pacaway

That explains a lot! I saw Ed Wood a number of years ago, but I don't recall the scene. Of course, I hadn't seen this movie yet. It is probably time to revisit Ed Wood. Maybe I'll watch Plan 9 again first.

shadokitty

For a challenge that is basically, watch what you want for a month, which btw, is the appeal to me , this thread has sure garnered a lot of discussion.

shadokitty

I plan to order Frozen Planet, and perhaps Wild China today, but was wondering. For anyone who is familiar with the BBC Nature documentaries, how is Human Planet? When I first saw the trailers, it didn't really appeal to me, as it seemed to deal with man more than nature. Is that true? And if so, is it still a decent series?

shadokitty

Had errands to run this morning, so got a late start today. But when I got home, I started with another episode of Africa. It is a good series, and I am glad I ordered it. I am almost done with that series, and soon will start on another series.

davidh777

Right, there isn't really the common threads of the other challenges. Regardless, I like reading the comments.

I saw Captain America over the weekend and was so geeked out that I'm going to try to work in an Avengers/Marvel mini-challenge (same thing I did when I saw The Avengers in theaters). I hope to catch up on Agents of SHIELD at least somewhat.

ntnon

I've still never seen Stargate: Atlantis, but what I've read suggests that IT falls victim to that, in that there's an entirely separate villain in the second programme, that barely gets mentioned by the precisely-parallel series..!

I remember there being a bit of that in the Treks, but they were better at least in mentioning the others in passing before getting back to their own events.

They're be aware, but probably wouldn't care much (in a nice way), as it doesn't really affect them. However, there's a couple of episodes of Voyager that feature Starfleet looking for them - I've just watched one with Barclay (minor TNG character) and Counsellor Troi (main TNG) on Earth trying to find a way to contact the Delta Quadrant.

Offhand, the pilot is set on DS9, Q pops up a couple of times on Voyager - as well as on DS9 - referring to Picard at every turn (and tying up a whole TNG subplot on DS9). There are passing mentions of previous encounters with the Borg (some specific?), and namechecks for Picard and probably Kirk among others. Riker pops by (...), and as mentioned Troi and Barclay turn up on occasion, too.

The backstory for Captain Sisko is rooted in Wolf-3-something-something that Picard-as-Locutus destroyed, and alternate-Riker wanders onto the space station on one occasion. Picard nips by to sympathise/annoy and drop off Miles O'Brien, and Worf obviously turns up later. Miles reminisces a couple of times, and various Klingons had been seen on TNG before.

The background also seques quite nicely: after negotiations with the Cardassians on TNG, later Ensign Ro's grudges and history highlight the Cardassian encroachment into Bajoran space that are a) investigated thoroughly by DS9, and b) set up the entirety of the Maquis raison d'etre that ultimately leads to Chakotay & B'Elanna being infiltrated by Tuvok and so forth.

The Borg in the Delta Quadrant are separate from those in the Alpha, but they're clearly interlinked. I think the modifications of the DS9 mini-ship are mentioned subsequently in Voyager (or TNG), and the EMH is rooted in DS9 - and was originally to be fronted by Dr Bashir.

The parallel alternate Earth is linked back, forwards and sideways through the series', although I think it's only TNG where the majority of the TOS crew pops by briefly. Lwaxanna wanders through DS9 after TNG, and some of the brass cross through the series'.

The changes in the Klingon Empire that occur in TNG are reflected in DS9. (Worf's DS9 posting and then return for the TNG films is noted - amusingly - in passing, while Janeway cameos in one of the films, too. As does Alice Krige's Borg Queen, previously seen in Voyager.)

The most interesting links never happened. The original hope was that Michelle Forbes' Ro Laren would be the Bajoran co-host of DS9. Character creation rights (and maybe actor availability) nixed that, and allowed Nana Visitor to create the new character of Kira Nerys. Similarly, the Wesley Crusher-centric episode of him nearly getting kicked out of the Academy featured Robert Duncan McNeil playing a Tom Paris-like character... and, really, apart from the name, it is (but legally isn't) the same character.

ntnon

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. I watched the pilot/first episode and as being re-appalled by broadcast TV and the constant advertising breaks, I was very underwhelmed. I hear it improves, so I'd like to read some thoughts.

shadokitty

I just finished Africa, and was quite impressed with the entire series, especially the final episode that dealt with how the conservationists are working at bringing the wildlife population back to it's former levels of what they used to be before poachers and civil wars. Some scenes were quite sad, but others were quite uplifting to see how the work of the protectors are actually paying off.

wayoutjunk

As I mentioned on my list, I'm calling a bit of an audible on my Challenge. My main focus is still Musicals, but I had some movies for last month's B-Movie/Drive-In Challenge that I DVRed and hadn't gotten around to watching (as well as a couple I ordered through Interlibrary Loan that finally showed up), so I'm calling it a Musical Challenge (With a Side Order of Drive-In/B-Movies). That's how I was able to watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Infestation on the same day!

BobO'Link

Ahhh... right! It's been so long since I've watched Voyager I'd forgotton about *all* of those!

Q is another too-frequent (for me a single episode is too frequent for him) character I very much dislike. IMHO, like the Borg and Holodeck episodes, he's just another bad "We really don't have any ideas for a episode so how about one with Q?" solution.

BobO'Link

I managed to finish Series 2 of Butterflies. It ran for 4 series but has only seen the release of S1 & S2 in R1. I've enjoyed the series enough that it's very tempting to order the full series from Amazon UK and either hack or look for a region free/PAL compatible DVD player... I'd never heard of the lead, Wendy Craig, but have seen Geoffrey Palmer (the Dad) in As Time Goes By, Fawlty Towers, and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. One of the sons, Nicholas Lyndhurst, played Rodney in Only Fools and Horses.... which I discovered a few years back and is a favorite.

After that one I decided on a blind buy, Bottom, starring and written by Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall, both of whom I'd remembered from The Young Ones. Since I recalled liking the zaniness of The Young Ones I figured Bottom would be pretty similar. It is. Crazy, vulgar, stupid, violent, downright disgusting, and very funny! I'm only 3 episodes into the series but it's been good from the start. It's *not* a series my wife would *ever* watch...

davidh777

Yep, I watched the first two episodes and wasn't impressed, but heard the same buzz about improvement so I'm intrigued.

This would also fit the main theme of my challenge, which is to finish up a number of these shows I've partially watched. Not only do I have stacks of unwatched discs, but I've been getting digital season passes when they go on sale. The trick then is to try to watch them before they hit free streaming like Arrow and Orphan Black did.

LJG765

I started watching and was underwhelmed as well. I watched maybe the first 5 or 6 of them and stopped for several months. I didn't take it off the DVR record list, though, so when my brother told me they got better, I started watching again. About episodes 9/10 or so, it has started picking up. I'm waiting for the last couple episodes to air and then will watch all at once-no waiting to find out what happens. I'm already glad I did that as there was a cliff hanger. I don't know that I'll watch another season or buy these on disc (and I'm a huge Avenger fan) but the show does get better the longer it airs.

That being said, I have not seen the more recent ones that have coincided with Captain America 2, so don't know how they deal with that.

Mondo Kane

I've been following Agents/Shield since day one. While I agree there were some rough spots along the way, it seemed like once "Yes, Men" appeared (Episode with Lady Siff) the show had took it up a notch...And that was shortly before things really began to get fun prior to the Winter Soldier connections.

While we're on the comic-book tip, my comic/superhero-oriented challenge has been a very nice ride so far. I'm a first time viewer of Arrow and I'm (Mostly) liking what I see so far (Too bad netflix still doesn't have season 2 up)
I really went overboard on the recordings of Ultimate Spider-Man (Got about 9 episodes, and counting, left to go) But as annoying as that show tends to get, those episodes always feel like they're only about 9 minutes long (Once you go through all the commercials) so I'm thankful for that. This challenge also reminded on how much I used to enjoy Teen Titans.

Lastly, I was glad to have found my old Batman VHS tape (60's show) a few nights ago. It'll be fun going through that tape again (I think the last time I gave it a look was back in 2002. Episodes were taped from TVLAND)

shadokitty

Tonight I decided to revisit a show on Netflix that I had seen before, but never completed, David Attenborough: Wildlife Specials. I enjoyed it the first time I saw it, and since it was a recommended viewing after finishing The Life of Mammals, I thought I would watch it again. Each episode features a different and specific animal from what I recall. It has been so long since I have seen it, I decided to start from the first episode again.

LJG765

Just finished the first season of Little House. Glad I got through it. It actually went by faster than I thought it would. I think I'm going to skip the 2nd season unless it gets a little cheaper-just way too much to watch that I've already bought at the moment.

I do have to say, it's a great family show. It's a little hooky in parts, but well, that's how it was designed. I never really felt bored watching it and it held my interest overall...and there aren't that many shows out there today that can say the same!

terrycloth

Just completed the first phase of the marvel universe with Captain America and The Avengers
I wanna track down all the web one shots
Starting up phase 2 with re watches of IM3/thor2 and try and check out The Winter Soldier before its out of theaters.

gonna finish up today with Batman beyond and started reading The Civil War story in Marvel.

ntnon

Happy to help jog your memory. I was a bit surprised I remembered as much as I did... which probably means there's more...

For shame! Q is great - and John de Lancie even better. They really need a character like that occasionally - a "god" for want of a better description. Because, once you accept that common sense (and story variety) dictates that amongst the aliens-of-the-week there'll be aliens at all levels of technological capacity, it follows that there will be far higher-advanced beings.

History and mythology suggest that they could be or be mistaken for "God," "gods" or "angels" (where you run the risk of offending parts of your audience - Stargate picks up this idea and pursues it through the ancient pantheons; TNG flirted with Ardra possibly being THE "Devil" but left it vague enough, etc.). Asimov (et al.) say "sufficient technology appears as if magic" - some of the best episodes play with Starfleet being "magic" and or gods; Q allows for them to feel the flipside.

Now - if anyone's still with me! - once you postulate an alien "god," you really have three options: benevolent, malevolent or trickster. Benevolent can seem lazy (deus ex machina); malevolent is problematic (if one can 'beat' a "god" - as one must a malevolent one - then one is more powerful than 'god' and/or must rely on too many coincidences and luck) so trickster becomes one of the few options left - and alongside such semi-designations as flawed, deluded or not-as-all-powerful-as-they'd-like, is arguably the best.

So Q is a trickster god. He can 'win' and his adversaries can 'win' - better stories than good vs. evil - and he can help, hinder and enter into horseplay. He can introduce plotpoints in a way few others can (Q brings the Borg, for instance!) and have it seem reasonable. He can transport in time (Robin Hood, Civil War) and space (Alpha to Delta; planet to planet). He can be the punchline and instigator of comic moments, and can lighten the mood when everything and everyone around him stays serious.

Two of my favourite episodes of TNG are Q episodes: the crew as merry men is just brilliant. (I really, really enjoy the alternate universe episodes of pretty much every programme I like. Which is, on reflection, slightly odd - one would think that a beloved programme's favourites should feature the cast of characters in their natural setting...) Even if the return of Vash highlights the odd-and-usually-misguided attempts to fix Picard up with a) anyone and b) not Beverly, Worf as Will Scarlet stopping Geordi-a-Dale's music; Deanna shooting Data; Worf not being merry; swordfights; randomly appearing hats... and the whole scenario is Q's attempt to be NICE!

Even better is the follow-up Q episode where the rest of the Q strip him of his powers for abusing his powers. It's a great plot and twist: a 'god' brought low for misuse of power is a great premise - having his new humanity doubted because it seems like just the sort of trick that has brought him to that place... brilliant. And the episode also allows the immortal, invulnerable, omni-everything Q to be mortal, vulnerable and then ultimately to learn and grow as a character. That this growth manages to both inform the nuances of his future appearances and be immediately sublimated under his eventually-returned powers is a masterclass of character and acting.

I think they spaced them well enough, and (broadly) spun stories out of all those - with the possible exception of the Borg, which tend to fall into two categories: Borg being Borg and Borg not being Borg - that were different, clever and thought-provoking enough that they never really felt like crutches to me.

I was surprised to see two episodes set in the same Holo-programmes on Voyager within seven episodes, but they were different enough and interesting that it worked well and provided a good sense of continuity. Even if you suggest that all Holodeck episodes broadly fall into two categories (pure entertainment or Holograms come to 'life'), those two uses - one of the proper uses of the Holodeck and one of the more important existential debates about what constitutes life, living, consciousness et al. - cover such a broad range of stories and episodes and sub-questions.

Barclay addicted to the holodeck and feeling as if he couldn't relate to real people.
Geordi (and half-a-dozen others) mistaking a holodeck character for their real counterpart.
Janeway programming her ideal boyfriend as a holodeck character.
Holodeck characters and programmes becoming self-aware and questioning their existence - or lack of it.
Using a holodeck to re-play a Rashomon storyline of conflicting stories in a trial setting.
Roleplay of a favourite novel or scenario (Picard as detective; Bashir as spy).
A 'safe haven' for a crew in desperate need of escape.
Characters and plots within a holodeck that become such good friends that they (self-aware or not) life 'normal' lives within parameters.
Using the holodeck to affect reality - Barclay becoming a computer (TNG) and using a constructed scenario to launch a real beacon to Voyager (VOY).

If a Holographic EMH can be a 'real' crewman, how can other characters continue to be treated as 'just' characters?
Is a holographic AI representation of a real person tangibly different from the real person, similar enough to be considered a reasonable facsimile or essentially identical?
If a hologram notices 'real' people doing things that they ought not to be able to, how would they account for that?
And so forth...

ntnon

Good to hear. I think that was major "problem" in the first place: why have a show that ties into a multi-character film universe - even if it's in the background of the film universe - and then shut said characters out of the show (as it appeared to be doing)? It makes no sense, and I'm glad they've been addressing that.

I like the Lady Sif, and was very pleasantly surprised when the actress turned up in the Schwarzenegger film Last Stand a couple of months ago.

Yes, I've heard positive thoughts about Arrow too. Must get to it sometime..

Thisyearthisyearthisyear...

ntnon

I've enjoyed the shorts, but there are definitely better and worse ones. Item 47 is a great little slice of the Universe - a good premise, well handled. A Funny Thing... was also a nice little throwaway. The other one (or two) I've seen didn't make as much of an impact as those two. And I was very peeved that our library only got Dark World on DVD, so I've not seen the most recent - Sir Ben Kingsley - one yet..

walletboyniac

I really enjoyed Bottom, as well. HUGE fan of The Young Ones. Bottom went in directions I'd never expect. I think my favorite was the one where they're trapped at the top of a ferris wheel for the entire episode. I sold my copy for I-don't-know-what reason. Guess I have to re-purchase it.

Mondo Kane

I didn't even know!

There's a thread here about the *Possible* release of that series, but I've ignored it since it tends to have as many cliffhangers as the actual show did.

shadokitty

Won't be starting for the day until a little later today, due to unforeseen circumstances. Last night one of our dog's got into a porcupine, and we couldn't get the quills out ourselves, so we took him to the vet early this morning. He's fine now, and just as playful as ever, now that the anesthesia has wore off. He had a good night last night and didn't really seem to be in any pain, and the quills weren't hurting his breathing either.

And after lunch, I attempted to watch something, but was just too tired, so I just turned on Sportscenter on my Roku, covered up, and took a nap.

davidh777

Currently watching Avengers Confidential: Black Widow and the Punisher. Definitely in the Marvel Universe, but I didn't realize going in that it was anime-styled. That gives it a different look and feel.

Arrow 1 is on that list of "stuff digital I bought digitally but didn't watch before it hit streaming." Considering I stuck Smallville out to the end, I figure I need to see this.

The Batman TV show thread is a trainwreck, though, with people arguing in circles.

shadokitty

Started today with the crocodile episode of David Attenborough: Wildlife Specials.