Tag: Stargate SG-1

Angel: Season 3

Angel Marathon, DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon

Deutsche Version | Angel: Season 2 | Angel: Season 4

Disc 1

Heartthrob

Synopsis: Angel skips about the same time as Buffy did. Buffy has been dead for three months and Angel has been mourning in a monastery in Sri Lanka for about the same time. Now he’s back and on his first hunt he kills an acquainted vampire before he recognizes her. But he also knows her boyfriend James and he wants vengeance.

My Opinion: On one hand I find it a pity that they jumped over these three months, on the other hand we would have only seen a broody and solitary Angel. The episode itself wasn’t that interesting and a bit weak for a season opener.

That Vision Thing

Synopsis: Cordelia now gets visions that physically hurt her and several of it in a very short span of time. It is unclear why the “Powers That Be” would suddenly hurt Cordelia but Angel does anything in his powers to quickly finish the assignments.

My Opinion: I am quite interested in that prisoner. He could be a formidable enemy or we could never see him again, both is possible in Angel. If it was not settled until now, now it’s clear that it is a bad idea to try to blackmail Angel.

That Old Gang of Mine

Synopsis: A number of demons are arbitrarily killed and there is no pattern to be seen. Some of them are dangerous, some of them are totally harmless. As it turns out, Gunn’s old gang is somehow involved in this.

My Opinion: I think it’s historic irony that a group of black people tells other living beings that they don’t belong here, that they have no right to live. Granted, demons are indeed no humans but blacks also were told that they were less worthy. The world is grey, it’s not black/white and neither is it separable into good/evil.

Carpe Noctem

Synopsis: Angel and the gang investigate in a case were a number of men mysteriously died. Everything points to a certain gym – or to the building opposite of it.

My Opinion: I love body-switch episodes. They are always fun because the actors can behave in a way which their usual role doesn’t allow. It’s also nice to see the confusion that comes out of such switches. The best body-switch episode I’ve ever seen was a Farscape episode.
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The Pilot Marathon Part 1

DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon, Pilot Marathon

Deutsche Version | Part 2

Every story has a beginning and for a TV show it’s (often) the Pilot. I simply love pilots. It’s the one episode that I watch more than any other episode of the show.

I’ll watch them in the order in which they stand on my shelves, so there’s no secret master plan why one show comes before or after the next. 😉

As Kosh would say: And so it begins.

Xena: Warrior Princess

What’s the show about?
The former warlord Xena has reformed and fights now for the good. She and her sidekick Gabrielle travel through the ancient world of Greece, North Africa and Asia. They fight with and against other warlords, demons and gods.

What happend before?
Xena is a spin-off of Hercules where Xena was introduced. Back then she was still a warlord until she lost her army due to a mutiny. After that she helped Hercules defeat a vicious monster.

“Sins of the Past”
Xena cannot escape her past even when she tries to. On the way to her hometown Amphipolis she saves a group of people – including a young girl called Gabrielle – from being captured and sold into slavery. The attackers are under the command of Draco. When she denies him a real fight he decides to destroy Amphipolis and kill everyone. Now Xena has to protect a town that does not want her to be there…

My Opinion
Since the character was already introduced in Hercules one doesn’t learn much new about Xena in the pilot. Even if she had an affair with Draco remains unclear.
I always favoured Xena over Hercules because it was a bit darker and her enemies (Callisto, Ares, …) were more interesting

But there is one thing that bugs me while I’m watching the show. While I grew up I read a lot of greek mythology. I’ve read the Iliad, the Odyssey, I watched every Hercules/Heracles movie there was. And I am still used to the german names of everything: Herkules, Achilles, Zeus, … . While the spelling is only slightly different, the pronunciation is completely different. Everytime I watch Xena or Hercules and they pronounce greek names it sounds totally wrong. Period.
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Babylon 5: Season 2

B5 Marathon, DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon

Season 1 | Season 3

The Coming of Shadows

Disc 1

Points of Departure

Synopsis: Cmdr. Sinclair has been re-assigned, Garibaldi is still comatose, Delenn is still in her cocoon and Babylon 5 gets a new commander: Captain John Sheridan, amongst the Minbari known as “Starkiller”, because he destroyed their flag ship – the Drala Fi (Black Star) – in the war. And now a renegade Minbari war cruiser takes course to Babylon 5.

My opinion: The new season starts as powerful as the last season ended. While I liked Sinclair, Sheridan seems much more powerful as a station commander. And we finally learn why the Minbari ended the war. I especially liked the speech of Sheridan in front of – no one. Wink

Revelations

Synopsis: G’Kar has returned from his search and reports from a great ancient enemy who has returned after a thousand years and he believes that this foe is responsible for the destruction of the Narn base in quadrant 37. Meanwhile Dr. Franklin heals Garibaldi by using the alien healing device we’ve seen in the previous year and Anna Sheridan – Cpt. Sheridan’s sister – visitis the station. And Delenn has left the cocoon!

My opinion: Without knowing Garibaldi Sheridan decides to give his own life power to heal him, I liked that a lot. And we learn about the loss of his wife, who died on an IPX expidition on the Rim. But at least the traitor has been apprehended. But Londo drifts deeper and deeper in the maelstrom of his destiny. And finally, Delenn has been transformed into a beautiful being!
Spoiler (mark to read):
Londo asks about the complete destruction of the Narn homeworld and Morden answers something like “not everything at once” – we know it will happen. Sad

The Geometry of Shadows

Synopsis: The Techno Mages are leaving for the Rim and don’t intend to return because they feel a dark force rising. But Londo wants to meet with them because it would be a powerful symbol to his people. Meanwhile Ivanova has to “negoiate” between the “purple” and the “green” fraction of the Drazi who are fighting over leadership.

My opinion: Ivanova says our flags have meanings whereas the colors of the Drazi are totally random but I tend to disagree. A flag is nowadays a symbol for a country. In earlier days it was the clan or the colors of the local lord. They only showed alliegience but for most of the people who fought and died it made no difference on which side they fought because they were forced to and often one side wasn’t an inch better than the other. Even nowadays for most people the color of the flag is set by the birth place. Therfore it’s not entirley true that our flags aren’t random.But i liked the episode because it showed how stupid it is to fight over flags or colors.
The Techno Mage wasn’t that interesting except for the dialog between Elric and Londo at the departure.

A Distant Star

Synopsis: A huge earth explorer ship arrives at Babylon 5 and refills their supplies. When it re-enters Hyperspace there is an accident and the ship drifts aways from the marked routes and may get lost. The station’s Starfurys try to find and rescue it.

My opninion: I think we’ve seen the Hyperspace for the first time in the show. Yes we’ve seen ships entering and leaving but not being in Hyperspace. Except from that it was an OK episode, nothing world-shaking.

Quote of the episode:
Sheridan: “If the primates that we came from had known that someday politicians would come out of the gene pool they’d have stayed up in the trees and written evolution off as a bad idea!”
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