she’s carrying the box and has to prevent hope from escaping out of it.

My Opinion: As I said in the beginning, I like the mixture of mythologies they are brewing here. I don’t have a problem with them being at Troy one week and meeting Cesar the next. And so they encounter Pandora (named after her grandmother) and her box this week. And Lucy Lawless (what a name! ) danced a beautiful oriental dance…

Season 1: Disc 2

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Deutsche Version | CW 41 | CW 42-43

Bones 5×04 The Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
I really enjoyed this episode with all its entanglements in suburbia and especially the bantering between Bones/anthropology and Sweets/psychology regarding the life there.

Supernatural 5×05 Fallen Idols
Kripke warned the viewers not to judge to quickly about the appearance of Paris Hilton. And he was right, she was the perfect specimen to make the point the wood god wanted to make. And: “You got whaled on by Paris Hilton!”

Smallville 9×03 Rabid
I didn’t care much for the zombie story (despite Supernatural horror still isn’t my genre) but I really like the way they are pushing the triangle C-L-B forward without making it feel forced. I also hope that this wasn’t the last appearance of Green Arrow. I hope he finds his path again soon and will play a larger role this season.

The Big Bang Theory 3×04 The Pirate Solution
I’m surprised, Leonard’s and Penny’s relationship is actually lasting (at least for now ). And Raj and Sheldon work together in a “Eye of the Tiger” montage - awesome!

Two and a Half Men 7×04 Laxative Tester, Horse Inseminator
It was funny (it would fail if it weren’t) but again not extraordinary. Maybe I shouldn’t watch two sitcoms in a row.

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I was getting in the mood and have started watching MacGyver again, starting with the first season from 1985/86.

And I love to see so many known guest actors in it:

Robin Curtis (Star Trek 3 & 4), Peter Jurassik (Babylon 5, Sliders), Nana Visitor (Star Trek DS9), Robert Englund (Nightmare on Elm Street, V), Stephen Williams (The Blues Brothers, 21 Jump Street), Teri Hatcher (Lois & Clark, Desperate Housewives), John de Lancie (Star Trek TNG, DS9, VOY, Stargate SG-1), …

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Deutsche Version | “Battlestar Galactica” Marathon (1978-2009) | Galactica 1980

Disc 1

Saga of a Star World

Synopsis: For a thousand yahren the war with the Cylons has lasted. The Cylons are machines and their creators - the original race called “Cylons” - have died out long ago. But now an armistice was negotiated by Baltar and the fleet of the Twelve Colonies of Man meets with the Cylons to sign a peace treaty. But Baltar has betrayed his own species to seize power and the Cylons launch a large-scale attack on the colonial fleets and the colonies. Only one Battlestar - the Galactica - and a few refugees survive that holocaust. But there’s a myth about a thirteenth colony of Kobol. Commander Adama and his fleet of 220 ships leave the colonies behind to find that legendary colony: Earth. But it won’t be an easy journey and there are still those who believe that mankind should lay down its weapons and seek peace with the Cylons.

My Opinion: The show begins with an epic three-parter which was re-cut and re-published as a movie. The designs of that show are still great. The Galactica, the Cylons (”walking chrome toasters”), the Cylon Raiders, the Basestars. Although the deception of mankind and the destruction of the fleet was a bit too easy, it was a decent start for the story and it showed that Adama is an astute commander and that he has the best pilots in the fleet. I also liked their sense of humour: One of the ships had an advertisement printed on the side: “Colonial Movers - We Move Anywhere”. The characters are also good. They may not have the depth of nowadays’s characters, but they have charm: Adama, Apollo, Starbuck, Athena, Cassiopeia, Serina, … and of course the diabolical Baltar.

Lost Planet of the Gods

Synopsis: Starbuck and Apollo detect a vast electromagnetic void on one of their patrols. Once inside it, there are no more stars, no more anything. But Galactica hasn’t much choice because Jolly and Boomer have detected a cylon outpost on their patrol. And there’s another problem: Jolly and Boomer have brought some kind of disease with them and they have infected most of the fighter pilots during Apollo’s bachelor party. Now the shuttle pilots have to learn how to fly a Viper. Amongst them: Athena and Serina, Apollo’s fiancé.

My Opinion: It sounds a bit harsh but it would have been more realistic if they had killed at least one of the cadets. They’re sitting in a Viper for the first time and yet they destroy an antire squadron of Cylon Raiders. But I really liked it that they made no (verbal) issue about them being woman, just rookies. But one could see that Starbuck and Apollo felt a bit uncomfortable because “things had changed”.
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Deutsche Version

Season 1

Disc 1

Pilot

Synopsis: It’s the year 1999 and Judgement Day hasn’t happened - yet. Sarah and John are constantly switching aliases and living placaes. But one day two cyborgs have still found them: One comes in the form of a young girl called Cameron and she was sent to protect John. And the other is a classical terminator. They try to escape him but in the end there’s no place they can hide, just another time.

My Opinion: To fully enjoy the show one has to put it in a parallel universe to the movies. It’s similar to the Highlander movie (There can be only one!) and the series. While I liked the general general idea of the show I had a problem with some story elements. For example: Cameron took the other cyborg out with a power surge. In my unprofessional opinion two minutes should have been enough to somehow destroy him or at least to damage him severely - he can’t resist after all. And some of the stuff in the vault seemed unlikely, too. Even if I knew how to build a microchip in 1965 there wouldn’t be the the technology (wafers etc.) to actually do it. But they had to find a way to push the series forward to today and it was fairly ok.
So I like the story but one mustn’t think to much about the logic.

Gnothi Seauton

Synopsis: They jumped eight years into the future, into 2007. And now all three of them need new identities to blend in. Cameron leads Sarah to a group of resistance fighters who were send back by John to destroy Skynet before it goes operational. But when that fails they have to visit an old friend. Meanwhile John explores the technological differences between 1999 and 2007.

My Opinion: The writers are obviously not very burdened with the complex issues that go with time-travel. It seems that whenever they need it they will send people back and forth through time as if nothing could disrupt the timeline. But if that were so then we would be back on the concept of a time-loop as the movie Terminator had present it (It has always happened that way and always will be, there’s nothing we can do about it). But Terminator 2 had thrown that overboard and declared that the timeline can be changed and (as Doc Brown explained it in Back to the Future 2) that will result in another timeline. I also had a problem with that “Zombie Terminator” who can obviously walk without its head attached - I thought the “eyes” were its optical sensors?
Another thing I noticed: I don’t know how far ahead the pilot was shot and what they thought would happen after it, but I didn’t have the feeling to see a Mrs. Dyson or a detective who was eight years older than in the pilot. They should have used a better mask to make them look younger in the pilot (Look at Bruce Boxleitner in Babylon 5: In the Beginning!)
Too bad Enrique had to die, I would have liked it to see Tony Amendola (Master Bra’tac in Stargate SG-1) more often.

The Turk

Synopsis: Sarah is looking for former employees of Cyberdyne Systems to check whether they are continuing the Skynet project or doing something else dangerous. Connor and Cameron pose as siblings in their new school and try to blend in.

My Opinion: Is it my imagination or did the metall skeleton of that terminator look a bit too shiny? He had been blasted to peaces and has lain in the garbage. Which brings up another question: How did he get there in the first place? He wasn’t within the time bubble and thus hasn’t travelled with the others. What happend to that bank building in the last eight years and why has no one ever found the skeleton or the head - which lay quite open on the side of the street?
And when Sarah burned down Andy’s house the fires looked digital - and fake. Don’t they have the money anymore to burn down a real, wooden facade?

Disc 1 - My Opinion: The show is enjoyable, the characters are fine. But as you can see the show opens a can of questions for me and they bother me because that makes me thinking that either the writers didn’t see this problems or they thought the viewers wouldn’t notice or that the viewers wouldn’t care. None of which is really an acceptable answer in my opinion. But I will continue to watch and see how it unfolds.
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Deutsche Version | Season 3 | Season 5

Disc 1

The Way of the Warrior

Synopsis: A rather large fleet of klingon ships under the command of General Martok arrives at the station and their true intentions remain unclear. But then they start to search ships that try to leave the bajoran sector to look for changelings. Sisko needs a Klingon to shed some light into this: Lt. Cmdr. Worf, son of Mogh. But when the fleet departs for an attack on Cardassia (that is infiltrated by Founders - or so do the Klingons believe), Worf has to make a choice: To stay with Starfleet or to rejoin his people.

My Opinion: Hawk is back! This was a great start to the season. Worf and Martok are great additions to the show and I like how fluent the concept of good and bad guys is. Except for Babylon 5 in other shows of that time the good guys remain good and the bad guys remain the bad guys. There’s rarely a grey area. Yes, the Klingons have been the bad guys once, but since the start of TNG they basically belonged to the good guys and that didn’t change - until now. It also often happened that a race was portrayed in a certain way and there were only a few exceptions to that general portrayal. Only Humans had been shown in all variations of grey. That is also due to the fact that TNG has shown a certain race rarely twice (except for the Klingons). DS9 with it’s “port of call” concept has broken with that and has shown all kinds of Bajorans, Klingons, Cardassians and will continue to do so.

The Visitor

Synopsis: An accident happens aboard the Defiant and Sisko gets vaporized and his son is shocked. But a few months later Ben Sisko reappears in Jake’s quarters and disappears again. Then a year later it happens again. Ben is caught in some kind of subspace bubble and Jake (who was involved in the original accident) is his anchor to this world. While his life goes on, he spends his time either with writing or studying subspace mechanics and after fifty years, Jake has figured out how to save his father.

My Opinion: In general, I liked this episode and (again) the relationship between Jake and his father. The story is very emotional and very well told. What bugs me is the fact that the Dominion war didn’t seem to have happened in that timeline. Firstly this contradicts the things we have learned so far about the Dominion infiltration of the AQ (e.g. in The Adversary) and secondly because that would mean that Sisko’s survival would lead to the greatest war in the history of the AQ with its millions of deaths.

Hippocratic Oath

Synopsis: O’Brien and Bashir detect a crash-landed ship along a trading route in the GQ. But when they approach the planet they get shot down and have to face a group of Jem’Hadar. But these are not regular Jem’Hadar, these one want to be free and for this they need to free themselves from the Ketracel-white drug. Bashir doesn’t believe this is possible due to his experiences with the Jem’Hadar infant in the previous year.

My Opinion: For the first time since the start of their friendship a rift has been created between Miles and Julian. Although it was sad to see, their behaviour was very fitting to each character. Miles has fought in the cardassian border wars and seen what an ruthless enemy is capable of and Julian is still a very enthusiastic doctor who values life above all else. But I am glad that their friendship will survive things like that.
And now we’ve seen Jem’Hadar who can think and act outside their genetically programmed pattern. Again a race has been shown more than one-dimensional and it will happen again.
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Deutsche Version | Season 2 | Season 4

Disc 1

The Search, Part I

Synopsis: During his stay at the Utopia Planitia ship yards (prior to his assignment to DS9), Sisko has helped designing and building a ship whose sole purpose was to fight the Borg: The Defiant. It’s over-powered and over-gunned for a ship this size but now DS9 needs it. And the feature list has been updated. In the hope to find the Founders of the Dominion without having to engage in battle the Defiant has got a cloaking system - sponsored by the Romulan Empire. Sisko hopes to contact the Founders and show them that the Federation is no enemy of them.

My Opinion: From a diplomatic and tactical POV this was a stupid idea. If you’d want to negotiate with the leaders of an enemy force, would you take your biggest gunship and try to sneak into enemy territory? It would be like taking a B-2 Spirit, landing it on the Red Square and trying to talk to Khrushchev. But I liked the general idea of the Defiant from the beginning. The Star Trekian universe has never been a very peaceful one and the Federation is surrounded mostly by hostile forces. I wonder how many Starfleet ships have been destroyed in the cardassian border wars because they weren’t really equipped to fight in a war.

The Search, Part II

Synopsis: Unfortunately the cloaking system didn’t help in the end and when the crew returns to DS9, the Vorta are already there and they negotiate with Starfleet. But Sisko and the others become more and more uneasy because of where these negotiations are going. Meanwhile Kira and Odo are still in the GQ because Odo has finally found his people.

My Opinion: I remember that - when I watched it for the first time - I didn’t see it coming that the changelings are the Founders. But this episode also made clear that the Dominion isn’t interested in being left alone. Now that they know of the wormhole they want to impose their idea of ‘order’ in the AQ and there isn’t much Sisko or Starfleet could do about it, short of actually blowing up the wormhole. Or as Aragorn said to Théoden: “Open war is upon you, whether you would risk it or not.”

The House of Quark

Synopsis: A drunken Klingon attacks Quark in his bar but accidentally kills himself. But Quark tells a story how he heroically killed the warrior in a battle of life and death. And ironically, some Klingons actually want that he sticks to that story, although for different reasons. And suddenly Quark finds himself as the head of a klingon house.

My Opinion: I loved this episode. Quark and Grillka were great together and the clashing of ferengi and klingon culture was also fun to watch. But divorce seems to be painful. And it was nice to see chancellor Gowron again although I have to admit the more klingon episodes I watch the less I can wait for Martok to make his appearance.

Equilibrium

Synopsis: Dax begins to behave irrationally and aggressively. Additionally she has hallucinations. Bashir fears that the symbiosis is breaking apart and that they may lose Jadzia. Sisko and Bashir return with her to Trill but the mystery is getting bigger instead of being solved. Something isn’t right with one of Dax’s previous hosts.

My Opinion: This was an average episode. The ‘revelation’ wasn’t that interesting and the episode hadn’t much plot at all.
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