"...I was there at the dawn of the third age of man..."

Reading a post over at one of the internet forums I frequent, I was reminded that today, December 31st 2009, it is exactly ten years since Channel 4 aired the last ever episode of probably the best pure science fiction show ever made; Babylon 5. It was one of those shows that really grabbed me by the throat and never let go.

The idea behind the show was a great one; it was to run for five years, and in those five years tell one, big, self contained story with a clear beginning, middle, and end; and by the time we got to that end that would be it. That's where the story ends, and there would be no loose ends...

(Of course, mice and men intervened; Season 5 was, for about 2/3 of it somewhat below par, there were loads of loose ends, some left deliberately to set up a spin off series which only managed half a season, and a movie that never happened... Anyway...)

At the point Babylon 5 started, TV sci-fi series were pretty much just a string of separate stories, with episodes that could (with odd exceptions) be watched in pretty much any order. They were designed so that you could turn on an episode and watch a complete story in 45 minutes. Babylon 5, initially, appeared to follow the same pattern, as many of the early episodes did tell complete stories. There were some obvious threads running through the episodes - such as the hole in Sinclair's mind, and why the Minbari surrendered when on the brink of victory in their war against Earth - but these were background. However, pretty soon this changed and B5 pretty much became a serial. I hesitate to use the phrase "sci-fi soap opera", as that will stir up negative connotations in people's minds, but that's more or less what it was.

There were turning points in the first season; the sixth episode, Mind War, introduces us to the Psi-Corps, and the wonderful Mr Bester, played with a chilling menace by Walter Koenig. You always knew you were in for a treat when he turned up... but the biggest shocker in this episode was the glimpse at the end of a creature not seen for thousands of years... just the briefest of appearances, but enough to make you think there is much more going on here than we know of.

This would be expanded further in the biggest turning point of all in the season, Signs and Portents, in which a mysterious man, Morden, arrives on the station and goes to the main ambassadors asking them one, simple, question; what do you want? (Of course; that question is at the core of all drama. Remind me to tell you about that one day.) It is their reaction to this question that shapes the entire future of the show. It is Londo Molarri of the Centauri Republic who Morden, and his associates, ends up allying with, doing Londo a favour with a promise that somewhere along the line, Londo will do one for him... Faust, anyone? When we see his associates at the end of the episode, and what they can do... we know there's only one way this will end; in fire.

Mention of Londo brings me to, what in my mind, was the best thing about the show. The relationship between Londo and G'Kar. The changing relationship between these two characters over the course of the show was a joy to behold. Every time they had scenes together the screen was on fire. Episodes that were humdrum and run of the mill were elevated just because they had scenes together (the "mad bomber" episode, for example, is completely redeemed by the scene when the two of them are trapped in a lift. G'kar's reaction is priceless.). This is largely due to the fact that the actors portraying them were so great; Peter Jurasik and, the late, Andreas Katsulas were just perfect. They sparked off each other brilliantly, no matter what was asked of them. There is a scene, in a bar, in the season two episode The Coming of Shadows where this is exemplified; Jurasik has hardly any lines in the scene, almost everything about his performance is conveyed by the expression on his face, he doesn't need to say anything. It's all there.

Now, I could go on and write a couple of dozen more paragraphs about how great the show is, and wonderful scenes, and moments that will make you cry, and moments that will make you laugh... but if you've seen the show before, you'll know them. If you haven't I'll end up spoiling it for you.

And, if you've not seen it; get it. But, be warned; don't bother with the TV movies or Crusade. Just watch the 111 episodes from The Gathering to Sleeping in Light.

Thinking back to how eager I was to see each new episode, it's really like how I feel right now with Lost. I'm just so keen to see these last 18 episodes. And the anticipation and speculation as to what will happen next. And the spoiler avoidance... oh, it's going to be fun...

...but when it's all over; what then...?

"...what...?"

Okay. Now I've seen some bad list TV shows in my time, but Channel 4's The Greatest TV Shows of The Noughties easily tops the list of the worst of the lot. It was billed as;

It's the end of an era: the decade no-one can pronounce is coming to an end; and Channel 4 is celebrating by finding the greatest music and TV programmes of the past ten years. Channel 4 has conducted a survey with the leading TV critics and industry figures, and asked the public in a YouGov national poll, to tell us what they think was the greatest television of the last ten years. In a decade apparently dominated by box-sets, will the number one show be The Wire ? And where will Big Brother chart? The Greatest TV Shows of the Noughties counts down the 20 shows that represent the best of the decade.

With a description like that, it surely couldn't go wrong, could it...? Well... Let's just say it was the most bizarre list of "best shows of the Noughties" that could possibly be imagined, with shows that didn't belong there, shows that didn't deserve to be there, and great omissions... Here's the list, with comments;

First of all, before it started, I confidently predicted it would be The Wire that wins it; after all it gets plaudits everywhere, and even Charlie Brooker gushes over it like a 15 year old gushes over the Jonas Brothers... Anyhow;

20) Dragons Den

Alarm bells should have started ringing here. I mean. it's not a bad show, in fact it's quite entertaining. But 20th best, of the whole decade...?

19) I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here

And if the alarm bells hadn't yet started ringing they should have by the time we got here...

18) Strictly Come Dancing

And by now they should have been a cacophony of noise and pain.

17) Spooks

At last, something deserving of its place.

16) Coronation Street

Okay, alarm bells again. Now, whilst Corrie has indeed been on all through the Noughties, it's not really a programme that's really a "Noughties" show; it's the same it's always been. Constant. Confortable. Ever reliable.

15) Gavin and Stacey

Whilst I'm not really a fan of this, it does deserve its place here; it's been phenomenonly popular.

14) Grand Designs

Really. The will to live it lost.

13) Shameless

Glad to see this one there.

12) Harry Hill's TV Burp

Now, I was somewhat surprised to see Harry in the chart; pleasantly surprised, but surprised none the less.

11) Friends

No, sorry; this is very much a 90s show; everything about it is rooted in that decade. Yes, it ended in the 00s, and was repeated endlessly throughout the 00s, but that does not make it, to my mind, a 00s show.

10) Life On Mars

Hooray!

09) Planet Earth

I never actually saw this, but it certainly deserved its place from the clips shown. I think this is going to be one to track down on Blue Ray when I finally go HD...

08) The Office

Strewth! Three deserving shows on the trot... surely things are looking up...!

07) The Simpsons

D'oh! No. Similar comments to Friends; yes, new episodes througout the 00s, yes, endless repeats throughout the 00s... but common consesnus is that the peak of Simpsons episodes was the mid-90s run, and it's been losing steam throughout the 00s... a point even made in the programme yesterday. Several times... Ho-hum...

06) The X Factor

Hmm... Certainly a phenomenon, but worthy of being so high...? Nope...

05) QI

Yeah... I can see this being worthy of being in the list, but not so high...

04) Britains Got Talent

Stone me, how anything with Piers "Morgan" Moron in it could get in this chart is beyond me...

03) Doctor Who

Hooray! Glad to see it here. Now, I know there will be some of you here that will cite the arguments I gave for # 7, 11 and 16 and say that for those arguments this should not be here... however, there is a difference. That difference is that the new, Russell T Davies, series of Dr Who is an entirely different production from that which went before; it's not a contiunation of the same processes, it's something entirely new and 00s. With 7, 11 & 16, you could interchange 00s and 90s episodes and there would be no real difference.

02) The Apprentice

This surprised me greatly; I can see an argument for it being in the top 20, but at #2...? I mean, I enjoy it, but would never have seen it placed so high.

It was, when watching, at this point I repeated my earlier prediction to The Mrs that The Wire would win. "We've gone the whole list, one left, and The Wire's not been on yet; it's #1." After all, why would you have Dominic West as a talking head if The Wire wasn't in the list.... So they announce the #1 and it's;

01) Top Gear

Hang on... Top Gear...? I can see it belonging in the top 20 list (see #3 argument, rather that 7, 11 & 16)), but at the very top...? Even Clarkson seemed surprised.

Frankly, at least half that list didn't belong there. How any such list could ignore Lost, which pisses on everything else the 00s had to offer from a great height is beyond me... (But that's my pure personal opinion).

Speaking more objectively, the omission of shows like The Wire, The Soparanos, The West Wing, or even Battlestar Galactica, from the list was quite shocking (and it should be noted that of those four shows, there's two I've never even seen an episode of; so it's not my own bias, just knowledge of shows with a high critical acclaim). I mean, Grand Designs better than The Wire...? Charlie Brooker is probably laying catatonic on that sofa of his, brain reduced to mush at the inanity of it.

It's unusual for me to agree with every position in such a list, but usually it's possible to understand the reasoning behind why shows are rated so high. Here... well, the mind is well and truly boggling...

"...don't ever tell anybody anything..."

The more I think about it, the more annoyed I get whenever I hear JD Salinger described as a "recluse". I just don't get it at all. A brief definition of a recluse, as filched from Wikipedia is;

"A recluse is someone in isolation who hides away from the attention of the public, a person who lives in solitude, i.e. seclusion from intercourse with the world."

Now, it strikes me that this is an entirely incorrect description of Mr Salinger. For one thing, all the while he's been living in New Hampshire, he's regularly seen in his home town doing all the things any ordinary person will do. If you can be bothered, you can search for all sorts of reports of sightings of him by people, be they fans or journalists, on the internet. Photos even. I don't like looking at the photos, so I never do. I remember when they did the top 100 books on the BBC a few years back, they did a segment on The Catcher in the Rye, and in that they showed some video footage of him going about his business. That really made me uncomfortable; it felt like an invasion of his privacy.

At least one of the books about him mentions trips made by him to London. Is that the action of a recluse?

I would suggest that there are plenty of people out there who go about their lives in a manner entirely similar to Mr Salinger; they live private lives, going about their business as they see fit.

The trouble is, that as Mr Salinger is seen as a public figure, by dint of his writing, that means the expectation is that he must, therefore, live his life in public as well. The celebrity culture we have insists that the minutiae of every celebrities life should be part of the whole parcel of that person; that we have a right to know. Know, there are certainly celebrities who cherish a lifestyle like that, going to the extent that they have cameras following them essentially filming their life story. Unfortunately, it does appear that the people who tend to want the most exposure are those who deserve it the least.

We have no right to know the details of any other person's life, unless they choose to tell us. Another person has no compulsion to give interviews, appear at showbiz parties, or do anything they don't want to do; and we have no right to demand it of them. Yes, we'd all love to see more writing from him; but we have no right to demand it of him. It is his choice, and we should respect it. Everyone has the right to a private life, and all Mr Salinger is doing is exercising that right.

He is a private individual; he is not a recluse.

Run 1

Saturday September 19th 2009.

Today I ran for the first time in over twenty years. When I say run I really mean run. That is, proper running. Not the sort of running you do when you realise your train's leaving in 42 seconds and you sprint to the platform to get it. I mean, proper running. Running for the fun of it.

"Ah," said Arthur, "this must be some strange usage of the word fun I wasn't previously aware of..."

There is, of course, a reason behind me running. Last Monday I put in an entry for the 2010 Reading Half Marathon, to be held March 21st 2010. That's 13.1 miles. For someone who hasn't ran in over twenty years (the last time being during PE lessons in the 80s; but more on these another time) that's one heck of leap.

So why did I do it?

To answer this question, we have to go back to the 2009 Reading Half Marathon. There we were, me and my daughter Maddie, stood watching the race go by. Part of the course goes just round the corner from where we live, so we went to have a look and to cheer people on, and to see if we could see a few of my work colleagues who were running. They they were, all manner of people running by. We were cheering them on. Maddie was especially cheering on anyone in pink or yellow (or even better; both) as they're her favourite colours. It was great.

Then, she looks up at me. And in the way that only small four year old children can do, she asks;

"Why aren't you in the race, daddy...?"

And I was stumped. I just could not think of a good reason why I didn't enter. So, I promised her I would enter the race the next year. I was half thinking that she might forget about this, and the idea could be quickly dropped. For anyone else thinking along these lines, I offer this piece of advice;

Never underestimate a child's ability to remember things you want them to forget.

So. She mentioned it again. And again. And again. There was no way out of it.

Unless, of course, I couldn't actually get a place in the race when the entries came out. After all, the London Marathon apparently fills its places within about 108 picoseconds of the entry list opening.

But, no. I got the email, and submitted an entry. And got back an email that said "Your entry into the Reading Half Marathon has been successful."

There's no way out now.

So, today, I went for my first run.

I had a route planned out. It was quite a short one, really, two miles. Round the block, more or less. I should have been able to do it quite easily, I thought. But, no. I start off well, going at a decent pace. It's not too bad at all. I can do this, I think. But then I get to about half a mile and already the old lungs are starting to feel a bit tight. I slow down a bit, but it's not enough, so slow to a walk. I walk a bit, then run a bit more, but realise that I'm really not going to do the whole course, so I cut off the end of it. Just over a mile and I start to regroup a little. Get a bit of a second wind, and start to think that I could have done the whole course. By the time I'm home, I'm feeling tired, but essentially quite good. The whole run was about 1.5 miles, over 16 minutes.

For a first run, it's not that bad at all. Not really. I could have had an asthma attack and died, I guess. One thing I think I do have to gauge is the difference between when the ol' asthma is affecting me, and when I'm out of breath due to the exercise. That will come with time.

Also, no music today; apparently listening to music whilst running can help give you that extra oomph. Maybe next time.

Anyhow, I'll end with the stats;

Run 1

Distance; 1.47 miles

Time taken; 16:07 mins

Average speed; 5.5 mph

Average heart rate; 152 bpm

Culmulative distance ran; 1.47 miles.

Culmulative time running; 16:07 mins

"...I sometimes feel I'm sweeping the nation..."

Just looking at this blog, I realise I've not updated in almost two months. I managed to go the whole of July without typing a word. I mean, it's not like the time since June 10th has been uneventful; it's been packed. New baby. New job. New Dr Who costume. Teasers for the last Season of Lost. It's not like I've had nothing to write about. Odd.

Other things I've not written include any kind of fiction. I keep on trying to start, but end up failing. I seem to be as productive as Douglas Adams (early 80s on) only I don't have a publisher to lock me in a hotel room and refuse to let me out until I've written something. I'm not even sure that would work. It's not like I don't have ideas. I do. But it's the whole process of taking those ideas, those vague character notions, the stories (I hesitate to use the word "plot"), and weaving it all together in to at something at least bearing a slight passing resemblance to a coherent whole.

Now, reading back through this blog post; it's not that bad. I'm churning it out at a fair old pace, it's largely (typos, and the odd change of word) unaltered. It's not like I've been moving around sentences, changing paragraph structure, or indeed really doing much more than just typing the first thing to come in to my head. But it's working. Well, in as much as this is just meant to be a throwaway blog post that'll be the electronic equivalent of chip-paper tomorrow. Heck, with the speed the web moves it'll probably achieve that status in an hour or so.

So, why, when I have a screen in front of me in which to type fiction, do I freeze? Unable to commit to putting a word down in front of me. Even though, pinned to the top of the monitor is a quote from Paul Cornell reading;

"Don't agonise about what you're going to write. Have an idea. Write it. It will be bad. Then you re-write until it's good."

It's brilliant advice. Concise. Clear. To the point. Yet, I cannot get around to writing anything. From memory, my total finished fiction output since starting to attempt to write things properly amounts to four short stories, and really only one of them is any good. 25%. Not a bad hit rate, really. Oh, there's loads of fragments, starts of things, things that go nowhere. Some of these fragments are even quite good. But, rightly, no-one cares for fragments; they care for the whole. 

I really, really, must get on with at least one of the ideas. So, I've been listing them in my notebook (that's olde worlde pen and paper notebook; not a 'puter), in the hope that something will spark off. Other ideas, and notions. I'll get there in the end. Sooner, or later. 

Probably later...

"...I have in my hand a piece of paper..."

It's not very often I talk about important topics on this blog; by important, I mean those things that can have a profound effect on people's lives. The Salinger post was rather important, but this one even more so.

Recently, the MP expenses scandal has been the main political story, overshadowing everything else. But, really, this pales in to insignificance when compared with what happened with the European elections last week. 

The BNP won two of the 72 seats in the UK. 

Their leader, Nick Griffin is now in a proper position of power and inlfuence. 

Frankly, given the choice between an expenses fiddling, home-flipping, duck house owning, mortgage free (yet claiming mortgage payments) chancer of an MP or Nick Griffin I'd take the former any day of the week. 

It is truly a sad day for this country that he, and his colleague, were elected to this  proper position of power and inlfuence. But, at the end of the day, as much as we may loathe and hate this, he was elected fairly and squarely and therefore must take up his position in Brussells. 

There are a number of issues at heart here. How on earth did he obtain enough votes to get in to office? The expenses scandal will have played the main part in this, with the Labour party especially suffering. I've heard people they expected the Tories to fiddle their expenses, but expected better from Labour. This rejection of the Labour party (the only party to lose seats) saw UKIP take joint second place with them (13 seats a piece). 

But, as I said before, Griffin has his seat fairly and squarely as a properly elected MEP. The question is what to do about it. I say this is what we do about it;

nothing

We just ignore him. 

Take his press conference in London yesterday. He turned up with his heavies, started making his speech, and in no time at all the protesters arrived and interupted him. He scuttled away, making a hasty exit. Then he was on BBC news decrying that his democratic right to free speech was curtailed by this mob (which, if you believe him - I don't - was organised by the Labour Party). The whole exercise appears to be a big piece of PR puff engineered to allow Griffin to appear as a poor suppressed individual, silenced by the mob. I swear, if you look at the footage on the BBC site of the incident, as the protesters arrive that he smiles a little smile, knowing that things will go as he always intended them to.

Now, imagine the following scenario;

Griffin arrives at the conference and is allowed to make his speech. But there are no protesters. Just one single TV camera, waiting for that moment when the mask slips and the real Griffin shines through. Other than that it's just him and his cronies. He's just stood there preaching to the converted, the handful of his supporters there and his heavies. It doesn't get reported as no-one cares. It passes without a thought.

But... that one camera. Sooner or later he'll slip up and the mask will slip off. Allowed to talk freely, sooner or later he'll give himself enough rope to hang himself. It'll happen. 

Every time he is spoken about gives him publicity. Even this blog post is giving him publicity. And I hate the thought of that. The fact that this individual is even in my thoughts saddens me. The thought that he will be one of this country's representatives in the European Parliament is saddening. But the worst thought of all is that people voted for him in large enough numbers to get him, fairly and squarely, elected to office. 

This is the fist post I have made about him. Wit luck, it will be the last.

"...if you really want to hear about it..."

Okay. Some people have crazy ideas. It happens. But there can be fewer crazier ideas than that of a certain "JD California" (not his real name!). His bright idea was to write a sequel to The Catcher in the Rye...

Now, call me Picky McPicky, the Pickiest Person in Pickyland, winner of the Gold Medal in the Olympics for Pickiness, but if I were ever to be interested in reading a Catcher in the Rye sequel, really, there's only one person I'd want to have written it, and that's JD Salinger. The characters contained within the book are his to do as he pleases. No-one else. 

So, this "JD California's" sequel, entitled "60 Years Later; Coming Through the Rye" again sees Holden Caulfield on the run, only this time it's not from his school. It's from his retirement home, where the setpugenarian Caulfield lives. And there also appears to me some element of meta-fiction in the book, as Salinger appears as a character within it, deciding whether or not to revive Holden's story. Hmm.

The question you have to ask about this book is a very simple, brief one; why? I mean, what is the point of it? Just because he got a publisher for it, what's really the difference between this book and any number of fan fiction Caulfield stories? None at all. As mentioned previously, there's only one person I'd be interested in seeing a Catcher sequel from...

It would appear that I'm in good company in not liking the idea of this book. A certain JD Salinger dislikes the idea also, and has taken legal steps to prevent its publication. I hope he wins. This chancer is standing on the shoulder of a giant; he knows there will be a certain number of people who will buy the book out of sheer curiousity as to what happened to Holden next. But whatever suggestions he posits on the book are irrelevant, and are no more important than my ideas, or your ideas, or anyone else but Salinger's. 

There is talk that Salinger may not be able to block the publication of the book, citing the case of the unauthorised sequel to Gone With the Wind which had a similar lawsuit taken out to prevent its publication by Margaret Mitchell's estate. This lawsuit failed, and the book was published (though, the estate got a cut of royalties). It strikes me that the main difference here is that Salinger is still alive, and therefore could argue that the publication of an unauthorised sequel could harm the market for any sequel he might desire to write. Though, of course, chances of such a sequel are slim.

However, surely the most salient point is that Holden Caulfield is Salinger's character; he owns the copyright in him (and indeed on all of the characters within the book). For someone to be allowed to take characters which belong to someone else, and exploit them in a way that their creator does not intend is clearly wrong. Now, as mentioned earlier fan fiction does exist; but this is small potatoes in comparison. Fan fiction is shared freely between fan communities, and no attempt is made to gain financially. It's a very niche section of any fandom, as there will always be plenty of fans who do not care for it at all. Indeed, I count myself among their number. The release, however, of a published book takes things to a different, higher, level. 

There are some very real issues at stake at the heart of this lawsuit; that of the right of the creator of a work to be able to control how it is exploited. If Salinger loses this case, this is a fundamental blow to the rights of creators of works of art. 

"...I heart you online..."

This song is a work of genius. Two girls sat on a bed. One singing, the other playing a ukelele... turn up the twee factor to eleven, please. 

I heart it (online) to bits... 

"...I sometimes feel I'm sweeping the nation..."

Oh, mere days after the Lost season finale and I am becoming ever more aware of how a junkie must feel if told he's got to wait something like 8 months for his next fix... 

But what of this blog? Surely it cannot have escaped your keen gaze that the number of entries here with the tag "Lost" is roughly the same as the four next most common tags put together... what will I write about? Never fear, oh faithful reader. (They always say you should address each reader as if they were the only reader; however, just between you and me, you really are the only reader...) There are many more things to write about. 

This is the shape of things to come;

There's that thing starting the next Bank Holiday Monday (that's next week, dude). There's my further plan to start up some kind of new fanzine. Really, this time I'll get it done. There's talk of the novel; which will mostly be me berating myself for lack of output, and the sub-standard quality thereof. And plenty of other TV shows. I'm behind on Dollhouse by four weeks, and behind on Fringe by pretty much the whole season. 

So, there's plenty for me to yak about...

"...it only ends once; anything that happens before that is just progress..."

In my last post, I commented on how Heroes really doesn't know how to do end of season episodes... they could do well to take a few hints from Lost which, conversely, does end of season episodes brilliantly. The Incident, the two part finale to Season 5, does not disappoint. 

Oh, where to begin, though... 

...the beginning. And at long last we get our first, genuine, look at the elusive Jacob. Here he engages in a conversation with another, un-named, chap, who appears to be his rival, and we learn that all the people who come to the island are there because of Jacob. He brings them there. In the specific case at the start of tthe episode, we see a boat - presumably The Black Rock - appraoch the island. In an echo of the Ben/Widmore conversation from season 4, it seems that the other chap - already dubbed MaybEsau on the interweb (Biblical reference...) - can't kill Jacob unless he finds a "loophole"... 

Intriguing is that Jacob is another ageless character (the first being Richard who says "I'm this way because of Jacob") who essentially looks the same in the Black Rock times, as the 70s, and through on in to 2007. He visits (and in each visit touches) various of the castaways. Kate, whilst shoplifting; Sawyer at his parents' funeral; Jack just after the operation on his wife; Sun and Jin at their wedding (the only time this season we see the two characters together); Sayid just before Nadia dies; Hurley, to get him on A316; and most  intriguingly Locke just after his plunge from 8 floors up... he is unconscious to start with, and when he gets Jacob's touch he wakes up. There has been much talk in the past of how someone or something had been manipulating the 815ers in order to get them on the island, and now it seems that we have this person. How exactly all this works... well, that remains to be seen.

Anyhow... as per recent times we have two parallel story thread; 1977 and 2007. 2007 concerns Locke's plan to meet, and get Ben to kill, Jacob. As well as this Ilana and Bram have a mysterious box with something interesting in it. "Terrific" says Frank as he is shown in it... As ever, we're kept waiting for the answer...

... which comes quite quickly. As Ben and Locke enter the room under what's left of the statue, we get probably the biggest shock of the episode. In the box is Locke's corpse. Now, it's a skill that a show can pull the same trick in two consecutive finales and still make it work... and work it does... 'cos if that's Locke in the box, who exactly has been walking around the island since the A316 crash...? We soon learn when Ben and notLocke meet Jacob. He talks of a loophole, and is clearly, somehow, the same person Jacob was talking to in the opening scene of the episode. But, again, how does it work? If we take it there are these two forces on the Island, Jacob and MaybEsau, which is for good and which for evil? And how are they connected? We've seen various other dead people appear on the island - Christian, Yemi, Alex, etc - are they all some manifestation of MaybEsau? When notAlex told Ben to do everything notLocke commanded was this because they were one and the same entity? Is this other entity the smoke monster?

Still, whatever, Ben does exactly as notLocke commands and kills Jacob. Or does he? They make a great play of the stabbing, and how when he's down he's kicked on to the fire, and catches fire. As if to somehow intend to be saying "he's not only merely dead, he's really most sincerely dead". So, I think we'll be seeing Jacob again next season...

Meanwhile in 1977 things are going as expected. Faraday's previous dictum, "whatever happened, happened" is once more evident. Whatever the 815ers do, the Incident will happen, and indeed it does. We get to see how Pierre Chang loses his arm. There's huge wodges of electromagnetism, the bomb is dropped... and doesn't go off. All sorts of metal things go rushing in to the drill pit... including some chains which wrap around Juliet who plunges down to what looks like certain death. There have been some comments that the way how Juliet is pulled down the hole is similar to how Smokey pulled Locke down a hole in Season 1. There's even a school of though that suggests that this incident is what leads to the creation of Smokey, and that Juliet is somehow turned in to it. Still. I think it's a load of baloney... 

And then we get to see Juliet, down in the pit. Still clinging to life. She bashes the bomb with a rock. It goes off and we fade to white. Black text "lost" on a white background. And we scream "NO YOU UTTER SWINES, YOU CANNOT END IT THERE!!!" at the television. This is the mark of a wonderful finale. It built the tension up wonderfully throughout to a - literally - explosive ending. And all the events occurring followed logically on from each other (unlike the Sylar/Nathan thing in Heroes), which makes it ever more satisfying. That we also got to see some key moments in the characters' hirstories - Sawyer starting to write his letter, Jack counting to five to let the fear out for the first time - was the icing on the cake. Just wonderful.

We now have an agonising wait until February next year for the final season. Those last 17 episodes. It's going to be a long wait, and I kind of want to be even more spoiler-phobic about these episodes. I've long since disliked spoilers, but haven't minded teasers, but I think for the final season coming to not even look at casting lists. As soon as they announce the regulars for the next season, and early guest casts it'll be obvious if Jacob, or Juliet, are actually dead or not. And, really, I don't want to accidentally find out the final ending before I see it on the telly. I may, for the duration of Season 6, go to almost complete internet exile. We'll see.

Still, if the accuracy of some of the "spoilers" for this finale are anything to go by, it won't matter as they'll pretty much all be baloney. Such as:

• Sawyer sacrificing himself for the greater good at some point during the incident. (Can you imagine the outrage if ol' shirtless were killed off and not be in Season 6?)
• A scene some time in the future whereby we see Aaron and Ji Yeon in their twenties getting married. (Which actually turned out to be a flachback to Sun & Jin's wedding...)
• An aged Jin, 30 years older, emerging from beneath the statue and being reunited with Sun. (Total tottenham...!!!)

I could list more, but... 

Still, it's going to be very interesting to see where they go from here. It's very hard to see what's going to happen next. According to Damon Lindelof, once you've seen the season 5 finale and the season 6 opener you will have enough information to hypothesise how the show will end. This is again another reason why I'm kind of wanting to avoid, at least Lost places on, the internet in the approach to Season 6. 'Cos someone will work it out, and whilst it will be mere speculation, I just don't want to know it. I want to work things out myself. Maybe the only Lost place I'll go is Lostpedia as they are very good about ensuring spoilers are not shown. We'll see. 

So, 17 to go. The last season. Let's just hope it doesn't go all Babylon 5...

As a coda to this post; one of the finest moments in the whole episode is the Rose & Bernard scene. The world and his lobster has wanted to see them again since they were last seen just before the time jumps started. It's a truly touching moment; the pair of them are clearly at peace with themselves, and are living a great life on the island. "We just care about being together; that's all that matters in the end" Bernard says. They're clearly unbothered by the hostiles; I can't imagine they do not know they are there. Maybe the hostiles realised that the pair of them want to live in harmony with the island, not exploit it, and are happy to leave them alone. It only ever appears to be those who wish to harm, or exploit, the island that the hostiles are... er... hostile to. The way the scene is played, I can't help but think this may be the last time we see the pair of them.

"...that hurt..."

Strewth. Heroes really can't do Season finales properly, can it? The end of Season 3 is really only the second "proper" season finale they've had (let's not forget that the "end" of Season 2 was only meant to be the mid-point of the season; and, ironically, ended up being the best "finale"). Season 1 had it's somewhat anticlimactic fight at the Kirby Plaza; blink and you almost missed it. Which was a shame, as everything up until that point was pretty much superb. But, in terms of massive suckiness, it pales in comparison to the guff that is the Season 3 finale...

...oh, and I suppose I should interject here and state the blimmin' obvious; from this point on there are massive spoilers. Oh, and later on I'll be talking Lost episode 100, The Variable, and there will be massive spoilers there, too...

...so, of you've not seen them, don't read on...

...again, to start with it was going so well. Ever since Bryan Fuller came back, the show has really got back on track (even if that did mean one of the better characters, Daphne, being killed off in order that Janice could make a comeback). So, high hopes for the finale. And it started off so well; a great deal of tension being built up, with a great sense of danger that someone would be killed. Sadly, the lack of budget showed in a couple of places, most notably the Peter & Nathan vs Sylar fight which consisted of a bit of blue light shining through a door. Hmm... but we'll forgive them this one. Clearly the big Peter vs Sylar fight we've been leading up to since Season 1 is still to come.

Then we get the episodes big shock moment; Sylar slitting Nathan's throat and killing him dead. I mean, proper dead. Ange even says he's dead. Dead is dead is dead. And suddenly you think Sylar's going to win; he's going to get to the President and bosh...

...and there he is in the car with the Pres. But we get the biggest "YES!" punch-the-air moment as he turns in to Peter who injects Sylar with a trank. Beaten by his own game, with the powers Peter presumably took from him in the fight earlier. But before you know it... here comes the utter wank moment. The bit where, after crafting a wonderful work of art you think that the best thing you can do with it is to put it on the floor, drop your trousers and do a big shit on it. They turn Sylar in to Nathan...

...somehow, Matt is able to force Sylar to change his appearance in to Nathan (well, he did have the shape shifting powers), supress all Sylar's memories, and keep only the memories of Nathan that Sylar acquired by using the "touch an object and get memories" power... So, Sylar - to all intents and purposes - becomes Nathan. *sigh* Bunch of utter wank. And why didn't they inject Nathan's corpse with Claire's blood? It cured him before. It cured Noah when he'd been shot in the brain. Surely rather than go through all that bollocks with Sylar, that should have been the first thing they tried. It's not as if she'd have said "no". I mean, the guy's her bio-dad and all... 

Anyhow, this Nathan/Sylar malarkey is, of course, going to lead to a most predictable plot (and one which any buffoon could see coming even before the teaser with Nathan and the clock) whereby Sylar will internally fight Nathan for control of the body. A Jekyll and Hyde kind of plot...

Far more interesting is whatever will happen to Hiro now? And how come Tracy can now turn in to water...? Also, it's a shame Greg Beeman's no longer on the show; his blog, with all sorts of behind the scenes chat, and photos and so on was an essential visit every week... 

Much better this week was episode 100 of Lost, entitled The Variable. At last we got to see Daniel again, who had been absent since the first episode since they on-island Losties ended up in 1974. There was another unsurprising reveal that his mum is Eloise Hawking, also that she was the "Ellie" in the Jughead episode, also that his dad is Charles Widmore. All things that had been guessed quite some time ago. Still, it was good to see them confirmed. 

In his time off island, Daniel's clearly come to think that his previous hypothesis that "whatever happened, happened" may be flawed; he thinks that the Losties can change the past as they are the variables in the equation. The people that are not constants... now it does seem to me that this new hypothesis is the flawed one. They were always clearly meant to be there. Whatever things they do in 1977 have already happened (from the perspective of the time frame of the crash and Oceanic 6 etc), so whatever they do to try to change things is doomed to failure as everything will happen as it always did. 

This is best illustrated by the episodes big shock moment. Daniel getting a bullet in the chest and dying. Killed by his own mother (though, before she ever conceived him... time travel, don't you just love it...). Every action Eloise has made subsequent to shooting him was made with the knowledge that at some day in the future she would have a son, that he would do certain things, that he would be a scientist, go to the island, go back in time, and one day in 1977 be shot dead. There was nothing she, or even Charles, could do to stop this. It has happened. It will happen again. "All this has happened before and will happen again" was a phrase that cropped up again in Battlestar Galactica, but really it's far more appropriate for Lost. As the show moves towards the season finale, and the Incident it's clear that whatever Jack et al do in 1977 to stop the Incident occurring, it will happen. Their actions or inactions will cause it. 

One thing comes to mind though; there's the video of Dr Chang recording a message in 1977 (age of the baby Miles means it can't be any earlier), and the camerman of this is thought to be Daniel (his voice is heard). So, when was this recorded? 

What's left of the Season is going to be very interesting. It's still hard to see exactly how those on the Ajira flight will connect with the 1977 characters, or indeed what they're doing there. Ilana and Bram are the most intriguing as they are clearly there for a reason, but what is that reason? And will we get that Sun and Jin reunion this season? 

"..you’re free to leave whenever you want; but I’ll shoot you in the leg..."

We all knew that The Island in Lost was special; that it had healing powers, and that there were many things about it that are strange indeed. I never realised it had the power to move bullet wounds. Next time you watch the latest episode of Lost, episode 11 of the fifth season, Whatever Happened, Happened, pay heed to the side of the chest that Sayid shoots Young Ben (it's in the recap of the previous episode) and then compare and contrast with where the would is when Jin turns him over... 

Anyhow. Small potatoes...

Much of the last few episodes has been relatively sedate, doing what Lost does so well; really getting under the skin of the characters. However, this episode is clearly a transitory one. Going from the character stuff, building up to the season finale. 

This is one of those episodes that mixes the emotions so well. Any scene this episode with Miles and Hurley is practically a sit-com. Miles' efforts to explain how the time travel to Hurley are brilliant. Though, really, it's hard to fathom how Hurley isn't grasping how it's all working. Young Ben can't die as they know he lives to become Big Ben. But any of the characters who've gone back in time can, as their fate is not known. Hardly rocket science...

So, Young Ben can't die. Jack clearly knows this, as he refuses point blank to save Ben. He's ascribing to the Faraday theory that "whatever happened, happened". So, whatever Jack does or does not do, Ben lives. So Jack refuses to help. Kate, and Sawyer, however have to help; he's just a kid, and you don't let a kid die; no matter what he grows up to be. 

And, yet, whatever happened, happened. The way things are going it's obvious that the way how Big Ben turns out is a direct consequence of the actions (or inactions) taken here by Sayid, Jack, Kate and Sawyer. When Ben's handed over to Richard, and taken in to the temple, that's where he becomes the Ben we know of old. And what exactly will happen to him in the temple? And what will Smokey have to do with things? It just gets more and more intriguing...

Intriguingly just before he's taken in to the temple, one of Richards people notes that Ellie and Charles will freak out if they find out; Richard retorts that he doesn't answer to them. Are Ellie and Charles somehow in charge of Richard's people - the Hostiles? And is he less than impressed at this? We know Ben will eventually lead these people, overthrowing Charles (and presumably Ellie?) and banishing him (and her?) from the island. Could this all be at Richard's instigation?

Other aspects of the episode were a little predictable; Aaron being left with Claire's mum was pretty much the favourite explanation for where he was. The only really surprising thing was that Kate's reason for going back was, essentially, to rescue Claire and bring her back. The sheer effort it must have taken for her to come to that conclusion, and to give away the child she'd been looking after the last three years must have been overwhelming. No wonder she orders Jack never to mention Aaron's name. 

So. 11 down. 6 to go this season (and 23 more overall). Next week's looks like a corker. It's centred around Ben - both small and big - and we get to see Smokey again. 

"...take a look at the law man..."

Earlier today, I saw one of the funniest things I've seen in ages; the conclusion to the US version of Life on Mars. Now, I had reservations about the ending of the UK version... but they were minor in comparison to how the US version ends.

For the most part, the last episode is relatively straightforward. Some guff about Sam's dad, who gets shot dead by Gene Hunt (who, here is played by Harvey Keitel; who would have been about the right age for the part circa when he filmed Reservoir Dogs, but now...?). And all is going well. The plot threads are resolved. Sam & Annie get together, and she gets promoted. Then Sam and Gene embrace and the picture breaks up.

To start with I think it's the file. But no.

Oh, and before I go on; I really should point out that from here on in there are spoilers.

Really big spoilers.

And, if you do decide to read on, I promise you that all that follows is what actually happens. I am not winding you up.

So... the picture breaking up is a proper part of the episode.

We see Sam wake up, and he's in some kind of a pod, and he's in a blue uniform. And he's on a spaceship. Just arriving at Mars...

...you see, it turns out he's an astronaut, in 2035, on mission to find life on Mars; looking for genetic material. They're on a gene hunt. No, really, that's actually used as a genuine line in the show.

Whilst they've been in some kind of a suspended animation, they've been using virtual reality simulations to stimulate their minds. Sam's was to be a cop in 2008, but there was a glitch when they went through some asteroids and the program transposed him to 1973...

...and get this; his fellow astronauts are the characters from 1973; Ray, Chris, Annie, and Gene. But they're all a little different to how they appeared in 1973. It's almost as if someone had seen the Red Dwarf episode Back to Reality.

But there's more.

It turns out that "Gene's" real name is...

...and no, I'm not making this up...

...really...

"Gene's" real name is... Major Tom. And the absolute cherry on top of the cake is that Tom is Sam's real dad... (which is clearly supposed to resonate with Gene killing Sam's "1973 dad" earlier in the episode; unfortunately this is subdued by the peals of laughter.)

I promise; I'll never criticise the UK version again...

"...awaiting an audience..."

Ah... Skins... what were they doing with that ending...? That last episode (which rather annoyingly completed excluded the twins, Naomi, Panda and Thomas) ended with somewhat of an anticlimax. The first had ended with that wonderful Tony gets hit by a bus (or was it a car? I forget now) cliffhanger, and the really odd "Wild World" moment. Season 2 ends with you just willing Sid to find Cassie, with that moment where they're so close to each other... and you just don't know if he's going to turn his head (and, of course Time to Pretend - but more on music in a minute)... and there's that cut to Effy in bed with a smile that oozes the same kind of charm and menace as Malcolm McDowell at the very start of A Clockwork Orange... but Season 3...

That last episode was actually a very good one. It brought to a head all of the things that had been bubbling throughout the season. Seeing Cook's dad really helped you understand the reasons as to why Cook is the way he is; the two Cooks were two peas in a pod, behaving in essentially exactly the same manner as each other. Cook Sr even tries to hit on Effy. There were so many things that were right about the episode. Perfect blend of drama and humour throughout (the Granny steeplechase was a partcicular highlight). But the ending... the boat speeds away.No-ones saying anything. They've reached some kind of understanding, and appear to have all made up. Though Cook looks a little contemplative. And finally Freddie says... "So, what do we do now?" And that's it. It just felt so underwhelming. It's almost as if they weren't confident of getting a Season 4, and decided to leave all the storylines at a place where if this occurred there would be some kind of a conclusion. It just felt a weedy way to end the season, and if there's one thing Skins never normally is, it's weedy. Even when there are things that are utter wank, it's never weedy.

Oh, and the last line is (almost) the same as the last line of the last episode of the last season of Buffy...

One thing I must also mention about Skins is the music. Back at the end of Season 2, the last couple of minutes of the action (from Sid arriving in NY) and over the end credits, they played a wonderful track; that was Time to Pretend by MGMT. And I found myself adoring, so I went out and bought the album. I immediately wished I hadn't as most of the album is tosh. Time to Pretend remains the only track from it I've ripped to my MP3 player. 

So, at the end of the first episode of this season when I heard the track playing over the end credits, I downloaded the album to see if the rest of it was any good. Within a day, I'd ordered all three CDs that band had released, so impressed I was with the one I d/led. This band is Asobi Seksu, and you must buy all three of their albums. Though, if you want to try just the one, get Citrus. I haven't been this excited about a band in ages, and the more I listen to them, the more I love them. Sheer beauty!

(Note; if you're waiting for my regular Lost post, it'll be up here when I've seen the episode a second time. There's a few things to say about this one...!)

"...Namaste, new recruits..."

I actually find myself with very little to say about the last two episodes of Lost, Namaste and He's Our You, as they're both relatively straightforward episodes. Just, really, a handful of points;

It was good to see Radzinksky at last, and even better to see his model of The Swan, which in 1977 had yet to be built. However... Pierre Chang, in his introduction to new Dharma recruits which we saw in Season 3 when Ben arrived on the island as a small boy (now dated to 1973), was wearing a Swan patch on his clothes...

Another point is that Sayid is meant to be trained in the art of the assasin. We see him giving the Russian bloke a double-tap (that is, two shots in quick succession). Yet, when he shoots the young Ben, he just shoots him once. Why not a double-tap? And knowing how slippery a fellow Ben is, and how he keeps on getting out of sticky situations etc, why not also just make sure with a shot to the head at point blank range...

...'cos there's no way Ben's dead from that shot. Not a chance in the world. 

"...others, others, others, OTHERS..."

Okay. So, in some sort of effort to pretend that this blog isn't really just a Lost blog at the moment, here are some thoughts on TV shows other than Lost:

Skins

My opinion (see previous posts) of Cook really hasn't changed. I'm still hoping for something bad to happen to him. I just can't work him out, though. He's odd. His reaction to when Naomi spurned him was unexpected; I expected anger, but instead he was very calm and cool, and even indifferent. Odd. Still, we're clearly building up to something. 

Whilst I'm still loving this season, I'm finding I'm loving it less than previous seasons. I do still miss Cassie et al, and although this new lot are a decent enough bunch, I'm not really sure they gel as a group. Like previous seasons, it does veer between absolute genius and utter wank. The episode with the school elections at one stage seemed to be heading towards making a point about how politics these days is all about personalities and not policies; but it never quite got there. We just got a riot, which didn't work at 

Still, overall it remains well worth watching...

Battlestar Galactica

BSG is nearing the end of its run now; three episodes to go by my reckoning. Again, this is a show that veers between absolute genius and utter wank, and I've never quite been able to figure out why. Until a day or so ago. Broadly speaking you can tell how good an episode is depending on which of these categories it fits in;

1 - militaristic episodes where either the Cylons are on the attack, there's a threat of attack, or there are factions within the fleet causing trouble; episodes like 33, or the Pegasus 2-parter, or the New Caprica arc, or the recent mutiny. They have all been stunning examples of great drama. Episodes that have kept you on the edge of your seat, and left you gasping for breath at the audacity of the things that are happening. The second of the mutiny episodes was breathtaking, it completely floored me. This is BSG on top form.

2 - any episode that focuses on prophecies, or Caprican Gods, or the Cylon God or any kind of mystical gumph. Sometimes I lose the will to live when watching these. They're not always all bad, but there always seems to be way too much padding. I mean, how many times do we have to see sodding visions of a Six taking Hera away...? Puh-lease!

And this is the fear I have for the forthcoming finale; that it will veer too far towards the latter, and not close enough to the former. 

Law & Order: UK

Strewth! This moves at one heck of a pace. There's enough plot in each episode for a 4 hour Lynda La Plante style mini-series. Sometimes you can blink, miss a scene, and miss a vital plot point. Still, for what it is, it's enjoyable hokum. 

Neighbours

I'll miss Harold. Ramsey Street won't be the same without Jelly Belly... : (

Lost

Oh, okay, I know I wasn't meant to speak about Lost here, but... 

...the promo pictures that have been realeased for the next episode of Lost are very intriguing...

 (Those of a really sensitive disposition towards spoilers should look away; even though what I'm about to say isn't really what I would call a spoiler; it's what I would call a teaser, in that it will tell you a little information about the episode, but gives no context.)

...they show Sayid, as expected in 1977. However, there is a shot showing Sun with Ben and Frank. So, she must somehow be in 2008 in the same time frame as the Ajira plane. Now, the question that this raises is this; why did Kate, Hurley, Jack and Sayid get caught in the time-flash that occurred as the plane approached the island, and Sun didn't? My presumption was that the time-flash affected the O6, which was why Ben wasn't caugt in it. Locke didn't go either as at that time he was still "dead". But an O6 split... that puts a different spin on it. It couldn't be at all contrived to give a delay to a Sun & Jin reunion, could it...?