DAMN Good Television -- STAR TREK: DISCOVERY - "The Vulcan Hello"

It's time to go back to the final frontier.

After twelve long years, Star Trek finally returned to television with last night's premiere of Star Trek: Discovery on CBS.  If you haven't seen the show's first episode yet and you don't want it spoiled for you, then please step back from your computer or whatever electronic device you're reading this on and stop reading now.  If, however, you're wise enough to know that reviews with spoilers are always more interesting than the ones without them...well...live long and prosper.

As many of you know, it's been a rough road for Discovery, or STD if you're feeling a bit snarky.  The show was first announced by CBS in November 2015, with an original premiere date of January 2017, and immediately found resistance with the additional news that every episode after the first would only be shown on CBS' "We want to be like Netflix" subscription service, CBS All Access.  In February 2016, Trek fans received some encouragement with the announcment that former Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager writer Bryan Fuller would serve as showrunner, because hey, bringing in the former showrunner of Hannibal, Dead Like Me, Heroes, and Pushing Daisies seems like a really good idea.  Oh, and let's just add Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country director Nicholas Meyer as a writer and consulting producer, and Rod Roddenberry, son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, while we're at it.

Well, the show started running over its per-episode budget, and Fuller was busy dividing his time with his other new show American Gods, leading to the series' debut being pushed back to May 2017.  Fuller's choice for the lead role of Michael Burnham, Sonequa Martin-Green, was finally selected after a difficult casting process, but she wouldn't be released by AMC from her contract with The Walking Dead until her character was killed off in April 2017, meaning yet another delay.  In October 2016, CBS asked Fuller to step down as showrunner, although he would remain as an executive producer to keep a hand in the production.  Akiva Goldsman, often the scourge of sci-fi fans for his previous work, joined the series as a supporting producer, while Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts were made the new showrunners.  In May 2017, Discovery was formally presented at the CBS upfronts with a first season of 15 episodes, split between episodes 8 and 9 to give the second half more time for completion, and soon received the new premiere date of September 24, 2017.

And that's the short version.

So, with all that creative behind-the-scenes chaos, what was the final result?  Set in 2256, roughly ten years before the original Star Trek series, "The Vulcan Hello" begins, rather awkwardly, with a Klingon named T'Kuvma preaching to a group of Klingons to "remain Klingon" and unify under the religious teachings of Kahless. These Klingons aren't the human-looking offshoots from the original series, nor the armored, hairier versions from the Star Trek films and the era of Star Trek: The Next Generation.   No, these Klingons are bald with distorted faces and mouths full of marbles as the actors struggle with long sequences of speaking Klingon with mouth makeup appliances.  Even hardcore Trek fans who understand Klingon are probably thankful for the subtitles.

We cut to the First Officer Michael Burnham and Captain Phillippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) of the Starfleet vessel U.S.S. Shenzhou, who are on a desert planet looking for a well. There's a race on the brink of extinction from a storm and Starfleet is trying to save them. Georgiou says she believes it is time for Burnham to get her own command.and quizzes her on what she would do if they were stranded.  Burnham says she would adapt to fit in, while Georgiou says she would simply escape.  The scene provides an interesting contrast between the two, but also shows their close friendship that ends up being severely tested later on.

After the two are picked up by the Shenzhou, thanks to Captain Georgiou's apparent superpower of creating a perfect, gigantic Starfleet symbol by leading Burnham through desert stand during a storm, we see the Discovery opening credits.  Jeff Russo, who did some impressive work on FX's Legion, turns in a solid theme that borrows just enough from the original Alexander Courage Star Trek theme while remaining distinctive.  The visuals, meanwhile, are surprisingly unusual for a Star Trek series, essentially an animated design sketchbook that look very artistic, as one might expect from a Bryan Fuller series, but fail to capture any sense of exploring space.

Next, a First Officer's log entry informs us that the Shenzhou is investigating a relay that was damaged while orbiting a binary star.  We see the bridge and are introduced to Science Officer Lieutenant Saru (Doug Jones), a new alien called a Kelpian that was presumably created to be Discovery's "alien exploring humanity" character similar to Spock and Data. Right from the start, Saru and Burnham show a contentious relationship as both officers attempt to impress Captain Georgiou.  The Shenzhou picks up some readings and struggles to pinpoint the source, with a sensory dead zone blocking the ship's ability to bring up an image.  Burnham suggests that something is lurking is out there and suggests going outside to do a flyby to investigate the source for herself.

Now that we're in space, we really see Fuller's influence on the series.  The production values look top-notch and positively stunning, easily making Discovery the best-looking Star Trek series to date.  Actually, it's possible the visuals look too good, because if you recall, Discovery is set between Star Trek: Enterprise and the original Star Trek, but the Shenzhou bridge looks far more advanced than anything Next Gen, DS9 or Voyager had to offer.

Donning a Starfleet thruster suit, Burnham allows herself to laugh with excitement as she rockets towards the source.  She eventually stops after losing contact with the Shenzhou but sees some kind of structure.  Burnham records that the structure is very old, centuries old, a singular, uninterrupted form that may have been carved rather than built, appearing as stone with metal outer alloy.  Burnham uses her boots to connect to the structure and it responds by fanning out.  A proximity alert sounds in Burnham's suit, as a Klingon in an armored suit suddenly attacks her with a bat'leth.  As the Shenzhou attempts to transport Burnham back aboard, we see that Burnham's helmet is damaged, with the First Officer unconscious and floating through space.

After a commercial break, we find T'Kuvma preaching over the dead body of the Klingon "Torchbearer", who T'Kuvma says was murdered by the Federation.  He asks their ancestors to welcome him into the "Black Fleet" as they fight their enemy.  So at this point, you're probably asking yourself "What happened after Burnham was attacked?" and the simple answer is, we don't know.  We may never know, but something happened between the Torchbearer's initial attack and him ending up all kinds of dead and ready to join the Black Fleet.  A deliberate oversight, paying off down the road perhaps?

While Burnham is unconscious and recovering on the Shenzhou, we get a flashback of her as a child on Vulcan, taking a test at the Vulcan Learning Center.  She answers correctly until a question about a Klingon attack makes her emotional.  Sarek (Yep, Spock's father, now played by James Frain) offers her guidance, telling her to rely on logic when "ghosts from the past" haunt her.  We later learn that Sarek apparently took Burnham in after a Klingon attack killed her parents and raised her on Vulcan.  The revelation is important, not only as a controversial retcon that Spock had an adopted sister we never heard about, but also that Burnham has a Vulcan background that influences her thinking.

Burnham suddenly wakes up, still covered in radiation burns, and goes to the bridge, where she's stunned that no one is freaking out about the Klingons.  Georgiou reminds her that nobody has seen a Klingon in a hundred years and tries to get her to go back to Sickbay. Realizing that she killed her Klingon attacker, Burnham suddenly wants to target the Klingon structure to make them think they will attack, while Saru instinctively wants to retreat.  A Klingon ship abruptly decloaks in front of them and the Shenzhou attempts communication.

On board the Klingon vessel, T'Kuvma calls on the Torchbearer's brother to take over. Another Klingon, an albino named Voq who claims to be of no family, steps forward.  He expresses his faith in "the light of Kahless", burning his right hand in the flame to prove himself.  T'Kuvma says he sees himself in the outcast albino.  He gives his own blade to Voq and names him Torchbearer.

After Saru reveals that his people evolved on a planet with a binary food system, where they were prey and evolved to sense death, he explains that he senses death coming.  Thanks, Mr. Ominous.  Georgiou confers with a Starfleet admiral, joined by Burnham.  Burnham suggests the only option is to fight, but the admiral orders them to remain in place because the Europa and other Starfleet ships will be there soon.  That's all well and good, until a tremendously bright light from outside the ship blinds their optical sensors and a sharp noise pierces the crew's ears.

Burnham realizes the light flare and the sound are a signal and thinks the Klingons might be calling for backup.  She decides to leave the bridge, in the middle of a crisis, and begins a holographic transmission to Sarek.  (Anyone wondering why the original Star Trek didn't have holographic transmission yet?)   Burnham explains what happened, and Sarek thinks it's odd for them to be calling for backup since the Klingon empire has been in disarray for some time.  Sarek believes there is a Klingon leader looking to instigate war to gain political favor.  Burnham asks how Vulcans accomplished diplomatic relations with the Klingons, but Sarek warns her the tactic may not work for humans.

Coming back to the bridge, Burnham suggests firing on the Klingons.  She explains that the Vulcans manage to gain the respect of the Klingons and achieve peace only through a show of violence.  Captain Georgiou rejects her suggestion, causing Burnham to make an unexpectedly emotional outburst that forces Georgiou to pull her into the ready room.  Yes, let's go off and have a quick sidebar conversation while everything is about to go to hell.

Hitting the privacy mode option on her office windows, Georgiou chastises Burnham for her sudden eagerness to battle the Klingons and starts to talk her down, until Burnham suddenly knocks her out with a Vulcan nerve pinch.  Wait...What?  Burnham returns to the bridge and takes command, outright lying that Georgiou is busy talking with the admiral. Burnham gives the order to fire on the Klingons, but Georgiou arrives on the bridge and aims her phaser directly at Burnham.  At that moment, the Shenzhou picks up warp signatures as more Klingon vessels arrive in the area, and...

To be continued on CBS All Access for the price of $5.99 a month.  Thanks a lot, CBS.

As the first episode of a Star Trek series, "The Vulcan Hello" is decidedly different.  We're only introduced to four characters, two of which aren't even going to be members of the Discovery crew.  Oh, and we haven't even seen the Discovery yet.  More spoilers, we don't see it in the second episode, either, so we'll have to wait for the regular series dynamic with the rest of the main cast.  

And yes, the adjustment from an episodic to a serialized storytelling format is a big one for Star Trek, especially for a fanbase that typically hates change, but I have to think it's time to try something new and Discovery seems ready to do just that.  Let's hope that this latest look backward actually moves Star Trek forward into the future...

DAMN Good Television -- TWIN PEAKS: "The Return, Parts 1 & 2"

It is happening again.

At long last, Twin Peaks is back in all its surreal glory, but are you ready?  If you haven't seen the show's first two episodes yet and you don't want them spoiled for you, then please step back from your computer or whatever electronic device you're reading this on and stop reading now.  If, however, you're wise enough to know that reviews with spoilers are always more interesting than the ones without them...well...LET'S ROCK.

As foretold by Laura Palmer in the original Twin Peaks series finale, David Lynch and Mark Frost's saga of sex, murder and the supernatural returned to television last night, 25 years (and change) since we last saw FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper smashing his forehead into his hotel room bathroom mirror and revealing that he had been possessed by the dark, otherworldly entity known as BOB.  This unresolved cliffhanger (among others) has haunted the souls of many Twin Peaks fans (including myself) for over two and a half decades, and now...now we have a chance for some answers.

Or, as it turns out, a whole bunch of new questions.  

Showtime's revival of the 1990-91 cult classic is pure Lynch, embracing his dark and twisted Eraserhead roots and not anywhere close to phoning it in.  If you expected a standard TV reunion where you get to see your favorite characters again in a simple nostalgia fest, you're in for a rude awakening.  A ton of new characters are introduced, new WTF mysteries are in play, and most importantly, Lynch and Frost don't care if you're a Peaks Noob that needs to be caught up on what happened before.

"The Return" begins with brief flashback teaser where Laura Palmer told Cooper he would see her again in 25 years, and then get the new opening credits.  Because this is 2017, the original two minute, thirty second opening has been chopped in half to one minute fifteen, but the new overhead shot of Snoqualmie Falls looks glorious in HD and Angelo Badalamenti's theme remains untouched.  We see the billowing red curtains from the Black Lodge, followed by a dizzying CGI pan across the zigzag Black Lodge floor that sums up "The Return" perfectly -- familiar, yet different from what you remember, and very disorienting at times.

The tone of the new series is distinctly more serious, along the lines of the movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, but there are moments of quirky, offbeat humor that remind you of what made the original series so endearing.  Classic characters Dale Cooper, The Giant, and Dr. Lawrence Jacoby reassure us this is still the same series, and then we get our first new subplot, a strange glass box hooked up to machinery in a top secret facility located in New York.  New character Sam Colby is tasked with constantly watching the box, simply to see if anything appears, which he does until a young woman named Tracy turns up with coffee.  With the security guard missing, Sam invites Tracy in to keep him company which ultimately leads to the two having sex.  The box begins to turn black, however, and a terrifying creature appears inside before breaking free and hacking them to ribbons in a moment of pure, unbridled horror.  Once again, sex leads to terrible violence on Twin Peaks.

More horrible images follow, as a woman named Ruth is found dead in her apartment, her head completely severed and left on the bed pillow, but with a headless man's body placed underneath the covers.  The fingerprints of a local high school principal named Bill Hastings are found all over the room, which leads to his quick arrest.  Placed in a holding cell, Hastings tells his wife he had a dream he killed Ruth, but swears up and down he didn’t do it.  His wife doesn’t believe him, and Bill has the same shaken look Laura Palmer's father Leland had in the original series, so we know how that turned out.

We then catch up with BOB, still joyriding in Dale Cooper's body 25 years later.  BOB, it turns out, has remade Cooper's body in his image -- long hair, tanned skin, etc. -- and has made a life in South Dakota doing all kinds of seedy activities of pain and sorrow.  It turns out that BOB is expected to return to the Black Lodge, but of course, BOB isn't ready to go back just yet and has other plans.

We also catch up with more old friends at the Twin Peaks Sheriff Department, as we learn Andy and Lucy Brennan now have a 24-year-old son named Wally.  Deputy Chief Hawk gets some foreboding warnings about Cooper from the Log Lady, who is heartbreaking as we see actress Catherine Coulson looking frail with an oxygen tube shortly before she passed away in real life.  Hawk goes to Glastonbury Grove, seeing that unsettling circle of sycamore trees and hinting that he may be the one that pieces together what happened to Cooper all those years ago.

Laura makes good on her 25-year promise and sees Cooper once again in the Black Lodge, kissing him and whispering something into his ear in a recreation of the famous dream sequence from Episode 3 of the original series.  Laura tells Cooper it's finally time for him to leave the Black Lodge, then we see Mike the one-armed man introduce Cooper to what I can only described as an electrified tree that Mike calls "the evolution of the Arm", the Man from Another Place from the original series.  Hey, The Man from Another Place did say "When you see me again, it won't be me," right?

Things take an even darker turn when Laura tells Cooper "I am dead...and yet I live" then removes her face briefly to reveal blinding white light.  Suddenly, the Black Lodge begins to shake and tremble, Laura in particular, and it appears as though something came through the roof/ceiling and ripped Laura away.  Leland appears, tasking Cooper to "Find Laura", and then all hell breaks loose when the Electric Tree's doppelganger opens up the Lodge's zigzag floor and flushes Cooper downward into water, ultimately spitting him out in, yes, the mysterious glass box from earlier.  And presumably, this means the creature that hacked Sam and Tracy to bits was the Electric Tree's doppelganger.

As Cooper ends up resuming his descent into wherever on the way out of the Black Lodge, the second episode starts wrapping up with Laura's mother Sarah watching a seriously violent nature show at home, perhaps leading to another of her visions.  This is followed by a return to the Bang Bang Bar, a.k.a. the Roadhouse, where we learn that the bar is now a place where Twin Peaks hipster millennials hang out with their Generation X parents to listen to bands like the Chromatics.  The sole purpose of this scene seems to be to reintroduce classic characters Shelly Johnson and James Hurley, and close out the second episode on a more upbeat note.

But...yeah, all kinds of questions abound.  Who's financing the scientific research into the Black Lodge?  What's happening with Dale Cooper?  What happened to Laura?  What the F#@% were the Electric Tree and its doppelganger?  What's the deal with Bill Hastings? When will the FBI become involved again?  Where's Audrey, Bobby, Big Ed and Norma?  Is Invitation to Love still on?  And when are we finally going to see the White Lodge?  

Sixteen more hours to go.  I can't wait to enjoy the ride.

DAMN Good Television -- DAREDEVIL: "Into the Ring"

It's been a long, hard road for fans of Marvel Comics' Daredevil, but finally, the devil has been given his due.

Back in October of 2012, the Daredevil film rights reverted to Marvel Studios after 20th Century Fox was unable to get a second film into production since their mostly disappointing 2003 film starring Ben Affleck.  Marvel fans rejoiced at the news, even more so when Netflix announced one year later that they would release four TV series starring Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist, leading up to a miniseries event called The Defenders.

The first thirteen episodes of Daredevil premiered late last night, with the opening episode written by former showrunner and current consultant/executive producer Drew Goddard.  As the series opens, we get a flashback to the day young Matt Murdock loses his eyesight after saving a man from getting hit by a runaway truck.  The chaotic scene is fundamental to Daredevil lore and immediately hooks the viewer as we learn that the truck carried barrels containing toxic chemicals that splashed into Matt's eyes.  What really sells this opening scene is the horror Matt experiences as his sight quickly fades into permanent blindness.

Switching to the present, we see the adult Matt talking to a priest in confession, introducing the character's Irish-American Catholic background and giving us our first impression of Charlie Cox as Matt.  We get some background on Matt's father, the boxer known as Battlin' Jack Murdock, but what's most interesting here is that Matt isn't confessing his past sins, he's confessing the sins he's about to do.

The next thing we see is Matt's superhero playground in Hell's Kitchen, New York, where Matt is now wearing the black semi-ninja costume and eyeless bandana mask from the comic book limited series Daredevil: The Man Without Fear by Frank Miller and John Romita, Jr.  Daredevil (or at this point, the future Daredevil) proceeds to take out a bunch of men forcing girls into a van as part of human trafficking.  The fight is brutal and messy, giving us a brief taste of Daredevil's penchant for billy clubs as Matt frees the girls after taking a pounding in the process.

We're then introduced to Elden Henson as Matt's legal partner and best friend, Franklin "Foggy" Nelson.  Matt and Foggy are starting up their practice, so Foggy meets with a former childhood friend named Brett who's now an officer for the NYPD.  Bribing him with a bag of cigars for his mother, Foggy arranges for Brett to tip him off on promising cases. However, it's the following scene where Foggy comes to life as he and Matt meet with a real estate agent to check out their new office for Nelson & Murdock, Attorneys at Law.  The agent mentions that the building was barely damaged during the Chitauri invasion featured in the first Avengers film, officially confirming that Daredevil is set firmly in the Marvel Cinematic Universe without beating viewers over the head with references the way Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter have.

And sure enough, Brett tips off Foggy that a woman named Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) is being held in police custody for a homicide of a man named Daniel Fisher.  Foggy and Matt go to meet her at the station and offer her legal assistance as their first and only client. Karen tells them that she worked with Fisher and met up with him for a few drinks at a bar, only to black out and wake up with a bloody knife in her hand.  As Daredevil fans already expect, Matt listens to her steady heartbeat as the human lie detector that he is and knows she isn't lying.

After a police guard tries to to kill Karen in her cell and fails, Matt and Foggy arrange for her to be taken to the offices of Nelson & Murdock.  Karen tells them she knows why the guard tried to kill her, remarking that she worked in the offices of Union Allied, a property developer that was working to restore New York’s West Side, as the secretary for the company’s chief accountant, where she’d coordinate the company’s pension claims. Accidentally opening an e-mail meant for her boss, Karen accidentally learned that the company is receving too much money and guesses that someone is embezzling.

Matt, of course, is a complete sucker for a pretty girl, despite being blind, something that Foggy is constantly incredulous about.  Taking Karen to his apartment, Matt offers her a clean and dry shirt after a rainstorm, which she changes into right in front of him knowing that he's blind.  Matt runs through Karen’s story with her again and suggests that Karen must have a file containing all of Union Allied’s embezzlement information.  He asks Karen if she still has the file, she says no, but her rapid heartbeat reveals that she’s lying.

Karen leaves Matt’s apartment and walks back to her own, the scene of Fisher’s murder, to get the file contained on a flash drive.  A man enters the room and knocks Karen out, taking the file, but Daredevil enters and the two scuffle, which results in Matt being pushed out of the window.  Falling onto the street below, Matt struggles to pick himself up after recalling a memory of his father telling him to get back to work on his schoolbooks.  The fight becomes even more brutal, once again showing a more realistic, messy throwdown than the perfectly choreographed stuntwork on the CW's Arrow.

Recovering the file, Daredevil dumps both the file and the attacker on the steps of The Daily Bulletin, a fictional New York newspaper that serves as a replacement for Marvel's The Daily Bugle, which is presumably tied up with the Spider-Man movie rights and off-limits. With Union Allied's scheme made public, crimelord Wilson Fisk's assistant Wesley is instructed by his boss to keep tabs on Karen, Matt and Foggy, teasing us with Vincent D'Onofrio as The Kingpin with only his voice.  And now that Karen is exonerated, Matt and Foggy offer Karen a new job as their office secretary, which Karen is more than willing to do considering everything they did for her.

Matt goes to Fogwell's Gym, where his father used to train, and starts pounding on a punching bag while we get a montage of various criminal activity taking place in the Kitchen. Anyone connecting Fisk with Union Allied is taken out, while somewhere else, a room filled with blinded workers package cocaine for shipment.  Even more ominously, a man looks over some New York City blueprints, with bold Japanese characters positioned directly over the Hell's Kitchen blocks.  But don't worry, the last thing we see is Matt as Daredevil once again, leaping into action as the episode fades into the closing credits.

So all in all, a promising start for Daredevil and already it's the best television series Marvel has produced to date.  Some may find some elements of the first episode a bit slow and heavy with exposition, but Daredevil is a slow burn to savor and appreciate over the next twelve episodes.  If you can't see the potential for greatness in this series, well...you must be absolutely blind.

DAMN Good Television -- THE FLASH: "Out of Time"

In the immortal words of Barry Allen (and Dr. Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap)..."Oh, boy."

Admit it, you watched last night's episode of The Flash and for a good while there, you thought it was another solid but not overly important outing for the CW series.  And then the last ten minutes happened.

In "Out of Time," written by Todd and Aaron Helbing and directed by Thor Freudenthal, we're finally introduced to Mark Mardon (guest star Liam McIntyre), the Weather Wizard and brother of Clyde Mardon, previously killed off in the series' pilot episode.  As you might expect, Mark isn't overly happy that his bro is pushing up the daisies and joining the bleedin' choir invisible, so he returns to Central City to get all revengey on Clyde's killer, CCPD Detective Joe West.

Our hero Barry Allen, meanwhile, is busy taking his girlfriend Linda Park to a bowling alley, where he just happens to run into the love of his life, Iris West, and her boyfriend Eddie Thawne.  Neither Linda nor Eddie are thrilled by Iris' suggestion that the two couples bowl together, especially when Iris starts wiping food schmutz from the corner of Barry's mouth and carrying on as if they are a couple.  Yeah, slightly awkward.

With the prerequisite CW Romance Angst addressed for the week, we then return to the Wiz, who has a much better handle on his powers than Clyde ever did.  He attempts to kill Joe with a lightning strike while he and Barry are driving around, but Barry is fast enough to rush Joe to safety just before the car goes all asplodey.  Joe gets benched by Captain Singh until Mardon is caught, but no worries, the S.T.A.R. Labs team is on it.

Cisco Ramon whips up a Wizard Wand device that looks rather suspiciously like an oversized Sonic Screwdriver from Doctor Who to short-circuit the Weather Wizard's control, which comes in handy when Mardon attacks CCPD headquarters (because hey, just about every supervillain in this series seems to as well).  The supercops who failed to notice Mardon riding up with them in the elevator easily get taken out by a gust of wind, leaving Mardon to attack Joe with another lightning strike.  Captain Singh jumps in front of the bolt to protect Joe, landing him in the hospital and introducing his gay fiancé to Joe and Barry in the process.

Meanwhile, Cisco is becoming increasingly suspicious about Dr. Harrison Wells' shady behavior, so he asks Caitlin Snow to keep Wells distracted at the local CC Jitters coffee shop while he runs some tests to find out what really happened to the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator.  And there's no possible way that could go wrong, right?

Joe and his partner Eddie go looking for Mardon and since the Flash is nowhere to be found, the search ends with Joe handcuffed to a pier and having a seriously broken leg. Instead of simply killing Joe right there, the Weather Wizard calls Iris to let her know he has her dad, although we're not really sure why unless Mardon wants to capture and torture her as well.

Caitlin proves to be absolutely horrible at subterfuge, so Wells finally says screw it and leaves his wheelchair behind at the coffee shop while he races back to S.T.A.R. Labs.  At this point, the episode steps its game up by showing that Wells' pretense is officially over at last.  Wells catches Cisco replaying the recording of the Reverse Flash from "The Man in the Yellow Suit" and confesses that yes, he's actually Eobard Thawne from the future and Eddie is his 21st century ancestor.  

It seems Eobard's been stuck in the past since killing Barry's mother Nora fifteen years ago and that Barry's super-speed is the key to getting him back to his own time.  And as Cisco looks on with sheer terror (rather convincingly acted by Carlos Valdes), Eobard vibrates his hand into Cisco's chest and kills him.  Well...for now, anyway.

Great ending, right?  Guess again, because just when you think you can't handle any more, Mardon creates a tsunami to level Central City, just as Barry and Iris finally have their first kiss.  This forces Barry to quick-change to the Flash right in front of Iris, officially revealing his identity and his powers to her.  And as Iris stands there going "Wait...what?", the Flash races off to counter the tsunami with one of his own, moving faster and faster.  So fast, in fact, that he ends up breaking the time barrier and travels back to see himself running earlier in the episode.

So.  Much.  Flash goodness.  The wait over the next six days is going to be ridiculously slow and agonizing.

DAMN Good Television -- POWERS: "Pilot"

Back in the dark days of 2011, fans of the Powers comic book series by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming were cautiously optimistic about a television series adaptation for FX starring Jason Patric, Lucy Punch and Charles S. Dutton.  However, the filmed pilot apparently didn't impress the suits at FX, with reshoots and recasting being discussed by the network.

Well, those plans must have quickly spiraled downward because not three years later, Sony announced that Powers would be the first original series on the PlayStation Network, streaming through consoles and episodes purchased on PlayStation.com.  The second attempt features Sharlto Copley as Christian Walker, Susan Heyward as Deena Pilgrim, Michelle Forbes as Retro Girl, Eddie Izzard as "Big Bad" Wolfe, Noah Taylor as Johnny Royale, Olesya Rulin as Calista and Logan Browning as Zora.

Sounds pretty decent, doesn't it?  And the premise of a cop procedural set in the world of superheroes has done well for the Fox series Gotham, which has already been renewed for a second season.  So, considering all of this, I really have to wonder why this series seems pretty much doomed to failure.

This first episode, written by Charlie Huston and directed by David Slade, tanks as an adaptation of the source material from the start, showing Walker, the former superhero known as Diamond until he was depowered, operating in bright, sunny Los Angeles instead of a dark, atmospheric city like Chicago or New York.  And with the seriously disappointing production values that make superhero fan films on YouTube look like HBO's Game of Thrones by comparison, this series looks and feels just like a typical USA network show that just happens to have some superpowered characters in it.

With a much thinner, less imposing body frame than his comics counterpart, Copley's Walker hides behind a pair of sunglasses and a beard while moping a number of times about his lost powers. We want to slowly discover what makes him tick, but instead get clumsy chunks of exposition thrown at us in the form of things like an Extra segment hosted by Mario Lopez.

As for Susan Heyward's Deena Pilgrim, she gets partnered with Walker about a third into the episode and fans of the comic series are in for another letdown.  Anyone looking for their favorite sassy and snarky spitfire is going to find a much more subdued, dialed back version that barely resembles the character.  Oh, there are moments when Walker and Pilgrim banter in a traditional manner, but they're far too few and fleeting.

Another significant divergence from the comic series is the initial mystery of the death of Olympia, an aging superhero, which is taken from the third story arc "Little Deaths."  It's not nearly as intriguing of a mystery as the initial "Who Killed Retro Girl?" arc, although the upside is we actually get to see Michelle Forbes as Retro Girl for a while until she presumably gets bumped off.

The second story arc, "Roleplay," is also teased somewhat with the various superhero wannabes and "powers kids" that hang out and party across L.A. just waiting to become famous.  One of the self-absorbed "powers kids" is Zora, who unfortunately becomes another misfire in this adaptation as her character is reduced from being a century-old badass superhero goddess to a vapid young adult wearing a Geordi LaForge visor and a horrible costume seemingly made out of shiny duct tape.

Sure, this is only the first episode of ten for the first season, but PlayStation's decision to make it free only works if viewers actually want to pay $1.99 for each following episode unless they already have a PlayStation Plus membership.  Something tells me that bootleg versions will be big for non-gamers, but honestly?  I recommend just reading the comics instead.

DAMN Good Television -- CONSTANTINE: "Non Est Asylum"

Once upon a time in 2005, fans of the DC Comics/VERTIGO series Hellblazer suffered through Keanu Reeves as a blasphemous Americanized version of British occult detective/magician John Constantine.  The film Constantine, directed by Francis Lawrence, introduced mainstream America to the character and despite Reeves' matching black hair and black trenchcoat, was actually a decent R-rated movie that did pretty well at the box office.

 

When news of a new Constantine television series was announced last September, fans were understandably skeptical.  Adapting a mature readers comic book series like Hellblazer on NBC, of all places, seemed like a pretty bad idea considering current network television standards.  And sure enough, some of those antiquated network standards prohibit showing a chain-smoking character actually smoking while scenes of extreme violence and gore are perfectly fine, as anyone who has seen NBC's wonderful series Hannibal can attest.  However, the producers remain firm that Constantine is indeed a smoker, so you'll see him playing with his lighter or stubbing out a cigarette now and then as a workaround.

This first episode, written by Batman Begins and Blade writer David S. Goyer and showrunner Daniel Cerone opens with Constantine (Matt Ryan) voluntarily receiving electroshock treatment as a patient of the Ravenscar Psychiatric Facility for the Mentally Deranged.  We quickly learn that he's receiving therapy for a past traumatic event taken straight from the comics, involving a 9-year-old girl named Astra Logue.  This Newcastle incident, we later find out, involved Constantine and a group of friends attempting to save Astra from possession by calling up a more powerful demon named Nergal, only to have Nergal drag Astra into Hell after dismembering her.

Noticing a strange group of cockroaches, Constantine follows the trail to a possessed female patient.  Swiftly exorcising the unrevealed demon, the cockroaches reveal the words "Liv Die" on a nearby wall, which forces him to check himself out of the facility.  He soon finds a young woman named Liv Aberdeen (True Blood's Lucy Griffiths) at a car rental facility in Atlanta, Georgia, who seems understandably freaked by parking lot pavement caving itself into a giant pit just before Constantine shows up in yellow taxi cab.

Right out of the gate, Ryan already seems to have a better grasp of John Constantine than Reeves did, playing him as cheeky and a bit arrogant while masking his personal pain and inner demons (no pun intended).  Because this is the pilot episode, Constantine tends to deliver a lot of exposition to explain what's going on, helped by Liv, whose sole purpose here is to ask what's going on, as any good companion on Doctor Who has done for the past fifty years.

We're soon introduced to Manny (Lost's Harold Perrineau), presumably an angel sent from Heaven to drop ominous plot point teases on Constantine and get him to investigate whatever demonic force is on the way.  And then we meet Chas Chandler (Charles Halford), Constantine's best mate and driver of said taxi cab that crashes immediately Social Distortion's cover of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" plays on the radio.  After getting out of the cab, Chas gets a live power cable through the chest (Hey, it happens), but we soon learn that Chas apparently has the ability to heal from fatal injuries.  Somehow.

Constantine takes Liv to her father's secretly secret mill house in the middle of the woods, which apparently stores a number of powerful mystical artifacts/easter eggs, including the Helm of Nabu which belongs to the DC Comics sorcerer Doctor Fate.  This seems to blatantly hint that the supernatural corners of the DC Universe after definitely in play, opening up the series to possible appearances by Swamp Thing, Constantine's ex-girlfriend Zatanna, Deadman, the Phantom Stranger, Doctor Occult, you name it.  Since we know that Emmett Scanlan has been cast as Jim Corrigan, it shouldn't be too long before The Spectre rises as well.

As the episode progresses, we also meet Ritchie Simpson (played by the terrific Jeremy Davies, another Lost veteran) who was one of Constantine's mysterious Newcastle crew from back in the day and now serves as the expert hacker every show seems to need these days.  Constantine asks Ritchie to hack Atlanta's power grid as part of the big masterplan to deal with Furcifer, the electrical demon messing with Liv.  Viewers unfamiliar with Hellblazer will get the feeling that Constantine burns through friends and allies like pawns on a chessboard, using them as necessary tools that often can be sacrificed in his crusade against the forces of Hell.

After Furcifer is dealt with rather effectively with an impressive visual effects display, Liv is quickly written out of the series due to a change in creative direction after the pilot was filmed and in her place arrives Zed Martin (Angelica Celaya), another character straight from the Jamie Delano run of Hellblazer.  Zed is only teased in the final moments, as we see her drawing (or is that channeling?) various images of John Constantine that come off as a lovely tribute to various Hellblazer comic artists.

All in all, Constantine seems like a series full of potential, even though this pilot episode often feels rushed and cramped with information and backstory.  Some Hellblazer fans may remain bitter about the show being on NBC instead of HBO or Showtime, but it's more than obvious that the showrunners are trying to incorporate as many elements from the comics as possible and that they're already using some of the best material.  So if you're still on the fence about this series, grab yourself a pint, sit down, give it a try for a few episodes and see if it grabs you.  Just hopefully, not into Hell...

DAMN Good Television -- THE FLASH: "Pilot"

 

After a hiatus of only 23 years, fans of the CBS series The Flash finally have a second season of their favorite Fastest Man Alive.  Although the thing is, John Wesley Shipp has been replaced as The Flash by a much younger Grant Gustin and the show is now on The CW as a spinoff of the series Arrow.  Apart from the overall improvements in special effects, costuming, lighting, camerawork, etc., it's...basically the same show.  Well...um...sort of.

This 2014 version was first announced in July 2013, with the idea of debuting Barry Allen on two episodes of Arrow followed by a third episode later in the show's second season where he would become The Flash.  This was going to essentially serve as a back-door pilot for a Flash spinoff series, until the decision was made to film a proper standalone pilot episode instead.  And having learned lessons from making Arrow, executive producers Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Geoff Johns chose to fully embrace the DC Comics Universe right off the bat, exploring the concept of strange superpowers the way Arrow often avoids in favor of a more realistic approach.

The first episode, directed by Smallville and Arrow pilot veteran David Nutter, opens with a brief taste of Barry Allen racing through Central City as The Flash before flashing back to his childhood at the age of eleven.  We see the return of Shipp now playing Barry's father Henry Allen, and the loving relationship he has with his wife Nora before everything goes to hell.  Waking up to a weird sight of water floating up from a nearby fishtank, Barry goes downstairs to find his mom caught in the middle of a strange, yellow blur racing back and forth.  Unable to reach Nora because of the blur, Henry tells Barry to run and suddenly, young Barry finds himself blocks away from his house...in a flash.

Jumping ahead about twelve years or so, we see the adult and constantly late Barry Allen arriving at a crime scene that introduces his former legal guardian, Detective Joe West (Jesse L Martin), and his boss, Captain David Singh (Patrick Sabongui) of the Central City Police Department.  As forensic assistant Barry examines the crime scene with mental observations texted across the screen for viewers similar to the BBC series Sherlock, we learn that a pair of criminals called the Mardon brothers (Clyde and presumably, the more important Mark) have caught the attention of the CCPD.

Gustin picks up right where he left off after his two Arrow episodes earlier this year, continuing to show Barry's awkward but well-intentioned charm, making him quickly likeable and relatable to the audience.  And with the tragic murder of Barry's mother under mysterious circumstances yet to be explained and his father's false imprisonment for said murder, Gustin gives Barry a vulnerability that makes you instantly sympathetic to the character.

We then meet Iris West (Candice Patton), Joe's daughter and Barry's future love, and get a glimpse of Barry's unrequited crush that is pretty much the norm for any male superhero.  Even with Iris seeing Barry as just a friend (for the moment at least), Patton and Gustin have a good chemistry that wants you to see these two hook up despite the somewhat skeevy notion that the two grew up together in the same house as foster siblings. 

Barry and Iris end up going to S.T.A.R. Labs to hear Dr. Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh) speak about his exciting new particle accelerator that we know from Arrow is destined to go completely FUBAR.  Iris' laptop is stolen during Wells' speech, forcing Barry to give chase and also show us how slow he currently is.  After sucker-punching Barry with a laptop to the stomach, the thief is quickly caught by Eddie Thawne (Rick Cosnett), who was given the nickname "Detective Prettyboy" and immediately becomes Barry's rival for Iris' attention.

Barry returns to his spacious loft apartment, returning us to a very important scene from the end of the Arrow episode "Three Ghosts."  Essentially, we get an expanded version this time, as Barry is caught in the particle accelerator energy wave and is struck by lightning, which sends him crashing into a nearby rack of chemicals.  He wakes up nine months later in S.T.A.R. Labs, syncing the series up with the start of Arrow's Season 3, and meets tech geek Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) and the frosty Dr. Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker).  Together, they provide the necessary expository explanation that Barry's accident has placed him in a constant state of cellular regeneration, which Barry sums up as "Lightning gave me abs?"

As the pilot episode progresses, Barry discovers his super-speed stopping an arrested criminal reaching for a cop's gun and after a brief sprint in a nearby alley, we're literally off and running.  Harrison (now in a wheelchair), Cisco and Caitlin quickly form Barry's science support for his newfound abilities, testing his speed on an abandoned Ferris airfield that possibly foreshadows a Green Lantern connection.  During the test, Barry suddenly recalls seeing a blurred yellow figure during his mother's murder that makes him wonder if the man who killed his mother had the same powers as he has.  (Spoilers for anyone who hasn't read the DC Comics limited series Flashpoint -- he does.)

On top of all this, Clyde Mardon has returned with spiffy new weather-controlling abilities, Iris is now secretly dating Eddie Thawne without telling her father, and Joe flat out tells Barry that all the strange stuff he saw as a kid never happened and he needs to accept that Henry Allen murdered his wife.  As a result, Barry runs off to Starling City and has another meeting with special guest superhero The Arrow for advice.  Stephen Amell has a nice cameo role here as his character Oliver Queen, who tells Barry that "You can inspire people" in a way that he can't and that he's able to "save people -- in a flash."  (Say, that's catchy...)

So naturally he does, after obtaining a spiffy scarlet suit from Cisco and Caitlin that's supposedly aerodynamic, but looks a bit loose and leathery instead.  The inevitable superhero vs. supervillain showdown ensues that ultimately hints at Mark Mardon's appearance somewhere down the line and reveals Barry's new identity and powers to Joe in the process.  Later on, Barry visits his father Henry in Iron Heights prison and reassures him that he knows Henry didn't kill his mother.

That pretty much sets up Season One, teasing a number of possible supervillains for the future (Don't blink or you'll miss a certain busted cage) along with a number of character conflicts that should prove interesting.  However, there's a very important epilogue that you should be playing very close attention to that I won't spoil here apart from saying someone is far more than he seems and we may get to see a rather huge DC Comics event at some point.

All in all, The Flash left the starting position strong and with some solid storytelling and great special effects to showcase superpowers, has the potential to become bigger and better than Arrow.  The series should provide a fun, brighter change of pace from the gritty crime and corruption on Arrow and Gotham, with far more depth and creativity than Smallville had during its 10-year run.  And with the show's willingness to bring in Shipp along with his co-star Amanda Pays, fans of the original Flash series should be in for a real treat. 

Anyone else up for a Mark Hamill episode after he finishes filming Star Wars Episode VII...?

DAMN Good Television -- GOTHAM: "Pilot"

At long last, the world of Batman finally returns to live-action television for the first time in about...oh, only fifty years.  Since the campy 1960s TV series starring Adam West and Burt Ward, Batman fans have had plenty of feature films and animated series to enjoy between weekly trips to the comic store, but certainly not a weekly Batman drama series.  Well, that's all changed with the arrival of the new Fox crime drama Gotham, but with the twist that Batman isn't actually Batman.  Not yet, anyway.

When this series was announced last September, fans were understandably skeptical.  A Batman show without Batman?  Not entirely unheard of though, considering Smallville was essentially a Superman show without Superman and that lasted ten seasons.  But instead of making just another cop drama with Gotham City as the setting and Jim Gordon as the lead, Gotham creator and executive producer Bruno Heller decided to make the series more interesting by using it to tell origins of some of Batman's biggest enemies as well as what happened with young Bruce Wayne in the days after his parents were murdered in Crime Alley.  That missing piece of Batman's life story is ripe with story potential, so we'll have to see if Heller and his staff of writers make the most of it.

This first episode, written by Heller and directed by co-executive producer Danny Cannon, opens with a young Selina Kyle (Camren Bicondova) prowling the gothic rooftops of Gotham City at night.  She slides down a storefront awning, showing us that she's been at this for a little while, and proceeds to skillfully nick a half pint of milk and a man's wallet before being chased down an alley all too familiar to Batman fans.

From the shadows, Selina watches as her future love/enemy Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) walks down Crime Alley with his millionaire parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne, straight into a masked robber.  Once again, pieces of a pearl necklace fall to the pavement, two shots are fired, and the 12-year-old Bruce is suddenly an orphan shrieking in rage and horror.

Mazouz does an effective job selling such an important scene, which leads to the introduction of lead characters Detective James Gordon (Ben McKenzie) and his partner Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue) as they arrive to the crime scene.  We immediately see the contrast between the two, as Bullock hopes to dump the important case on the GCPD's major crimes unit, while Gordon quickly reaches out to the grieving Bruce and vows to bring his parents' killer to justice.  It's an important moment that establishes the strong bond between Bruce and Gordon that will eventually carry into Bruce's adulthood as Batman.

The Crime Alley setting also introduces Sean Pertwee as Alfred Pennyworth, who comes to take Bruce home and serve as the boy's legal guardian.  Pertwee's Alfred is much closer in tone to Michael Caine's than Michael Gough's, a seemingly regular English bloke that uses words like "mate" instead of a droll, posh-sounding traditional butler.  Alfred doesn't get to do too much in this pilot episode, but his concern for Bruce's well-being is heartfelt and genuine, quickly proving himself as the mentor we know and love.

As the episode progresses, we're introduced to a number of other characters including the somewhat bland Renee Montoya and Crispus Allen from major crimes, the future Riddler (Cory Michael Smith) as a member of the GCPD, Gordon's fiancée Barbara Kean (Erin Richards) who is surprisingly bisexual, the young Poison Ivy (Clare Foley) who currently has the name of Ivy Pepper, and mob boss Carmine Falcone (John Doman) who is in danger of losing control of his criminal empire.

The major threat to Falcone is Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith), a major player in Gotham's underworld with influence over Bullock and a fondness for music from The Dead Weather.  Smith tries hard to be intimidating as Fish, but is easily overshadowed by her underling Oswald Cobblepot, played rather brilliantly by Robin Lord Taylor.  The young Penguin is conniving and a bit psychotic, snitching to Montoya and Allen in the hopes of throwing Fish under the bus, until the move goes horribly wrong and leads to his exile.  The metaphor of a Penguin and a Fish seems to hint at Fish's quick exit, but for now, it's going to be interesting to see what Oswald does next.

All in all, Gotham seems like a very promising series, with the pilot setting the tone of a proper crime drama...as much as this series can being on Fox at 8 p.m. EST instead of on the more adult channel FX at 10 p.m.  Yes, there are some things that feel a bit Smallville (Bruce's gray sweaters with black pants that foreshadow his Batman costume, for example), but Gotham has far more going for it than Bruce pining for Selina from inside his father's study. 

The corruption running rampant through the GCPD along with an inevitable mob war should keep Gordon busy and constantly in danger, and the slow rise of Batman's worst enemies will definitely keep the series from becoming yet another cop show.  Gotham needs to keep stepping on the gas though, because The Flash and Constantine are coming up next.

DAMN Good Television -- DOCTOR WHO: "The Time of the Doctor"

"It's the end...but the moment has been prepared for."

Those were the final words of the Fourth Doctor, played so memorably by Tom Baker, in the episode "Logopolis" before he regenerated into Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor.  This was the first time I experienced the concept of regeneration, which allows Doctor Who to continue on and on with new actors portraying the exact same Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey.

And now, here we are the end of Matt Smith's era as the Eleventh Doctor, with Smith leaving in "The Time of the Doctor," another Christmas tale written by Steven Moffat.  This is the last of Moffat's trilogy of Doctor-centric stories that began with the Series Seven finale "The Name of the Doctor" and continued with the fiftieth anniversary special, "The Day of the Doctor."

After such an eventful fiftieth anniversary, expectations for the final Eleventh Doctor story were going to be high and it seems Moffat tried hard -- perhaps too hard -- to meet them.  The Eleventh Doctor's swansong featured not only the return of the Daleks, but Cybermen, the Weeping Angels, a couple of Sontarans, and the Silence as well, all centered around a little town on an unknown planet called, of course, Christmas.

All things being Moffat, however, that's not enough for Eleven's finale.  No, there's a modified Cyberman head the Doctor has named "Handles" (presumably because "Wilson" was already taken), another spacey-wacey religious order called The Church of the Papal Mainframe headed by the Mother Superious Tasha Lem, and the mysterious planet?  It's not Earth, or even Ravalox, but Trenzalore -- the oogy-boogy planet where the Doctor supposedly dies at some point in his future and is buried.

Moffat does attempt to wrap up a few of the long-dangling plotlines introduced during the Eleventh Doctor era.  It turns out those nasty Cracks in the Universe from Series Five are being used by the Time Lords in an attempt to break back into the universe since their rescue in "The Day of the Doctor."  And that troubling TARDIS explosion in "The Pandorica Opens"?  The Silence was behind it, apparently, although the rather ominous voice that uttered "Silence will fall" doesn't sound a thing like any of the Silence.  Oh, and that whole business with Madame Kovarian in Series Six?  That was just her convoluted attempt to change the Trenzalore stalemate by engineering a child -- Melody Pond, a.k.a. River Song -- to kill the Doctor in his past before the stalemate begins.

Even with all this stuff crammed into the finale, the only thing that truly matters is Matt Smith.  The Doctor spends 300 years on Trenzalore, defending the town of Christmas from the alien races hovering above and preventing the Time War from restarting.  And through it all, Smith is given just about everything to play one last time, from youthful exuberance, to anger, sadness, and ultimately, resignation to his fate.  It's sad to see the Doctor as an old man of roughly 1,500 years, but the events of his thirteenth regeneration -- a new life cycle from the Time Lords -- allow us to see Eleven youthful once again for his final scene.

Oh, and what a final scene.  All the cumbersome story elements and dangling plot threads fall by the wayside as Clara Oswald enters the TARDIS and finds some discarded clothes and a half-eaten bowl of fish fingers and custard.  For a brief moment, we're reassured to see the Eleventh Doctor young and back in his stylish purple coat.  But of course, all is not well, and the Doctor hallucinates a young Amelia Pond, "the first face this face saw" in "The Eleventh Hour," while telling Clara (and the fans) that "I will always remember...when the Doctor was me."  And then comes The Cameo, a touching, tearful farewell that rips the hearts (both of them) out of every Whovian.  Smith then gives the perfect final touch, slowly removing his Doctor's signature bow tie and allowing it to drop to the TARDIS console room floor.

Despite Clara's tearful "Please don't change," the Doctor finally regenerates, not in David Tennant's overly long, heavily symphonic mass of explosions, fire and chaos, but BAM! in an instant, we have ourselves the new Twelfth Doctor, now played by Peter Capaldi.  Given less than a minute to introduce himself, the Twelfth Doctor is as bulgy-eyed as Tom Baker and immediately complains about the color of his kidneys.  Once again, the TARDIS is left in chaos with a newly-regenerated Doctor, but it seems there's some post-regenerative amnesia at work as the new Doctor asks Clara, "Do you happen to know how to fly this thing?"

So farewell, Matt Smith and hello, Peter Capaldi.  A new era of Doctor Who has begun, with some fans ready to see an older Doctor in the TARDIS again, and other bitter and resentful fans already deciding they absolutely hate the Twelfth Doctor...until years from now, when they beg over and over for him to stay and not be replaced by the Thirteenth Doctor.

To be continued next autumn...

DAMN Good Television -- DOCTOR WHO: "The Day of the Doctor"

"Let me get this straight. A thing that looks like a police box, standing in a junkyard, it can move anywhere in time and space?"
-- Ian Chesterton (William Russell), DOCTOR WHO: "An Unearthly Child"

Exactly fifty years ago today, the world of science fiction was forever changed when a British television series called Doctor Who premiered on November 23, 1963, one day after the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.  In the first episode, "An Unearthly Child," two teachers named Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright become concerned about Susan Foreman, a very mysterious student of theirs.  Following Susan to her home at 76 Totter's Lane in Shoreditch, London, they discover it's actually a junkyard belonging to someone called "I.M. Foreman."  The schoolteachers hear Susan's voice inside, coming from a strange British police box and are confronted by Susan's grandfather, a brusque, suspicious man known only as The Doctor, who tries to dismiss them away.  Forcing their way past the old man, Ian and Barbara step through the police box doors, only to find that it's considerably bigger on the inside with a futuristic design and a central hexagonical control console.  And from there, the rest is history...or the future, take your pick.

Fifty years later -- or just a couple of minutes, depending on how you travel -- Doctor Who is the world's longest-running science fiction series after 26 seasons from 1963 to 1989, a TV movie in 1996, and then another seven seasons and assorted specials since the show's return in 2005.  After eleven Doctors, umpteen companions and a whole lot of running, the series celebrates its fiftieth anniversary with "The Day of the Doctor," a special written by current showrunner Steven Moffat.

Obviously, hardcore Whovians would love to see a sprawling epic, filled with all eleven Doctors and each of their companions squared off against a grand alliance of Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Omega and any number of Masters.  However, the practicality of pulling that off with the first three Doctors sadly no longer with us, the next four considerably older than their respective eras as the Doctor and Christopher Eccleston declining to reprise his role as the Ninth Doctor made that pretty much impossible.

So Moffat decided to introduce a Ninth Doctor replacement in the form of John Hurt, playing a previously unrevealed incarnation known as the War Doctor.  In the six-minute prequel "The Night of the Doctor," we learn that Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor regenerates into the War Doctor (with the help of the Sisterhood of Karn) and chooses to become a warrior in order to put an end to the Time War between Gallifrey and the Daleks.

After a lovely nod to the opening of "An Unearthly Child," the very first Doctor Who episode, the special begins Clara teaching at the Coal Hill School, the very same school that the Doctor's granddaughter Susan attended.  Old-school monsters the Zygons make their long-awaited return to Doctor Who after 37 years in 1562 Elizabethan England, in connection with a mysterious three-dimensional painting from Gallifrey turning up in London's National Gallery in 2013.  The Eleventh Doctor and his companion Clara Oswald are literally brought in by UNIT are the Brigadier's daughter Kate Stewart to investigate, ultimately leading to the Eleventh Doctor joining up with his previous incarnation, played once again by David Tennant.  Meanwhile, the War Doctor is confronted by a sentient interface calling itself the Bad Wolf, which has taken on the form of Ninth Doctor companion Rose Tyler just as the War Doctor is about to activate the weapon that will destroy Gallifrey in the process of wiping out the Daleks once and for all.  (Yeah, right.)

Moffat can't help but indulge in some fan-pleasing banter between the three Doctors, each of them taking playful jabs at one another's clothes, appearance, etc. while reminding everyone around them that they're the exact same Time Lord.  There are sly nods to the past, a repeated line of dialogue here, pictures of former companions there, but nothing intrusive to the actual story.  We also get to see the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS interior once again, while the War Doctor's TARDIS features classic roundel wall design that Ten and Eleven can't help but geek out over.

But ultimately, we figure out that "The Day of the Doctor" is actually Moffat's attempt to resolve the rather disturbing issue of The Doctor sacrificing his home planet and his people to end the Time War.  The three Doctors realize that even their own timeline can be rewritten, sending them off in their own TARDISes to save the day, but to surprise of Whovians around the world, they're joined by the other Doctors in their TARDISes...even Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor, who hasn't debuted yet!  The thirteen Doctors shunt Gallifrey off at the moment of its destruction, preserving the web of time and keeping the Doctor's personal timeline intact.  Gallifrey falls...no more.

So where has Gallifrey gone?  Well, that's a pretty interesting question, one posed by none other than Tom Baker himself in an absolutely lovely cameo as a future Doctor wearing one of his former faces, now seemingly in retirement as a National Gallery curator.  The Eleventh Doctor (or is that Twelfth now?) finds new purpose, to search for Gallifrey wherever it may be, although it seems likely his next incarnation, and perhaps others down the line, will have to do the heavy lifting.

Although a bit shaky at first, "The Day of the Doctor" ends up producing tears of joy for everyone who loves Doctor Who and after all the criticism Steven Moffat gets online, he can feel vindicated that he didn't screw up the most important anniversary story ever.  And now we wait for Christmas, the final episode with Matt Smith's Doctor.  Silence, please...

DAMN Good Television -- DOCTOR WHO Series Seven

Doctor Who Series Seven has ended some seventeen months since it began, leaving us with another interminable wait until the 50th Anniversary Special on November 23, 2013.  With all the various breaks and hiatuses we've had to endure, I thought I'd save up my thoughts, rankings and assorted nonsense on each of the Series Seven episodes until the end. It's been a somewhat rough ride in the TARDIS this year, but thankfully with a few gems to be treasured for years to come.  So here are my thoughts on this season, and shhhh, spoilers...

1. The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe (2.5 out of 5 Sonic Screwdrivers) -- After the stellar 2010 Christmas Special, "A Christmas Carol," this story came off as a considerable letdown.  There was a nice story idea here by writer Steven Moffat, with the Doctor as "Caretaker" of a widow and her children during Christmas of the London Blitz, but it stumbles as the Doctor Who version of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.  Unfortunately, we don't really care much about the widow or her children and the period has been way overdone of late.
2. Asylum of the Daleks (4.5 out of 5) -- After a loooonnnnnng hiatus of almost nine months, Doctor Who finally begins Series Seven with the best Dalek story since...well..."Dalek."  With the season split into five and eight episode chunks, Moffat opens with a solid attempt to make the Daleks scary for the first time since 2005.  And then, as only he can, he surprises us with the Doctor's new companion (Or is she...?) five episodes early.  Oswin's tale ends in total heartbreak and makes us wish Jenna-Louise Coleman would hurry up and get here already.
3. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship (3 out of 5) -- Another in the series of "Hey, I came up this great episode title, now I just need the actual story," writer Chris Chibnall returns with a lighthearted romp with surprise, dinosaurs on a spaceship.  The real highlight here isn't Harry Potter's David Bradley as special guest villain Solomon, but Harry Potter's Mark Williams as Rory's dad Brian.  He's the best companion family member since Wilf and develops Rory as more of an individual instead of "Mr. Pond."
4. A Town Called Mercy (2.5 out of 5) -- The first western story since "The Gunfighters" all the way back in 1966 was eagerly anticipated, especially with the casting of Farscape's Ben Browder as Isaac.  Unfortunately, Being Human creator Toby Whithouse turns in another misfire that wastes Browder and the beautiful Spaghetti Western filming location of Almeria, Spain.  Firefly has totally spoiled us, it seems.
5. The Power of Three (3.5 out of 5) -- Chibnall's second script for Series Seven is an odd one, focusing on a slow invasion of small black cubes and the growing realization that Amy and Rory are ready to leave the TARDIS and settle down.  Rory's dad Brian is back thankfully, and we get a long overdue update on UNIT with the official TV introduction of the Brigadier's daughter, Kate Stewart.  Jemma Redgrave is just lovely as Kate and I'm glad to know that Kate will be returning for the 50th Anniversary Special.
6. The Angels Take Manhattan (3.5 out of 5) -- Amy and Rory's exit episode brings us to the end of Series 7A with mixed results from Moffat.  He brings back the Weeping Angels with some nasty little Weeping Cherubs this time, and also his favorite Mary Sue creation, River Song.  There's some lovely location filming in New York's Central Park and the mandatory emotional heartbreak, but the major plot hole of the Doctor being unable to rescue Amy and Rory from being stuck in the 1930s New York seems absolutely ridiculous if you realize they could just drive to Pennsylvania or wherever and meet the Doctor there.  And no, I don't buy Moffat's explanation one bit.
7. The Snowmen (4 out of 5) -- Moffat's 2012 Christmas Special is a wonderful return to form.  The opening titles get a solid upgrade with a colorful, somewhat psychedlic look and a classic diddlydum, diddlydum, diddlydum theme arrangement by composer Murray Gold.  Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint and Strax from "A Good Man Goes to War" are back and surprisingly, so is the Great Intelligence, who was last seen in 1968's "The Web of Fear."  We also get our first look at the new TARDIS console room desktop theme, a stylish set with a retro feel to lead into the 50th anniversary year.  Of course, the real highlight is the official debut of Jenna-Louise Coleman, who ends up dying once again and leaves both the Doctor and the audience with more questions than answers.
8. The Bells of Saint John (3.5 out of 5) -- Another hiatus brings us to the end of March, when Series Eight should have began instead of Series 7B.  Finally, Moffat introduces us to the proper Clara Oswald and gives us a fun tour of modern London in the process.  We see some classic filming locations like Westminster Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral and the Great Intelligence pops up at the end to hint that he's Series 7B's Big Bad.  We're also introduced to Angie and Artie Maitland, the children Clara oversees as nanny, who factor in later on in the series.
9. The Rings of Akhaten (3.5 out of 5) -- I know a number of people loathe this episode, but I consider it Clara's version of "The End of the World" that served as Rose Tyler's first encounter with outer space.  Neil Cross' first script seems to be a bit all over the place, but the opening with Clara's parents is just lovely as is Clara looking after Merry, the Queen of Years.  There's also another great "Pandorica Speech" moment by The Doctor and even a reference to his granddaughter Susan.
10. Cold War (3 out of 5) -- At long last, the Ice Warriors return for the first time since 1974's "The Monster of Peladon."  (Can't tell they're building up to the 50th anniversary, can you?)  This is one of Mark Gatiss' better efforts, with a great 1980s Cold War (Get it?) setting and David Warner's Professor Grisenko, an older Russian scientist obsessed with Ultravox and Duran Duran.  Unfortunately, Liam Cunningham (Davos from Game of Thrones) is totally wasted and it seems odd to hear Soviets speaking TARDIS-translated English without any hint of a Russian accent.
11. Hide (4.5 out of 5) -- My personal favorite story of the season is this Neil Cross tale set in 1974.  It looks and feels like something pulled straight out of the early Tom Baker era, albeit with considerably better effects.  There's also a Metebelis III crystal, a shout out to the final third Doctor story "Planet of the Spiders" that aired (surprise!) in 1974, although Matt Smith sends old-school Whovians ranting on Twitter by pronouncing it "Meh-teb-bell-is" instead of "Meta-bee-lis."  A slight stumble at the end with a rushed ending keeps this episode from being perfection, but it still should be a well-regarded classic.
12. Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS (2.5 out of 5) -- And of course, my least favorite episode of the season follows immediately after.  Stephen Thompson is given the wonderful, glorious premise of exploring the unrevealed interior of the TARDIS for the first time since the 1978 story "The Invasion of Time" and it's mostly wasted.  We see a few extra rooms -- the library, the architectural reconfiguration system, the Eye of Harmony -- and even glimpse the swimming pool through a doorway at long last.  There's also another series first, an all-black guest supporting cast, but sadly they turn out to be a bunch of complete jerks who think it's hilarious to convince their memory-wiped brother that he's an android.
13. The Crimson Horror (3 out of 5) -- Gatiss returns to script the "Doctor-lite" episode, mercifully filled with another appearance by Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax.  Jenny gets a surprising action sequence in a leather catsuit (a deliberate nod to guest star Dame Diana Rigg, who played Emma Peel in the British Avengers series) and the Doctor references Fifth Doctor companion Tegan Jovanka saying that he "spent ages trying to get a gobby Australian to Heathrow Airport" with a "Brave heart, Clara" nod for good measure.
14. Nightmare in Silver (3.5 out of 5) -- Noted comics and fantasy author Neil Gaiman provides his second Doctor Who script which isn't as good as "The Doctor's Wife" but still entertains.  The Cybermen get their first signficant upgrade since coming back in 2006, with a sleeker, less stompy design along with some new cybertricks.  They aren't quite as scary as we'd hoped, but definitely more of a threat for future stories.  Angie and Artie return, having blackmailed Clara into arranging a TARDIS trip the previous episode, but are thankfully rendered silent for most of this story.  Clara steps up a bit, proving to be a decent military leader, and Matt Smith gets to flex his acting skills in a battle of wits against...himself.  Oh, and there's Warwick Davis as well, which makes everything better.
15. The Name of the Doctor (4.5 out of 5) -- And finally, Moffat closes out Series Seven by wrapping up the mystery of Clara Oswald and setting up the 50th Anniversary Special.  Old-school Whovians go "Oh, my giddy aunt..." during the opening teaser, seeing Forrest Gump style interactions of past Doctors with Clara, including a quick scene of The First Doctor and Susan stealing the TARDIS from Gallifrey.  There's a nifty "conference call" with Madame Vastra, Jenny, Strax, Clara and yes, River Song, because it's been nine whole episodes since we've seen her. Also, there's the expected arrival of the Great Intelligence, with some new henchmen/spare bodies called the Whispermen that somewhat resemble the Gentlemen from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Moffat then detonates the Cliffhanger Bomb for the Anniversary Special by introducing actor John Hurt "as The Doctor," sending everyone racing to Twitter and various message boards in a predictable panic.

So now we have the 50th Anniversary Special to look forward to along with the 2013 Christmas Special, and then only the Doctor knows how long for Series Eight.  But at least we know for certain, all officially official, that there will be a Series Eight.  It's going to be another long six months, but if the appearances of past Doctors in "The Name of the Doctor" are any indiciation, not to mention the return of David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor, Billie Piper as Rose Tyler, Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart, and the Zygons, it should end up being worth the wait.

DAMN Good Television -- ARROW: "Pilot"

2012 has been a pretty good year for archers, hasn't it?  Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, Merida in Pixar's Brave, Hawkeye in The Avengers, and now comes DC Comics' Green Arrow in his very own CW network television series, Arrow.

When word of this series first leaked back in January, I was understandably concerned about what the final aired version would be like.  It wasn't all that long ago that Justin Hartley was appearing on Smallville as Green Arrow, and let's face it, other recent DC Comics TV series (the short-lived Birds of Prey, the Aquaman pilot also starring Justin Hartley, the Adrianne Palicki Wonder Woman pilot, and a number of others never greenlit) haven't exactly fared well.

So how did the Arrow pilot turn out?  Pretty damn good, actually.  The setup for the series is strong but easy for non-comics fans to follow.  Millionaire playboy Oliver Queen returns home after five years marooned on an island and being presumed dead by his mother Moira and younger sister Thea.  The thing is, his experiences on that island (whatever they may have been) affected Oliver so much that he's decided to engage in vigilante-style justice and work his way through a long revenge list of targets that wronged Ollie's dead father Robert.  Oh, and in case the series title wasn't enough of a clue for you, he does it in Robin Hood fashion with a bow and arrow.  Because he can.

This pilot episode directed by David Nutter, who also directed the Smallville pilot, borrows origin elements from Jack Kirby's "The Green Arrow's First Case" in Adventure Comics #256, Mike Grell's Green Arrow: The Wonder Year and Andy Diggle and Jock's recent Green Arrow: Year One.  A number of new elements are worked into this take on Green Arrow as well, such as expanding and developing Ollie's family to include a father with dark, tragic secrets yet to be revealed, a mother who is more than she initially appears, and a sister affected by her brother's presumed death.  Ollie's traditional love interest, Dinah Laurel Lance, is here but given additional dramatic tension because of her dead sister and her police detective father Quentin, who blames Ollie for his daughter's death while also hunting him as the vigilante Arrow.  And if that wasn't enough, there's the very Smallvilleian (Smallvilleish?) friendship with Tommy Merlyn, who presumably becomes his arch-nemesis Merlyn at some point down the road.

Unfortunately, there are a couple of minor tweaks to the mythos that seem to have been made for no discernible reason whatsoever.  Ollie's hometown of Star City is now "Starling City" because Star City rolled off the tongue far too easily.  Meanwhile, Dinah is called "Laurel" (apparently "Dinah" isn't hip enough) but her full name is stated as "Dinah Laurel Lance," so rabid Green Arrow and Black Canary fans can step back from their keyboards.

On the plus side, there are a few sly nods to DC Comics fans beyond the basics.  Ollie refers to his sister Thea as "Speedy," either as a shout-out to Green Arrow's sidekick or possibly hinting that Thea could become his sidekick at some point?  Legendary Green Arrow writer/artist Mike Grell is acknowledged by a reference to a "Judge Grell," while Ollie's bodyguard John Diggle is presumably named after the aforementioned writer Andy Diggle.  And in a quick blink-and-you-miss-it shot, the mask of supervillain/antihero Deathstroke can be seen in an early scene when Ollie's lights his signal bonfire to be rescued.

As for the cast, this series lives or dies on the shoulders of Canadian actor Stephen Amell, who thankfully has more acting range than Justin Hartley in order to sell the dramatic, less-superhero moments.  Amell is likeable and engaging, but able to convey the distinction between Ollie's playboy facade and the real traumatized man underneath.  It also doesn't hurt that he trained extremely well for the part, showcasing his fitness using a salmon ladder and various uses of parkour.  Among the rest, I think Katie Cassidy has potential as Laurel but it would nice to see her character expanded beyond legal aid attorney plot device and conflicted love interest.  I also enjoyed seeing British actor Paul Blackthorne again as Quentin Lance, using an American accent similar to his Harry Dresden in the Dresden Files TV series that ended far too soon.

All in all, a promising start for Arrow and hopefully, the ratings will be strong enough to allow the series to develop further.  There are a number of DC Comics characters coming up in future episodes, such as The Huntress, Deadshot and China White, so it's encouraging that Arrow is diving right into where it took Smallville several seasons to fully embrace.  Here's hoping that viewers keep embracing Arrow week after week in return.