Horizon Zero

Stargate Universe Starts Tonight

Do I think it Doomed?

I don't know. I haven't followed the development of the show very closely, so I'm going in with fairly few expectations. I know there's been grumbling about the "younger, edgier direction" - some people have already started making the "it wants to be Battlestar Galactica so bad you can feel it" comments.

For me, I guess whether it is automatically Doomed or not depends on two factors. First, are the characters people, or are they just talking heads to move the plot? Second, does this new show respect what has come before without allowing itself to be strait-jacketed by that self-same legacy? (Which is a tough trick to pull off, to be sure.)

It would be unfair to make a decision based on the pilot alone, of course. But you can generally tell where a show is going after the first few episodes. The only shows that surprised me with a late first season quality spike semi-recently were Jericho and Dollhouse.

Jericho promptly took that goodwill and wasted it. The jury is still out on Dollhouse.

UPDATE: It's not the worst pilot I've ever watched, although it really does feel like it wants to be Lost + BSG. I thought the pre-airing comparisons were perhaps overstating the case, but it's palpable throughout the show, from the camera angles to the in media res flashbacking to the characters themselves.

I like the lack of an alien threat (so far). Man vs. Alien is played out in Stargate. Man vs. Environment will make for an interesting first season. I'm sure they'll piss off someone before too long.

Anderson didn't seem very engaged. I would like to see the full series of Daniel Jackson Instructional Videos, though.

Also, I don't care how often you try to sell me on the Lucian Alliance, Stargate producers, it's not working. Remnant System Lords, Renegade Jaffa, unreconciled Ori Priors - any of these I might buy as something of a threat. Jumped up nitwit space pirates that deal addictive wheat? No.

Sinking Atlantis and Unleashing the Force

The SciFi channel has decided not to renew Stargate Atlantis after the show ends its fifth season. A variety of reasons have been proffered at the various places on the interweb where opinions are usually proferred. The favorites are declining ratings, continuing cast shakeups and SciFi Execs' bizarre desire to 'move away from science fiction in order to appeal to a broader demographic"...

Which, as one astute associate of mine put it, means daytime soaps. Along with Eureka, Wrestling and 79 plus hours of Lost reruns, I guess.

Atlantis is apparently not completely gone, however. As with the also cancelled Stargate SG-1, Atlantis will be transitioning to the realm of Direct to DVD features, with the first planned movie to wrap up the cliffhanger that ends season five. Beyond that, who can say?

Truth be told, Atlantis was starting to get a little stale - no disrespect intended towards the cast. But many of the stand alone episodes had begun to feel like SG-1 episodes from nine years ago with the serial numbers filed off and the long term plot was hampered by a character that wore out his welcome two seasons ago. And it was something of a retread itself.

While I think the 'series reboot' concept has been overused the last few years (Reimagined Knight Riders and Bionic Women? Really?) I'd be willing to make an exception for the Stargate universe. It occupies a unique niche in modern science fiction television, and I'd like to see a production that maybe goes in for less of an 'adventure romp' atmosphere. The fate of the galaxy doesn't have to be at stake every season.

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In game news, the 360 demo of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed became available today. It's pretty short, and the controls might take a while to get used to (I kept missing with my Force Levitated blunt objects of death) but it's certainly pretty.

I'm not sure how thrilled I am with this uber-powerful Secret Apprentice, though. All the previews have featured reassurances from the developers about how the Apprentice totally fits into existing lore and how George Lucas provided tons of advice about how to tell the story of the Force Unleashed.

Which doesn't really inspire as much confidence as it used to, actually.

The Geekiest Time of the Year

I refer, of course, to the greatest annual cultural event of my people - the San Diego Comic Con.

It's been over 15 years since I've attended one. Every year I tell myself that perhaps next year I'll get to go back, but inevitably things conspire to keep me away. Still and all, at least I've made the pilgrimage once in my lifetime.

Ironically, the last few Comic Cons have seemed to focus less on comics and more on comic related ventures in other genres. SDCC has become the place to spill news regarding the latest super hero movie, or provide exclusive clips of upcoming television series or showcase new next gen games. As a result, the bulk of the truly epic comic news seemed to have shifted to other events, like the Wizard World conventions in Philly and Chicago, and the recently revived New York Comic Con. (Not to knock any of those august affairs, but SDCC remains king in my inner geek's heart, and likely always will.)

There's a lot of stuff just over the horizon that is likely to be discussed at this year's shindig. At the end of this year we get two more fantasy franchises in The Golden Compass and The Dark is Rising. Next year features The Dark Knight and Iron Man. Lost and Battlestar Galactica are moving into thier respective final phases. JJ Abrams is keeping busy with the Star Trek remake (rumor has it that Zach Quintos, aka Syler from Heroes, will be playing Mr. Spock) and his mysterious "Cloverfield" movie. Lucas, Spielberg and Ford are busy on Indiana Jones IV. And there are still a raft of Narnia movies to be made yet, as well as the last two Harry Potter films.

So, still lots to see and lots to do.

That Anime Post, Part 3

Stuff I didn't like:

-- Gasaraki - Giant robots at war in the desert, what's not to love? Howabout long stretches where no one does anything, or the impenetrable machinations or some secret organization fronted by a man in a Colonel Sanders suit? Or the bizarre tangent into ancient Japan? Or how it gears up to be this massive military confrontation that will decide the future of Japan and the face of modern warfare and then just... fizzles? So much potential, to so little achievement. Such a shame.

-- Infinite Ryvius. Here was a show that was marketed as being Lord of the Flies in space crossed with a semi-real depiction of space travel (zero-g living, conservation of mass, etc) that ever so quickly devolved into something involving magical space monsters, inflatable remote control giant robots and, finally, some bizarre last minute subplot whereby one third of the standard romantic triangle turns out to have been a psychotic murderess for the whole show and another supporting character goes loony tunes because of a previously undisclosed bout of incest. Buh wha?

-- .hack -- It's a cartoon about people playing a MMO. Only with less action. Billed as part of the greater interactive universe that also featured the .hack games (single player games about playing a MMO), manga and other merchandise, what it really meant was that nothing in the series could be allowed to come to a completion because all the other stuff took place after the anime.

-- Nadesico: Prince of Darkness - Mentioned this briefly last time. How anyone could take the lighthearted perfection that was Martian Successor Nadesico and suck all the joy from it is beyond me. But someone managed it.

-- Tenchi Muyo OAV Pt 3. - Juvenile, meandering and self-involved in a manner that previous installments managed to avoid, the 3rd and rumored last part of the "True" Tenchi story was a profound disappointment.

That Anime Post, Part 2

Last time, I rambled and tried to play historian. This time, I just skip to personal opinion.

There's no actual order here, just things that have made a good lasting impression.

-- Tenchi Muyo! (OAV Pts 1&2)/Tenchi Universe/Tenchi Muyo GXP - Tenchi is quintessential 'harem anime' - a story about a teenage boy who normally possesses amazing untapped power and quickly becomes surrounded by a throng of women all of whom are passionately in love with the hero. It's teenage male escapist fantasy at its most basic, and most shows of the kind never really rise above the sophomoric staples that come with the setting. Tenchi, on the other hand, grapples with some broader issues, including the death of a parent, coming of age, and the responsibilities of power. In a lot of ways, Tenchi Masaki is the Peter Parker of anime. Just with a lot more Mary Janes and Gwen Stacys running around.

-- Martian Successor Nadesico - Almost a parody of the entire spectrum on anime, MSN has a lot of layers. Ostensibly, Nadesico is about the Earth's fight against the evil Jovians, but in reality it's meta-commentary on many of the cliches and stereotypes common throughout the genre, including the fandom. This is best illustrated by the cartoon-within-the-cartoon, Gekiganger, that many of the characters are obsessed with. The best thing about Nadesico is that while it does hold up a pretty large mirror to the inane nature of a lot of anime conventions, it also revels in the insanity of those very same conventions. And the 'splosions are pretty too. (Of course, they went and ruined it with Nadesico: Prince of Darkness, which went emo to such a degree that even Hayden Christensen would be hard pressed to compete.)

-- Outlaw Star - Joss Whedon swears up and down that he'd never seen an episode of Outlaw Star when he came up with the idea for Firefly/Serenity, and I'd like to believe him. But when you look at the similarities in the setting (Space Western vs... Space Western), characters (Gruff but decent outlaw vs... gruff but decent outlaw) and even plot points in the first episode (mysterious package contains naked girl vs... mysterious package contains naked girl) it's kind of hard to hold onto the faith. Outlaw Star doesn't have a genius doctor, mysterious preacher or the cutest engineer in three galaxies, though, so that's all in Joss's favor.

-- 08th MS Gundam Team. Lord, but there are a lot of Gundam shows. Mobile Suit Gundam. Zeta Gundam. Gundam Wing. G-Gundam. Gundam SEED. Gundam SD. And probably a half dozen more I've forgotten. All are decent, but the best one was a short direct to video series called The 08th MS Gundam Team. Set during the One Year War that took place in the original Gundam series, 08th is a side story that focuses more on the reality of war. Or at least as real as a war with giant white robots fighting with lightsabers in the jungle can get. The characterizations are a little thin, since there's not much time to focus on individuals, but because of that it doesn't feel nearly as interminable as some of the other installments in the franchise.

-- Love Hina - Another entry in the 'harem anime' column, sort of. Instead of the standard one guy/lots of infatuated girls paradigm, this is more of a love triangle from a romantic comedy deal. And there are no super powers. It's not typically the sort of thing I'd confess to watching, but it's got such a winningly lighthearted charm to it that you can't help but like it.

-- Noir - Thriller/Drama series about two female assassins for hire, trying to uncover the hidden connection that brought them together. Great music and excellent pacing, one of the series that I recommend to people interested in testing the waters of the genre.

-- Neon Genesis Evangelion. I have a love/hate relationship with Eva, as does most everyone that really got into it, I suspect. On the positive side, it sparked so much interest into the symbolism behind the organizations, lore and mythology on the show, which is a good thing. It's too bad that the series fell apart at the end, mirroring the meltdown of the show's brilliant but troubled creator. The subsequent "this is what REALLY happened" movies were emotionally disturbing as well. I remember having to get up and walk outside after seeing a 3 minute clip of End of Evangelion strung together to Rod Zombie's "Dragula".

-- Last Exile - Still my personal favorite. Last Exile has everything I look for in a scifi series. Solid characterization, dense plotting, action and plenty of 'splosions. The first few episodes of Last Exile feature a homage to the pod racing scene in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace that simply blows the movie version out of the air. And the midpoint and endgame airship battles in the series are spectacular. My only complaint is that the ending may be a little bit too ambiguous unless you were really paying attention throughout the entire series.

Next Time: Anime that bugged me.

That Anime Post, Part 1

I am - with apologies to Willie Nelson - on the road again today, but through the wonders of modern science and their "scheduled posting" voodoo, I'm pleased to bring you part one of a discussion you probably never wanted to have: what kind of anime does Brian like and why has he pretty much given up on the genre?

Now, I make no claim at being otaku. My anime collection is likely larger than the average American's but it's limited in many respects - the first being that it's all in English. I've heard all the arguments about how anime really needs to be seen in the original language in order to catch all the nuance and fine emotional subtext, but let's face it, even in Japanese it's still mostly about 'splosions, giant robots and well proportioned women. And with a very few exceptions, (Grave of the Fireflies, for instance) saying the genre is deep is like saying Linkin Park single is a profound musical experience.(Editors Note: Author owns at least 3 Linkin Park CDs. Hey! Quit that!)

Anyway, my point is that I lie somewhere in between the die hard anime fan and the average video consumer. I've written in the past about how the Americanized versions of Star Blazers and Robotech worked as gateways for the wider pantheon of what was then still called 'Japanimation' (and Lord help you if you throw that term around a true fan, let me tell you what!). Even after Robotech, it was still some time before the trickle of redubbed titles from the '90s (Gunbuster, Macross II, Macross Plus) transformed into a flood of content.

Two things, in my opinion, were the major drivers of that transformation: DVD and Cartoon Network.

I bought my first DVD player in 2000, right after Christmas. By then, most major studios had started to embrace the format change, but there was still a limited number of titles available. Among the first few discs I bought was the complete (at the time) OAV version of Tenchi Muyo. I had seen one of the Tenchi movies on SciFi once upon the time, and while I knew next to nothing about the series I was sufficiently entertained by what I had already seen to spend the money on the box set. (Besides, I wanted something to show off the new player besides The Matrix and Gladiator. Several anime publishers, including Pioneer, ADV and Central Park Manga, saw the DVD platform as a good way to appeal to the 18-25 demographic, and so in the early days of the format anime titles made up a good chunk of what stores had for display.

Around the same time, Cartoon Network started airing a few titles that had been dubbed for US DVD release, including both the OAV and television versions of Tenchi Muyo. Toonami, CN's action block, became increasingly anime-based, and really took off when Cartoon Network acquired the US broadcast rights to a little something called Dragonball Z. What followed was an avalanche of franchises, from Pokemon to Gundam and beyond. A lot of it was crud, but as Sturgeon's Law points out, "90% of anything is generally crud".

Tomorrow, I'll get down to titles that have left a lasting positive impression.

'Toons I Have Known

Because it was demanded! A hastily assembled list of my favorite cartoons. Have I left things out? Almost assuredly! Will I disavow it only days from now? Quite likely!

I have made an effort not to include any anime titles, with two exceptions that purists will argue are no exceptions at all. While my interest in anime has waned to all time lows lately, I still have enough favorites to fuel yet another top ten list later on. You have been warned.

10 - Starblazers - We start with the Americanized version of Space Battleship Yamato, the first animated serial I recall really taking off in the United States. There are always rumors about a Starblazers motion picture, and I believe the film rights are still held by Disney. The last major attempt was going to swap out the Yamato for the USS Arizona. Or perhaps the USS Missouri, I forget the details. Suffice to say, such an idea did not Go Over Well with the intended target audience.

09 - Samurai Jack - Even if it didn't feature the outstanding voice work of Mako and that guy from Mad TV, Samurai Jack would get on the list just on looks alone. Deceptively simple in appearance, Samurai Jack uses light, shadow and a cinematic sense of timing to tell its stories. There's one episode where Jack, clad in white, fights a black suited ninja inside a large structure. As the combatants range through the building, the colors fade away, until the ninja disappears into the shadows while Jack becomes equally concealed within the light. It's a striking visual, both in terms of design and metaphor. Also, darkness has never been as delightfully joyous as the Evil That Is Aku. RIP, Mako.

08 - Ren & Stimpy - Nickelodeon had no idea what they'd unleashed when they signed on to produce and air Ren & Stimpy. Rude, crude, nonsensical and determinedly stupid, Ren & Stimply reveled in its nonsensical madness, and permeated popular culture to a point that I've met people that can only dimly recall the show but can sing along with the log song. And why not? After all, all kids love log.

07 - Transformers - Given the timely release of the new movie, there's been a lot of discussion about all things Transformer of late. One of the interesting bits of conversation is nostalgia and how it affects how we (we here meaning the collective sampling of people who were kids during the initial Transformers debut back in the '80s) remember the old and respond to the new. There's no denying that the original Marvel/Sunbow cartoon was a half hour toy commercial - the constant introduction of new characters that just happened to be in the new wave of toy releases is proof enough - but a lot of people will maintain that when you compare those shows (and their contemporaries, like He-Man and GI Joe) to the same fare today, the old shows come out way ahead in terms of storytelling, characterization and the like. Certainly, characters like the original, Peter Cullen voiced Optimus Prime have become fixed in the pop cultural zeitgeist to a degree followup characters and line ups did not. Short version of all this? G1 rocks, Armade/Energon/Cybertron sucks!

06 - Space Ghost: Coast to Coast - Meet Tad Ghostal. Super hero and galactic guardian of order by day, talk show host by night. Employing a unique - and probably illegal - form or work release, SG has dragooned arch enemies Zorak (Lone Mantis of the Apocalypse! Think of him when you look to the midnight sky!) and Moltar into serving as his band leader and director, respectively. In 5+ seasons, SG has interviewed Oscar winners, sitcom stars, and most of the surviving cast members of Gilligan's Island.  An honorable mention should go out to Harvey Birdman, who took a page out of Tad's book and reinvented himself as a semi-successful attorney at law. We choose not to dwell on The Brak Show.

05 - The Venture Bros. - Love Never Blows Up and Gets Killed. Spoofing everything from Johnny Quest to Dr. Strange, the Venture Bros is comic adventure on crack. Burnt out, pill popping super scientist Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture lives in the shadow of his far greater scientist father Jonas, has two 'death prone' boys (the aforementioned Venture Bros, Hank and Dean). The single greatest killing machine known to man works as his bodyguard, and he's leasing part of his decaying compound to Dr. Byron Orpheus, Master of the Mystic Arts. Also, there are ghost pirates that are not really ghosts, and the world's premiere criminal syndicate is headed up by David Bowie.

04 - DC Animated Universe - I'm cheating a bit with this one, because technically I'm talking about a number of shows, starting with 1990's Batman: The Animated Series, but also including Superman: TAS and Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. Sometimes called the Diniverse after producer Paul Dini, the various shows that make up the DCAU presented a single unified continuity that stretched across a decade of TV air. The DCAU has since been replaced by shows like The Batman, Teen Titans and Legion of Super-Heroes, which are much less continutiy driven, but for many people, the designs and voicework of the Dini shows will always be 'the way it's supposed to be' when it comes to DC comic characters.

03 - The Simpsons - Nineteen years. There are people working on the Simpsons today that weren't old enough to watch the show when it first started. Calling it iconic is an understatement at this point. Eventually, they'll stop making new shows, but even if they stopped today, at the rate the DVD sets are coming out it would be 2012 before they got to the last episode produced. Honorable mention goes to Futurama, which was the smarter of Matt Groening's shows, if not the luckier. (But it's coming back!)

02 - Animaniacs - Yakko, Wacko and Dot. Pinky & the Brain. Buttons and Mindy. Rita and Runt. Ten years later, and the pop cultural riffs are still funny. (Observation: Animaniacs was in its prime the year I graduated from high school, offering further proof to my contention that our view of The Best Ever is often tied to said seminal event. Or, again, maybe stuff was just better then.)

01 - Robotech - Purist fanboys can cry me a river. Twenty+ years on, Robotech, the synthesis of three anime series (Super Dimensional Fortress: Macross, Super Dimensional Cavalry: Southern Cross and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA) resulted in something that was greater than the sum of its parts. It was an unusual experience for a '80s cartoon to face issues like war and death with seriousness (no magically ejecting pilots or laser guns that never seemed to hit anyone. People died and decisions had consequences. Robotech was also a springboard for an entire generation of anime fans, and without it the genre might never have gained the foothold in America that it enjoys today.

Apple's Marketing Campaign

Am I the only one who watches those "I'm a Mac" commercials hoping against hope that poor, put upon PC will finally manage to beat the everloving snot out of Warren Cheswick?

Americans typically root for the underdog - it's practically drilled into us from an early age. So who thought making the avatar for the Mac into Lucy while portraying the PC as Charlie Brown was going to engender happy thoughts for Apple?

B5: The Lost Tales Available for Pre-Order!

Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, the first of what could be several movie length "short stories" set in the Babylon 5 universe, will be released to stores on 31 July.

This first work, titled "Voices in the Dark" covers President Sheridan's return to Babylon 5 ten years after leaving the station to assume the leadership of the Interstellar Alliance. Future volumes are rumored to spotlight characters such as Delenn and Michael Garibaldi, but that all depends on the sales of the first release, so get your encounter suited butts to the electronic media disbursement business of your choice on the appointed day, okay?

Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Production started this week on the first of a series of direct-to-DVD anthologies set in the Babylon 5 universe. The first anthology, collectively titled "Voices in the Dark" will feature the return of three B5/Crusade characters, namely John Sheridan, Elizabeth Lochley and Galen. B5 creator J. Michael Straczynski said in a posting on the moderated B5 newsgroup that he has already written a story featuring  former B5 security chief Garibaldi but that it had to be delayed due to extensive CGI demands.

Speaking of CGI, JMS said that the advances in computer generated imagery since B5 first started pre-production (way back in 1993!) means that there's now an opportunity to punch up the level of detail on the FX for the new anthology. JMS cited shows like the new Battlestar Galactica as examples of what can now be done for television. As I understand it, much of the original B5 digital model archive was lost a few years back anyway (which explains why Minbar and the Ranger fleet looked so... off, in Legend of the Rangers) so I'm glad that Babylonian Productions is taking the opportunity to upgrade the quality of the CGI.

The new anthologies supposedly take place during the Crusade era, between the bulk of the Babylon 5 story and the series ender, "Sleeping in Light". With both Crusade and Legend of the Rangers cut down early, this will be the third attempt to get that part of the B5 future history told.