Wrapping Up Season 1

Stargate SG-1
Season 1 – Episode 19
44mins
“There But for the Grace of God” – Daniel Jackson is pulled into an alternate reality where he sees Earth being invaded by the Goa’uld.

-          Awesome episode! This episode exemplifies nearly everything that is great about the show as a whole. Alternate-Reality and Time-Travel episodes are definitely the best episodes in the show, and this is the first of many. This episode starts a chain reaction/thread that leads to the season 1 finale, and did I mention that it’s awesome?

 

Stargate SG-1
Season 1 – Episode 20
44mins
“Politics” – A powerful U.S. Senator vows to shut down the Stargate project despite Daniel Jackson’s warnings of an eminent Goa’uld invasion.

-          Senator Kinsey sucks. That’s the only thing to be gleaned from this episode.  Oh, and clip shows suck too. But, this episode is semi-necessary for the upcoming Season 1 finale, so I’ll let it slide…this time. Unfortunately for all of us, Kinsey weasels his way into 10 more episodes in the shows run. I don’t remember what happens to him in the end, but I like to imagine that he was eventually taken over by the Goa’uld and shot by Jack

 

Stargate SG-1
Season 1 – Episode 21
44mins
“Within the Serpent’s Grasp” – As the government prepares to mothball the Stargate project, O’Neill and the SG-1 team take an unauthorized trip through the gate in an attempt to stop the Goa’uld invasion.

-          The season 1 finale is probably one of the biggest reasons the show lasted for 10 seasons, spawning 2 movies and 2 spin-offs. SG-1 go rogue and set off to destroy Apophis once and for all (oh really?), in order to save Earth from complete destruction! Seriously, watch this one.  I am posting this as I’m just getting the episode started because I don’t want any distractions for it, so you KNOW it’s awesome.

Yay good part of Season 1

Stargate SG-1
Season 1 – Episode 16
44mins
“Enigma” – The SG-1 team rescues a group of highly advanced aliens from a collapsing world, but must risk court-martial to prevent the aliens’ technology from falling into the wrong hands.

- Here we meet the Tollan people, a race run in this episode by Jigsaw.  Yeah, that creepy guy from the Saw movies.  He’s a jerk here too, but eventually comes to trust Daniel Jackson because come on, who doesn’t love that guy?  Must be the glasses.  Oh, and we meet Col. Maybourne for the first time.  He plays a pretty big part in some of the upcoming seasons.

Stargate SG-1
Season 1 – Episode 17
44mins
“Tin Man” – A strange man implants the consciousness of the SG-1 team in robots.

- SG-1 eventually find out their consciousness has been cloned and implanted into robots.  Good episode, they call back the clones later.  Oh, the Teal’c clone gets killed because the 10,000 y/o dude who cloned them (Harlan) didn’t realize that the Goa’uld in his pouch wasn’t good, so he merged their consciousnesses…what a tool.
Stargate SG-1
Season 1 – Episode 18
44mins
“Solitudes” – A Stargate malfunction leaves O’Neill and Carter stranded in an icy crevasse on an unknown planet.

- It’s Antarctica!  We learn that there’s another gate on Earth and it’s been buried under ice in Antarctica for some time now.  OH!  And the writers explain why the Stargate no longer vibrates (a concept never previously explained, most people just ignored it) and they actually USE IT AS A PLOT POINT!  I’m sure there’s a writing term for magically explaining something away (we installed frequency dampeners).
One of the best lines in the show comes out of a blooper from this episode:
Carter – “we got belt buckles, shoelaces and a piece of gum. Build a nuclear reactor, for cryin’ out loud! You used to be MacGyver, MacGadget, MacGimmick… now you’re Mr. MacUseless… Dear God, I’m stuck on a glacier with MacGyver!”

**UPDATE**
I published this post before I finished the last episode but made an amazing connection during the final scene!  As Carter and O’Neill are being rescued there’s a theme being played that I quickly recognized as being way to close to the main theme used in Independence Day.  Enter IMDB and I’ve now learned that the SAME GUY DID THE MUSIC FOR BOTH!  He ripped off his own theme from ID4 and used it 2 years later as a mini-theme in SG-1 (his name is David Arnold if you want to check).  I should probably have known this already, but he’s the composer of the SG-1 title theme.

I can go to sleep happy now

Daily Post #2

Great Smallville site for those interested.  They appear to be more into the show than I am.

I watched 3 more episodes today and we meet Oliver Queen, aka Green Arrow.  Clark and Oliver quickly learn each others secrets and start working together.  Here we see the beginnings of Smallville’s version of the Justice League.

The Flash, Green Arrow, Superman, Aquaman, Cyborg

Pepsi progress – Jessica and I have now gone 1 week without a drop of soda.  Go us!

Hits shelves Tuesday, March 1st

Less than 31 hours before “The Wise Man’s Fear” gets sent to our Kindle.  Preorder your copy now!  I promise it’ll be worth it.

Pepsi Free 2/20 – 5/31

I’m officially not drinking Pepsi (all soda really) and am going to go without for 100 days.  Jessica and I are probably going to start a blog chronicling our exercise/diet journey, so I’ll put out a link for that once it’s up and running.

 

In a hurry!

I was reminded yesterday of a book coming out in the next 2 weeks that is going to prevent me from watching any more episodes for at least a day or two: The Wise Man’s Fear: The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day Two by Patrick Rothfuss.  Christy Brown turned me on to the first book in the series (The Name of the Wind) sometime last year and let me finish it before telling me it was a trilogy that had not yet been finished!!!  Book 2 comes out March 1 and I’ve already got it preordered for the Kindle (thanks again to Christy for the Amazon gift card for my birthday).

If you’re reading this blog, then this book is probably right up your alley.  It’s a fantasy novel that is amazingly well written.  The writer has taken around 3 years to write book 2 though, so you may be better off waiting a while until book 3 comes out sometime next century.

Wolverine or Batmen?

I watched 9 or 10 episodes yesterday and promise to get at least one post up about the episodes sometime today.  In the meantime, is this Wolverine or 2 Batmen?

Wolverine or 2 Batmen?

Thanks to Christy Brown for that  :)

Episodes 58: Obsession & 59: Resurrection

58 – Season 3, episode 15: Obsession
Clark has to use his powers while trapped in a falling elevator with a girl, who then uses her ability to phase to get them out safely.  Budding romance ensues until the girl goes Swimfan on him and eventually tries to kill Lana Lang.  Pretty good episode minus the fact that it’s a ripoff of countless movies, tv shows, books, etc.

59 – Season 4, episode 16: Resurrection
This one is long, so I don’t blame anyone for skimming/skipping.
Jonathan Kent (Clark’s dad) is forced to undergo a triple bypass after being given Kryptonian powers by Jor-El in the Season 3 opener.
Backstory: Clark had left for Metropolis under the influence of Red Kryptonite (makes Clark evilish) and was living a life of crime.  Jor-El warned Jonathan there would be a price for getting the temporary powers and Jonathan has a heart attack a few episodes later.
This episode: Paul Ballard (Doll House – that’s not his real name but who can pronounce it anyway?) needs a liver transplant and dies while his little brother watches (same hospital as the Kents).  He mysteriously comes back to life and his brother is forced to stand by and watch him die again because they still don’t have a suitable liver to donate.  The littler brother comes back with a Kryptonite infused bomb strapped to his chest and tells them to take Jonathan’s liver.  Clark saves the day by throwing a lead apron (handy being in a hospital) around the bomb and rushes it away as a sniper takes the kid out from outside.  Clark learns that the substance used to temporarily revive the dead was created from blood he was forced to give in Season 2, and that Lionel Luthor is behind the experiments.

Silly Canadians and their silly names. He's crying for Dollhouse already.

I provide a pretty full synopsis on this episode because it was (finally) not a ripoff of some other show/movie.  Yay for plot advancement and for ditching episode “fillers”.