Chuck Lives Here

[FaxModem1]

It bugged me when I first saw Counterpoint that Tuvok and Vorik just kind of disappeared at the end. Are they on the shuttles? Did the Telepath nazis not care about them? Were they in the transporter buffer hiding in the vegetables?

[Ahriman238]

TOS Assignment Earth is up!

The episode of course, was meant as a pilot for a different show, Assignment Earth that didn't pan out.

I do kind of like the idea of a human raised by aliens, sent to steer political/social development and prevent us from self-destruction. I don't know that there's a show in it, maybe a short novel.

[FaxModem1]

Yeah, that one was a solid meh for me. Even if it had been made into a TV show, I don't think I would have ever watched it. The only thing I would have liked know was why the cat was also a woman.

[Crazedwraith]

Was Almost expecting Chuck to do a different intro for this one.

I don't think Assignment Earth would necessarily be a bad show but, really, have stealth pilots ever worked?

[Gandalf]

I don't think Assignment Earth would necessarily be a bad show but, really, have stealth pilots ever worked?

The Jeffersons started on All in The Family, in such a way. Archie and Edith had approximately no screen time.

More recently, CSI had one for CSI Miami, wherein Grissom chases someone to Miami. CSI Miami in turn had one for CSI New York, where Caine chases a guy to NYC.

[Ahriman238]

I don't think it was a stealth pilot exactly, but I started watching NCIS after they did a crossover 2-parter with JAG.

[FaxModem1]

Oh no, the NCIS two parter was a stealth pilot. The main cast of JAG were in it for all of three minutes.

[Ahriman238]

Oh no, the NCIS two parter was a stealth pilot. The main cast of JAG were in it for all of three minutes.

Are we thinking of the same two episodes?

A longtime series regular died, The NCIS team did their thing while the JAG team complained about not being able to investigate themselves. Then the NCIS team arrests Harm and the JAG team do their thing to get him off, until they find the real killer. I think the JAG team got more screentime than NCIS.

Anyways, I think, retrospectively, that was the first time I'd heard of NCIS, that they'd already had their own pilot. At least I distinctly remember Kate being part of the investigation.

[RogueIce]

Oh no, the NCIS two parter was a stealth pilot. The main cast of JAG were in it for all of three minutes.

Are we thinking of the same two episodes?

A longtime series regular died, The NCIS team did their thing while the JAG team complained about not being able to investigate themselves. Then the NCIS team arrests Harm and the JAG team do their thing to get him off, until they find the real killer. I think the JAG team got more screentime than NCIS.

Anyways, I think, retrospectively, that was the first time I'd heard of NCIS, that they'd already had their own pilot. At least I distinctly remember Kate being part of the investigation.

Kate wasn't there for the JAG episodes. They had some former FBI chick who was replaced.

It was mostly even for the first half, though obviously set up to be more NCIS than JAG (the episode title and Also Starring credits weren't in the usual JAG font and color). The second part was half JAG with the back half being mostly an NCIS thing with them taking down a terrorist.

[DaveJB]

The redone review of Resolutions is up. And between that and the review of "Moment By Moment" that the Cinema Snob also posted today, I think I can safely say that MY EYES! MY EYEEEES!

[Crazedwraith]

Rapture is up

Some decent commentary. Though, as he often is, a bit heavy on the explanatory preamble. Looking forward to 'Who Watches The Watchers' though.

I was thinking it's sad that this was made before they had Admiral Ross established, instead being one of many single appearance admirals DS9 had early on in its run. If it had been Ross here it would have added weight later on when he takes about having given Sisko a lot of leniency when its comes to the emissary thing.

[Lost Soal]

Was Almost expecting Chuck to do a different intro for this one.

I don't think Assignment Earth would necessarily be a bad show but, really, have stealth pilots ever worked?

I would say Xena, but I don't know if her episode was actually intended as one or if someone just liked the character afterwords.

[Ahriman238]

I must have missed Rapture.

I do like the idea of an episode that shows a religious experience by showing the actions of the man, and not the visions directly, letting you decide if he is fortunate subject to revelation or simply a lunatic.

[JME2]

I must have missed Rapture.

I do like the idea of an episode that shows a religious experience by showing the actions of the man, and not the visions directly, letting you decide if he is fortunate subject to revelation or simply a lunatic.

It was also a nice culmination (up to that point) of Sisko's role as the Emissary.

When Sisko discovered the Bajoran Wormhole in the pilot film, he fulfilled the terms of Bajoran lore and prophecy. He was given the title of the Emissary, the agent of the Bajoran Prophets. Yet he had always been uncomfortable with the title or using it to influence Bajoran culture.

Then Season Three's "Destiny" saw Sisko begin reconsider the role while Season Four's "Acession" saw him fighting for a title he hadn't wanted.

So I've always loved how Sisko finally and openly embraces the role here. You wouldn't have expected in Season 1, but at this point in the series, it felt natural and indicative of DS9' success with long-term development.

Plus, the visions were a nice foreshadowing of an impending unholy alliance...

[Ahriman238]

It also raises a point that occasionally comes up with alien religions in SciFi. Namely, the Bajoran gods are objectively, empirically, and undeniably REAL! The Celestial Temple is a place that exists, and they can point to it's front door on a map of their star system. The only debate that can exist is whether the Prophets are literal gods or alien entities, unbound by time, who are so powerful it makes no practical difference. (Oh, what was that charming episode where Kai Winn had a bug up her ass over Keiko teaching an empirical approach to the Prophets to Bajoran children called?)

And everyone accepts this. No one thinks the wormhole aliens might be playing the parts of gods that already existed in Bajoran myth, no one disputes their existence. They may try to find ways around them, like Dukat and Weyoun, but it's a given that they're there.

I'm just saying, if I was a religious Bajoran, I'd be awfully smug about the whole thing. And were I a Cardassian, I just might shit myself on learning that the people my people had occupied and tortured had REAL gods.


TOS sort of did this with an alien claiming to be Apollo. I remember it most from Animorphs, where the Andalite god, the Ellimist, is found to be real very early in the series and this little factoid never comes up in any interaction with an Andalite ever again, and Babylon 5 where one of the greatest religious mysteries of the Minbari is discovered by the main cast ("where did Valen come from?" "Valen was born in Bumfuck Idaho, Earth around 2125 before going back in time to be the messiah.") who mention it exactly once afterwards and never tell anyone. I guess that's the major difference here, that the Prophets are both objectively real, and everyone knows about it and has already dealt with it, fitting the evidence into their personal cosmology however they best can.

[Batman]

I don't know about the Cardassians being overly worried. Yeah, the Bajoran's gods undeniably exist...and just as undeniably did jack all to prevent the occupation of Bajor. They're apparently not at all or at best very selectively interested in the well-being of their believers. Gods that absolutely positively exist but don't do jack all to protect their flock are a lot less scary. Everything the Prophets did happened either in or in close proximity to the wormhole. No locusts raining on Cardassia Prime, no their water turning into blood, the most impressive they ever did thing was them offing a Dominion fleet during wormhole transit and the Sisko expected to be able to do that with a couple of quantums by collapsing the wormhole. Not exactly what I would consider the 'Oh woe is me they're omnipotent we're doomed' variety of deities.

[Ahriman238]

True, but it's also widely known that the wormhole aliens don't perceive linear time in anything like the manner we do. So some sort of terrible retribution thirty, or a hundred years down the line isn't out of the question.

True, I doubt anyone's wandering around waiting to be struck by lightning, but If I were a Cardassian, it'd be one of a great many things keeping me up at night. You know, along with the general police-state nature and the bad joke of a legal system.

[JME2]

Another thing I love about "Rapture" is how it plays differently after you watch the mid-season duology.

On the first viewing, Bashir's attempts to persuade Sisko to take the procedure are merely a Doctor looking out for his patient's best interests.

But then you watch "In Purgatory's Shadow". and learn that Bashir was replaced before DS9 switched over to the new uniforms. So the Bashir in "Rapture" is a Changeling infiltrator.

I love this because it means 'Bashir' wasn't just staying character. He was trying to silence Sisko before his visions spilled any more of the beans on the impending Dominion invasion and Cardassian alliance.

The irony, of course, is that Sisko briefly understood that war was coming with the Dominion during the holosuite scene with Kira, before she interrupted his reverie.

[Crazedwraith]

Well that's an interesting subtext... that the writer's never intended. The only decided on that plot right at the last second.

It also means it was the changeling Bashir in the episode with the baby changeling dying.

[JME2]

Well that's an interesting subtext... that the writer's never intended. The only decided on that plot right at the last second.

True.

But it still works as unintended subtext.

As to the events of "The Begotten", the DS9 entry in The Badlands is set right after this episode.

We get perspective from the Bashir changeling, who is unhappy he was unable to save the infant -- and even more that Odo has regained his shapeshifting as he has to now fight the urge to mere with a fellow Changeling.

[Ahriman238]

Double today, to make up for not doing Brothers Thursday, Chuck adds Datalore.

Which really does work out much better. Brothers was the perfect way to bring back and flesh out an old villain, and it was disappointing that they never did more with Lore than have be a cartoon villain in Descent.

[Formless]

Well, Chuck has re-released Shadows of P'Jem. If you can get past the 3 minute mark without feeling your intelligence is insulted-- BY CHUCK-- over what he says about the invasion of Iraq... yeah, its bad. News at 11.

But seriously, what the fuck, Chuck?

[RogueIce]

I like the preview image of T'Pol boob smothering Archer.

[Gandalf]

Has anyone else found these reviews getting stale? Every Voyager review seems to be eight minutes of the same jokes with two minutes of commentary.

Well, Chuck has re-released Shadows of P'Jem. If you can get past the 3 minute mark without feeling your intelligence is insulted-- BY CHUCK-- over what he says about the invasion of Iraq... yeah, its bad. News at 11.

But seriously, what the fuck, Chuck?

Chuck's politics comes up a few times. Watch the review/companion to In the Pale Moonlight.

[Stark]

Yeah Gands, I did find that.

Three years ago.

As amazed as I was that anyone considered them especially insightful, it's pretty clear he's exhausted that insight. Maybe he'll do another round of reviewing stuff by request!