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by Rick Norwood
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SF on TV | |
Star Trek Enterprise, "Babel One" (***)
Then somebody said, "You're with me," and they walked down some corridors.
Then a couple of other people watched it rain. Then the first people walked down some more corridors. Then more
rain. Then more corridors. I say it's spinach and I say to hell with it. If you don't like crottled greeps, why
did you order them?
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SF on TV in February | |
Wednesday, Feb 2Smallville, "Pariah" by Holly Herold
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Audio Review | |
Dark Shadows, "Return to Collinwood" (****) by Jamison Selby
For Dark Shadows fans only, this final Dark Shadows episode in audio form from MPI Home Video is
excellent. It was originally staged at the last Dark Shadows festival, starring the original actors. I was
tempted to go to New Jersey to see it, but did not, because Jamison Selby, son of actor David Selby, had no previous credits
as a writer. Turns out he's really good. This roughly two hour audio finale to the long running and much loved series brought
tears to my eyes, though it will be meaningless unless you have watched the original.
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Rick Norwood is a mathematician and writer whose small press publishing house, Manuscript Press, has published books by Hal Clement, R.A. Lafferty, and Hal Foster. He is also the editor of Comics Revue Monthly, which publishes such classic comic strips as Flash Gordon, Sky Masters, Modesty Blaise, Tarzan, Odd Bodkins, Casey Ruggles, The Phantom, Gasoline Alley, Krazy Kat, Alley Oop, Little Orphan Annie, Barnaby, Buz Sawyer, and Steve Canyon. |
Enterprise has gotten quite good of late, and I suggest that you watch it while you have the chance. This
may be the last time Star Trek is on television. This season of Enterprise is focused on the
events leading up to the original Trek. One of the best Kirk/Spock episodes was "Journey to Babel" by D.C.
Fontana. This prequel captures a lot of the charm and excitement of the original. Part I of III.
Superboy, "Unsafe" (*)
Clearly one of the suits at SciFi is sitting on Ron Moore. "Make it dumber. I'm dumb, and I earn six figures. The audience is
even dumber than I am. We like it dumb." And so we are expected to believe that the Capricans have a flag ceremony, cigarettes,
even coffins exactly like present day America. The Lords of Kobol colonized thirteen planets, twelve in one star system and one
in the Sol system. Why did they stop with thirteen? In a galaxy in which habitable planets are rare, how did they find a solar
system with twelve habitable planets? Or are the other planets Capriformed? Or airless? Too little story, too little background,
too much talk.
 
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