They are but pawns

There's simply too much political optimism lately. How about a reality-based perspective?
Alternatively, this would be a rockin' episode of Doctor Who.

Sci-Fi Post-Op

Battlestar Galactica : disappointing :: Doctor Who : damn fine.

If you haven't watched the last two episodes of Doctor Who, watch! 'Tis better to see than to tell. I'll just spoil the best Doctor Who line ever:

Exterminieren! Exterminieren!

Now I am eagerly awaiting the return of Stargate Atlantis---a show that has consistently gotten better and better with each passing season.

The Oncoming Storm

Since Stargate Atlantis finished its fourth season at the beginning of March, I've been waiting for some excellent new science fiction to air. I chose my tense very carefully in that last sentence: progressive perfect. Even though Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica returned to airing two weekends ago, I have not yet seen anything worth the reputations previously earned by these shows.

As Lila noted, Doctor Who is back on the zombie bandwagon. Yes, the Vesuvius episode was filler. The litmus test for these is easy in Doctor Who: was it written by Russell T Davies? Yes equals a sweet show; no, a weak filler episode. The dilemmata of being a Time Lord are a constant theme in the show, but the Doctor doesn't normally have a problem with doing what has to get done. There is no pressing need to remind us of this every season, and even Donna said that she "knew all this" in the first episode. I haven't watched the third episode of the season yet, but I trust we will see improvement soon.

Back to zombies for a minute. Upon reflection, it strikes me that zombies are an extremely prevalent theme in science fiction. In the original sense, a zombie is a body that has been taken control of. Supposedly there were some sort of hallucinogenic drugs from Africa that were used to convert people to zombies. Who knows. Regardless, the brain-thirsty college kid in this picture is not the only embodiment of the zombie. Do note, though, that this zombie has torn his jacket in his madness, but hasn't untied his nicely-dimpled tie. There's a reason for that. His tie is serving the functional purpose of holding his head on. Think about it.

Almost every science fiction source I have recently been entertaining myself with is full of zombies. Hell, all the robots I can think of (save Marvin the Paranoid Android) are very much zombies. Mass Effect, for those who've played it, was all about zombies, from the robotic, hive-minded geth, to those enthralled by either Sovereign or the Thorian. Pretty repetitive game, once you realize that. Of course, what I am segueing to is Battlestar Galactica.

Think about it (think, think about it). The seven cylons that are publicly known all don't understand why they do what they must do. They were "programmed" by whomever created them to avoid thinking about the final five. Pretty silly, huh? They just act according to their programming (so it is argued) and as such are no more than zombies. The cylon centurians (until the second episode of this season) were mindless killing machines. And the human-form cylons exist by downloading into inactive spare bodies. For them, the mind–body debate is solved: the body exists only as a tool for the mind, and can be discarded at will.

The "sleeper agents" (although there can only be at most one remaining---and there is only one true god! Coincidence?) are the most zombie-like (zombiesque, zombimbic, zombic? Zombied and zombified, which the OED provides, just don't suit my need). They are certainly programmed and behave accordingly. They can be made to do things that they would not choose to do (shoot Adama, blow up the water supply, cf. season one for more examples) and have no control over it. A good question is, will the baby cylons be programmable (cry now!) or does that require a spare body? More generally, can the cylons actually reprogram each other?

Zombies, zombies every where,
And oh the plot did thick;
Zombies, zombies every where,
And many turns to trick.

Doctor Who: more zombies

This week, they were stone zombies who can see into the future (in a limited way). And the moral quandary was the standard Time-Lord-changing-the-past/Gallifrey problem. (I have previously discussed the recurring Doctor Who theme of zombies, which I first heard about here.) Once again, the Doctor is linked to an enormous human catastrophe. When will he cause Chernobyl?

I'm disappointed that this episode was so predictable. It felt like filler. But filler for episode two? It's too early in the season! I want to go back to Earth and find out about Rose -- how did she get back, is it the same Rose, will we be hearing from Captain Jack, what is Martha up to?

But from previews, I know that the next episode is about the Ood, which could be good but (unfortunately) also has a strong tinge of zombies.

Torchwood, Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica

The second season of Torchwood just ended, and the fourth seasons of Doctor Who and BSG just began. A sci-fi TV rundown seems to be in order.

Torchwood satisfied my craving for Doctor Who-like TV during the dry spell between seasons of Doctor Who. As always, I am disappointed that Captain Jack Harkness is so much more serious and authoritative as a star than he is as a flippant companion. The last few episodes were rather disappointing -- I felt that the writers wasted a Gwen's wedding (a big life event!) on a rather predictable shape-shifting alien story. And then "From Out of the Rain" didn't even mention the Rift or aliens at all! I don't want just a weird, dark police show, I want science fiction! In the season finale, Jack lived through two thousand years of dying, buried alive -- and came out of it speaking fine, not deranged or troubled. By comparison, his yearlong series of deaths in the finale of Doctor Who season 3 -- which left him subdued and reflective -- is nothing! On the other hand, the series had many of those classic double-take Captain Jack lines. So I still like it.

Doctor Who - It is true that the Doctor is always fighting people who basically want to turn humans into zombies (so summarizeth Mur Lafferty). But just seeing him walk down the street in the season 4 opener was exciting! That crazy hair! That optimistic attitude! The awkwardness at the end of the episode (does he ever talk straight about romance?) was a nice finishing touch. And the sight of Rose! -- how is she back? How many narrative opportunities are opened! O glee!

BSG - The titles have changed! Here's how I picture that executive meeting:

Ex1: "We've been getting some flak recently from the ardent fans--"
Ex2: "They take issue with everything!"
Ex1: "-- also the not-so-ardent fans, the channel-surfers, and even people who have never seen the show."
Ex2: "Why?"
Ex1: "Well, at the beginning of every show we have this long opening sequence, building up to the fact that the cylons have a plan."
Ex2: "... ?"
Ex1: "They don't."
Ex2: "Really?"

The Kara-Thrace-trust issue was inevitable, and so predictable that I wonder why they bothered shooting it. Based on nearly identical situations in the past three seasons, we know that she'll (1) have a very strong conviction that (2) nobody else believes, to the points of (3) calling her a traitor/cylon. Then (4) someone with power will trust her and (5) give her the means to pursue her conviction, resulting in (6) a dramatic reveal that she was right, after all. Then (7) she will be restored to her usual place in the cockpit, after some muted congratulations/apologies.

Balthar, too, is back to his usual business of being thrown out of a position of power and elevated to a new one. With lots of loose women in the mix.

The only new element in this season's plot mix is that four new characters know (in secret) that they are cylons. This will be interesting, as we've never had that before...