Sit Rep

I've been busy with work, but I've managed to send out two stories today (after more rounds of periodic revisions than I'd like to count).

I've sent "The Automatic Pen" to the Writers of the Future Contest and "Ra-Gho-Zu" to Analog.

With the help of different readers from different sources, I made some changes to "Automtic Pen" to address a few logic issues and considered changing the title but kept it. Hopefully, it'll go farther than the Semi-Finals, where "Ra-Gho-Zu" placed.

Speaking of which, I made some editing changes to "Ra-Gho-Zu," I was going to fire it off to Analog, then held it for the Federations anthology, where it got rejected. I was gonna fire it off to Analog a few weeks ago, then got a suggestion to cut short the beginning (which the WOTF judge thought was perfectly fine) and the story is actually faster paced. In hindsight, the Federations rejection helped spur the new draft. The version I sent to the anthology was the one I was going to send to Analog at first. Hopefully, the Analog editorial staff will like the newest draft.

It's all in the laps of the gods now.

I must eke through script rewrites now, when I'm not exhausted by work.

Hailing frequencies closed.

I got a rejection e-mail today from John Joseph Adams for his Federations anthology.

Nichevo.

I'm moving on to another market and with another story.

Fortunately, an acquaintance of mine with a great reader's eye, who'd been indisposed has gotten in touch with me and wants to read my latest fiction stories. Return time is a few weeks.

When she's done, I'll fire it all off. I'm eking away at film script rewrites now.

Signing off.

I just subbed via e-mail an improved version of my WOTF Semi-Final story "Ra-Gho-Zu" to a major anthology market called Federations.

Very hopeful.

The anthology is edited by John Joseph Adams, (quoted from his site) "the editor of the anthologies Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, Seeds of Change, and The Living Dead. He is also the assistant editor at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and is the print news correspondent for SCI FI Wire (the news service of the SCI FI Channel)."

The reading period is from November 1, 2008 to January 1, 2009. Rejections will be sent out quickly, but stories being considered may be held till January 31, 2009.

I was gonna fire it off on November 1, 2008, but I got an e-mail in late October saying that my Odyssey grad crit group was being revamped and seeking submissions. I thought I'd give it a shot and run it by the group to see if it'd pick up on a bug I might've missed.

The story was subbed along with one more to the Odyssey crit group on November 1, 2008. Me and another person critiqued the other story, but mine hasn't gotten a crit so far. The Odyssey crit group works on a free choice basis. I may choose not to participate with it any more.

I got tired of waiting, I know the story is good, and I didn't want to wait too long before subbing to John Joseph Adams, who has already been receiving submissions.

I was going to sub the story to Analog a few weeks ago after being rejected by Jim Baen's Universe. But I learned about the Federations anthology, and so I waited.

It's finally out now. Woohoo!

As Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon, he is often misquoted as saying "The die is cast."

The more accurate quote is "Let the dice fly high!"

I'll be subbing another story to WOTF soon, then I'll put my screenwriting cap on for several months and work on some scripts that've been neglected for too long.

Hailing freqs closed.

It's interesting to live in one of those moments where history is being made.

I have been quiet for a while. Slogging through rewrites, work, and following the election on the Live Journal of Larry Hodges, where I've posted quite a few replies.

I will be sending out my "Ra-Gho-Zu" story to a major market some time next week. I'm just waiting on a final round of crits from people in an Odyssey grad critique group. And I'll be sending a short SF story, "The Automatic Pen" to WOTF about a week later after I get comments from the same crit group. I've decided to put my teen fantasy on hold for next year, while I read some teen novels and get back to some scripts waiting for my loving attention.

Work and the election have been taking up my time. Looking back, I suppose I could've commented a time or two on the election, but I'm not usually a political person and I'd set this blog up for chronicling my fiction/film pursuits.

Nichevo.

Anyone who's periodically checked my blog will have noticed the debates, SNL skits, etc. that I'd embedded. I hope that in some small way, I'd disseminated information that passing web surfers needed in order to decide on what to do for the 2008 election, which I believe is the most momentous in America's history to this point.

I'd debated on whether to vote early or show up on Election Day yesterday. After I'd decided to show up on Election Day, I came across articles that talked about waiting lines at early election polls of anywhere from 3-6 hours and that some polls would likely be mobbed on Election day.

Doh!

In my case, a large and spacious Greek Orthodox church that's right next door to my backyard is my local election poll. Built about 10 years ago, the church has all the frills and is rented out for weddings and parties all the time. I could've walked over, but I drove in order to be prepared to motor out of the place for work in case I had a three or so hour wait.

It took me only an hour all told of waiting, registering, and filling out my ballot. The poll opened at 7 A. I'd forced myself awake at 6 A after only 5 hours of REM time, got ready, and arrived at 6:55 A. A line had formed that stretched around one end of the church. I jogged to get a place, and the line kept forming behind me to reach around another wall.

The pace was decent, though. After about 25 minutes of waiting, I got to the front door, where volunteers were dividing the line into two for each of the two districts that could vote. The line for my district was a lot shorter and I zipped in, did my part, and drove back home to chill before work for an hour. I should've gotten a nap, but I got through the day.

I voted for Obama/Biden and a full Democratic ticket nationally and locally. First time ever. I'm an Independent and I'd voted for both parties in the past. But I voted for Obama as much as I voted against McCain and Palin. The Republican party has vowed to reform and change in order to regain the trust that George W. Bush has shattered. I am extremely skeptical of that when I consider how the GOP faithful has embraced Sarah Palin rather than be insulted at her selection by McCain as a stunt to draw disaffected Hillary voters.

Now the United States has its first black president, who has reached across age, ethnic, and other lines to gain the presidency. I believe he promises as well to be a global president as well with an Indonesian childhood, a Kenyan parentage, and a Middle Eastern name.

The honeymoon period will be sweet, but short since Obama is entering the presidency in circumstances possibly more dire than those that faced FDR: two expensive and mishandled wars in the Middle East that were needless to begin with, a skyrocketing national debt thanks to Bush Jr., rifts with the global community from Bush's "diplomacy," and sundry other issues. The Democrats also have, I believe 56 senate seats and two Independents aligned with them. Not quite filibuster-proof, but still a pretty strong position for passing vital legislation during Obama's presidency.

I believe Barack Obama promises to be an inspirational and capable executive. He'll need to be in order to fix the mess that Bush Jr. has plunged the nation into.

Hailing frequencies closed.

WHY YOU SHOULD OR SHOULD NOT DECIDE TO BE A WRITER

By MICHELE WALLERSTEIN
Screenplay & Novel Consultant
www.novelconsultant.com
email: novelconsult@sbcglobal.net


Writers write for all sorts of reasons. Some of these reasons are perfectly right and reasonable but many are heartbreaking mistakes.

There are people who go to movies and say to their friends and families: “I could have written a better movie than that!” Come on, admit it, you’ve all said it a few times. But if that is your only real motivation, it is pure ego and narcissism. Writing well is tough, grueling work. It takes years to become a really good writer, to be recognized in the film community and to make a living doing it.

There are many, many reasons that bad movies get made. Many of them start out as good screenplays. Perhaps the Producer uses the wrong casting director and the Star wants the dialogue changed to fit his mood, then the Director steps in and wants some changes to fit is “vision” of the film. Then the Producer has some problems with the financier so the film must
be set in Lithuania but it must look like Chicago. By now the original writer has been replaced many times by cheaper writers who are just happy to have some work and will do whatever they are told by anybody. There are so many permutations of the above-mentioned scenario that you can’t even imagine. Everyone starts out trying to make a good film. That’s a given.
What happens after that is a real crap shoot.

No one sits down and simply writes a terrific script. It doesn’t happen that way.

Another reason some people choose to write is to get something personal out of their system and off their chest. They feel that they have to get their story told. Perhaps it is their relationship with their mother or father. Maybe there has been abuse in their family or some other family drama that they need to explore or expose.

Again, this is not a good reason to write a screenplay. This is a very personal situation that may need to be told, confronted, and worked on in therapy, dealt with with loved ones or written about, perhaps, in a journal. It most likely is not a movie.

There are people who think that writing is easy, or that it’s cool, or that it’s fun. There are those who love to read so they think they can write. There are others who don’t know what else to do with their time.

To write a really good screenplay you need to take professional writing classes. You need to go to as many seminars on writing as possible. You need to read as many books on script writing as you can get your hands on. You need to write three or four screenplays then stick them in a closet and really start writing. Screenwriting is like learning how to play the violin or baseball, you have to practice, practice, practice.

A real screenwriter has to love the movies and has to be a real storyteller with a great imagination. This person must understand plot, character development, the three act structure, know what audiences love to see, understand what drama and comedy really are. The great screenwriter understands that any genre must touch upon the inner soul of their audience and make that audience feel something special, learn something special and come away with something new inside of them.

Becoming a professional writer is a long and serious road. It is not for the feint of heart. The rejections are horrible, but the rewards are great. Be sure you are devoting yourself to this process for all the right reasons and you can make it.

Baen's Universe Submission Update: Rejected

I got a short form letter via e-mail from Baen's Universe, saying "Ra-Gho-Zu" was rejected.

Nichevo.

I know the story is good. All I can do is sub to the next market on my list and move on with other stories.

I'd have thought that "Ra-Gho-Zu" would've been up Baen's Universe's alley, though.

Hailing freqs closed.

Sit Rep

It's been a little while...

I've been dark for the last few months, working and writing.

I just electronically posted to Jim Baen's Universe my revised WOTF 2008 1st quarter semifinalist story "Ra-Gho-Zu." Who needs snail mail when a likely market's website offers internet browser uploads?

The Jim Baen's Universe submission deadline for this current window is 11:59 P EST. Talk about cutting it close.

Very interested in hearing the response.

I have rewritten "Ra-Gho-Zu" more times than I care to count. I have to thank the many, many people who looked at the most recent draft I just fired off. It wouldn't be as good as it is without the interest they took in my story and their thoughts.

Now I'm gonna rest up, then work on another short story or two for WOTF and a whole bunch of film scripts languishing from want of attention.

I hope to comment on a film and/or TV show in the near future.

Hailing freqs closed.

Review: “Iron Man”


One cool comic book superhero epic movie.

I didn’t (and still don’t) spend much time reading comics as a kid, but I watched all the cartoons--including the bad ones. Even though Iron Man doesn’t have the same iconic recognition as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Spiderman, the X-Men, etc., I knew who he was.

From what I’m told, he started out in Marvel Comics in 1963 as an anti-communist hero, then moved on to fighting evil in general. Unlike most other heroes, he’s not from another planet nor did he get his powers from magic or genetic mutation. He’s self-made from American technological know-how.

His alter ego, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), is a playboy billionaire weapons manufacturer and genius inventor modeled after Howard Hughes. After watching this film, I wished I had an aptitude for pushing technological boundaries.

Downey, while not the prototypical actor for a comic book superhero (which usually goes to young heartthrobs) is an actor of intelligence who draws from his own checkered past to initially play Tony Stark as a boozing, womanizing genius. Stark runs Stark Industries, the company he inherited from his father and the world's leading weapons manufacturer. Life is good. He blithely glosses over the death and destruction in which his company plays a major role. “They say the best weapon is one you never have to fire,” he says before demonstrating his latest missile, the Jericho. “I prefer the weapon you only need to fire once.” Downey delivers a knockout performance that by itself is worth the price of admission to watch. Fortunately, I got in at $7.95 with a student ID--and saw it twice on opening day.

“Iron Man” starts in the present, or recent past. With superb direction from an unlikely Jon Favreau (“Made,” “Elf,” and “Zathura,” none of which I saw), the movie opens in Afghanistan. There, Tony Stark displays his Jericho missile system for top US military and allied Arab brass. The Jericho test firing demolishes half a mountain, insuring big orders on his latest product of mass destruction. Afghan guerrilla insurgents, using Stark-issue military spec, then capture Stark and wipe out his Air Force escort.

Seriously wounded with shrapnel in his chest, Stark is brought to a cave where the gun-toting insurgents have set up shop. A Gandhi-like Yinsen (Shaun Toub), saves Stark with beyond next generation heart surgical skills. Yinsen implants a cylindrical electromagnet into Stark’s chest that keeps the shrapnel in his from reaching his ticker and other vital organs, resulting in instant flatline. Once Stark is saved, the insurgent leader, a chrome-domed thug named Raza (Faran Tahir), wants Stark to build him another Jericho missile.

Or else.

Under closed circuit surveillance, Stark doesn’t build a missile, but a miniature Ark reactor (fusion?) to power his chest electromagnet and an armor suit with mechanical arms and legs, and a weapons system featuring Gatling guns, flamethrowers, and missile launchers that fire out of his arms. Topping it off is an iron mask that’s a cross between a welder’s helmet and a goalie mask. When the amazingly stupid insurgents do catch on, it’s too late. Yinsen sacrifices himself to buy Stark time to power up his MacGyvered suit, which he uses to blast their camp to smithereens and fly--sort of--out of harm’s way.

Stark returns from three months in captivity a changed man. He's seen the horrors he has helped perpetrate. No more weapons manufacturing for Stark Industries, he says. Against the wishes of his ambitious No. 2, Obadiah Stane (a bald and bearded Jeff Bridges), Stark sets a new agenda of redemption and keeping the world safe from his weapons, aided by his trusted assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow with red hair) with whom he shares a budding romance and his best friend, U.S. Air Force Col. Jim “Rhodey” Rhodes (Terrence Howard). Everyone thinks he’s lost his mind, though.

The pieces of the first Iron Man lie in the Afghanistan desert, soon to be reassembled by Raza’s insurgents. Meanwhile the suddenly pacifistic Stark rebuilds a new and improved Iron Man suit (amid several funny snafus in the trial stage) , sleek red and yellow and looking like a 1952 Buick Roadmaster. As he pushes ahead with his quest for redemption, Stark uncovers a diabolical plot against him set in motion by a hidden enemy and makes full use of his new gold titanium plated alter-ego.

Despite being worked over by four screenwriters, the story is smart (though the insurgents could use more development), the dialogue features witty lines mostly from Downey, and the CGI is first rate with viewers hard pressed to tell where the effects end and a real suit is brought in.

For all the effects, Favreau thankfully doesn’t forget the man in “Iron Man.” A mark of his indie roots. Though brilliant and rich, Stark is a man with “character defects,” as he himself puts it. His enemies are men, too, corporate raiders and militants living in caves in the Middle East. This might be the most relevant superhero tale we have yet seen.

"Iron Man" is by far the highest profile outing for both Favreau and Downey. Downey, who was once uninsurable, has led a career much like Johnny Depp's--acclaimed for quirky roles in interesting movies, but never breaking through as a draw at the box office. “Iron Man” could be his “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

Compared to other recent superhero movies, I’d say “Iron Man” is a notch below “Batman Begins” (the reigning king of comic superhero movies), but on par with the second installments in the “X-Men” and “Spider-Man” franchises. With a few developments hinted at, like Iron Man’s partner, War Machine, and a big bad (he wears ten rings), the pieces have been set for a hopefully stellar sequel in, I believe April 2010.

Sit Rep

I've been quiet for a while...from writing.

I finished revising my YA fantasy, "The Dance," which I'll sub to WOTF. After I put it through an extensive round of critting. Hopefully, my readers will agree with my assessment that it's a good piece for its kind. :-)

I will soon start revising my 1st qtr 2008 WOTF Semi-Finalist tale "Ra-Gho-Zu" before subbing it to a likely market. I can hardly wait.

I finished rewriting the first of my five script rewrites and am waiting to consult with my script reader, who's been on the road.

I expect that after I finish my fiction, I'll dive back into the other script rewrites.

Some will be tougher than others. :-/

And if I find the time and energy, I will write a review on a TV episode and/or film in the near future.

Later.

K.D. Wentworth Crit

At last I got my long-awaited crit from SF writer/WOTF judge K.D. Wentworth of my 1st qtr WOTF story, "Ra-Gho-Zu."

She packed a lot of info into one page.

I expect to model my short crits after this one.

My story received consideration as a Finalist, but the second half didn't quite mesh well enough with the first half.

Doh!

I'll rework the story a bit and then shop it around to likely markets.

I'm working now on a fantasy YA story for WOTF, and aiming to make it good as others of its kind go. It's doing better than I expected, especially since I'm not a fan of this genre. But I thought it'd be good to stretch my wings a bit rather than confine myself to favorite territory.

It'd be something if my YA story placed higher in WOTF than my SF story, which is also the pilot for a planned saga of mine. My YA tale may also be my last short story for a while, since I want to get started on novels that I've put off for way too long.

Hailing frequencies closed.

Stargate Atlantis: "The Kindred" Part 1

Not my favorite storyline
We finally see Kanan--no Kanaan onscreen.

The father of Teyla's unborn baby finally appears.

In "Be All My Sins Remember'd," he was Kanan (the same name as the Tok'ra symbiote Jack O'Neill was blended with in SG-1 Season 6 episode "Abyss"). Now he's Kanaan (a belated last second spelling tweak?)

Tomato. Tomatoe.

Not having met Kanan--er, Kanaan until this episode, he didn't strike me as being particularly memorable or charming. Intellectually, I know he's supposed to be important to Teyla since she reveals that she's known him since childhood and he shares the same ability to detect the Wraith as she does. Emotionally, he wasn't built up for me to connect with him.

Teyla receives dreams of Kanaan (an ability she's never had before), telling her to search for signs of him on the planet Croya. The dreams are so lucid and clear that it feels like an oversight when Kanaan doesn't say where he actually is. I wonder how the dreams would've been if Teyla and Kanaan had walked walked through a marketplace that she vaguely recognized and Kanaan had said something cryptic about how important the planet Croya is?

At the same time, Keller reports to Carter and Team Atlantis that a new illness is spreading througout the Pegasus galaxy that kills 30% of the humans it infects and all the Wraith who feed on them. Keller also knows already that it's a variation on the innoculation developed by the Hoffan people in Season 1 "Poisoning the Well" to make humans toxic to the Wraith.

Teyla goes to Croya, where she finds a man selling Athosian jewelry. She gets him to show her where he found the trinkets, but a dart beams her up on the way to the stargate. A set up.

Meantime, Todd the Wraith sets off a subspace beacon to signal Sheppard to come to a meeting, where they trade info on the Hoffan protein for the location of Michael, the Wraith-Human hybrid, who by process of elimination must be behind the latest attack on the Wraith.

Teyla wakes up on a Wraith ship, where she finds Michael staring at her. He shows her that the feeding orifice on his right hand is gone thanks to genetic engineering and tells her he sent the dreams, posing as Kanaan, has plans for her baby, says he created a new uber race to replace the Wraith by mutating the Athosians, and displays Kanaan, who's a brainwashed Wraith-human hybrid.

With Todd's help, Sheppard and Lorne take their teams to a planet, where Michael may have a base. Caldwell transports them on the Daedalus. After he beams them to the base, a Wraith cruiser jumps out of hyperspace, and he commences to skirmish with just conventional rail gun batteries. Sheppard and Lorne's teams have an average fire fight with some Wraith worshipping humans armed with single shot hand stunners. No contest.

The Wraith cruiser (presumably with Teyla on board) flees into hyperspace when the Daedalus belatedly uses its Asgard beam weapons and Sheppard and Rodney find Beckett in a holding cell.

Beckett is wondering what took them so long, and things cut out at this point to be continued next week.

Lots of telling and infodumping in this episode with no drama.

Kanaan, unseen for 4 years and newly invented this season, has no impact and is a victim rather than an active character.

Beckett is supposedly the real Beckett even though he was killed in Season 3 "Sunday." I'll wait for the explanation on how this is possible.

It was nice to see Beckett again, but I don't feel that he should've been "killed" in the first place.

Carter and Teyla had a small bonding moment when Carter let Teyla go to Croya even though she thought it was a trap, telling Teyla to call her Sam. Moments like this were few and far in between this season. And ultimately irrelevant since Carter was around only part time and will not be a regular character next year.

Compared to other season finales and two-parters, this story leaves me uninvolved and skeptical.

Stargate Atlantis: "Midway"

Average
Teal'c versus Ronon Smackdown

I hadn't been looking forward to Teal'c and Ronon coming together because I was more focused on Daniel Jackson coming to Atlantis and the Weir-Carter debacle of Season 4.

I'm not necessarily against Teal'c and Ronon meeting, but Teal'c's character doesn't have a dramatic need to come to Atlantis. With SG-1 supposedly disbanded (again), Teal'c's priorities lie with taking care of the Jaffa nation.

Anyhow, Teal'c comes to Atlantis to coach Ronon on handling a xenophobic IOA interview. The two share some fisticuffs, end up in a draw, and then get caught up in a Wraith attempt to take over the Midway Station and infiltrate the SGC. When Teal'c and Ronon follow the first Wraith wave to Earth, Sheppard and Rodney come onto Midway with a few teams of marines and swap the station with Wraith reinforcements a few times before blowing up the station and escaping in a puddle jumper. On Earth, Teal'c and Ronon save the SG-C. Ronon then passes the interview of the IOA stiff who originally wanted to find an excuse to get him out of Atlantis. And Ronon flies back to Atlantis on the Daedalus to pick up Sheppard, Rodney, and a few survivors who were going stir crazy after a couple weeks in the puddle jumper.

On a surface level, this episode was a definite step up from the fillers of the last few weeks, full of superficial action and thrills. But that's just it. I feel this episode has little beyond the surface.

After three years of Teyla faithfully serving Atlantis and Ronon for two (not to mention Teal'c's 10 years on SG-1), there's suddenly one man, Coolidge, who's taking it on himself to review whether nonEarth humans can serve on Atlantis/SGC teams.

When Teal'c and Ronon meet, do they have to fight? What interpersonal conflicts do they have that'd motivate the fight? And when they do, how can they go one hour when full contact matches usually end in a few minutes? On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest, why do the Atlantis marines spar with Ronon at a 4, while Ronon revs up to 12?

Teal'c looks trim and his new long hair-style is dashing. But he didn't seem like himself in this episode, particularly when he told Ronon he would "very much" like to have a blaster such as Ronon's. As Master Bra'tac taught, it's not the weapon, but the heart that makes a Jaffa.

Kavanaugh, a recurring scientist character, who was formerly stationed on Atlantis returns to demonstrate that he's not only cowardly, but incompetent. He somehow doesn't know that using the system bypass feature to override the lockouts put in place by the Wraith trigger Midway station's self-destruct.

When the Wraith first come onto the station, Dr. Lee and the rest of the staff do nothing to seal off the control room and send an alert to the SG-C and Atlantis. There are no anti-intruder defenses and hardly any Air Force airmen stationed to resist a hostile take over.

Since the Wraith are capable of jury rigging a Pegasus stargate to access Midway and then override a security lockout of Midway's systems to reach the SG-C, why bother pumping Lee for the password? When did the Wraith learn how to read English? The Wraith commander who took over the station had a not so clever conversation with Sheppard in which he promised to bring Sheppard "a world of hurt." Would a Wraith channel an ECW smack-talking wrestler?

When Sheppard took back the station briefly, why did the Wraith open the control room and how did the Wraith who had Sheppard and his team in a crossfire miss?

The Atlantis marines and Wraith exchanged a lot of weapons fire without worrying about damaging sensitive equipment and causing breaches in the Midway station hull that'd bring on explosive decompression.

When Rodney and Lee decide to vent the atmosphere, the Wraith commander who'd gotten the information on Midway from Todd who'd hacked Rodney's database in Atlantis attacked Sheppard before getting shot and suffocated. What did the Wraith commander (with no name and personality) hope to accomplish? With the oxygen also totally vented while he fought the Wraith, how did Sheppard get himself into a pressure suit that requires the help of at least one other person and several minutes to enter?

It would've been nice to see Carter leading a team onto Midway at Sheppard's side, but that's not in keeping with her impersonation of Weir. It was strange seeing Walter in the SG-C control room without Landry (or SG-1) hovering over his shoulder.

If the Wraith had taken over the SGC, what could they have expected to achieve without the support of a fleet of hive ships in orbit? How would they have held out when the US military realized that the SGC was compromised, sealed it off, and directed a nuclear strike at Cheyenne mountain?

As Teal'c and Ronon swept the base for Wraith, they came across Coolidge, who unlike everyone else in the base was reviving from the Wraith stun wave that knocked everyone out. How? And why did Teal'c and Ronon listen to Coolidge when he demanded to be taken to a radio to contact the US military, which decided to set off a tactical nuclear warhead at the base. What did Coolidge hope to accomplish?

Even though the Earth episodes of Season 4 strike me as SG-1 installments with the Atlantis cast, the Wraith seeking to reach Earth is a legitimate Atlantis storyline. "Midway" struck me as being rushed, though, and in need of more development, providing enough material for two episodes, like the Genii take over of Atlantis in Season 1 "The Storm" and "The Eye."

Additionally, I find the IOA to be a weak and annoying antagonist on the homefront unlike the NID when it was run by Colonel Mayborne, who tried to take over the SGC during the first few seasons to aggressively exploit the Stargate and acquire alien technology at all costs and no scruples. I constantly find myself wondering what the producers find so fascinating about the IOA?

It was good to see fallout from Todd's collaboration with Atlantis earlier this season. With the conclusion of this episode, we know there's at least one faction of Wraith with sensitive information on Atlantis and likely the SGC as well. Until the Midway station is rebuilt, its loss will complicate the movement of personnel and supplies while Atlantis' one ZPM is at less than full capacity.

If one overlooks the superficial characterizations and logic loopholes, then "Midway" is definitely a popcorn blockbuster of an episode.

Supernatural: "Jus In Bello"

"Series classic"
The stakes ante up...

A couple of Season 3 plot threads begin to come to a head in this episode.

Trailing Bella for her theft of the Colt in "Dream a Little Dream of Me," the brothers Winchester track Bella to her latest hideout. Except it's empty--and Agent Henricksen comes busting in (thanks to a tip from Bella) with backup to finally nab 'em.

As the brothers cool their heels in the local hoosegow waiting for transportation to maximum security prison, over 30 demons come to kill them. After Henricksen is possessed and freed, he becomes a believer in demons and other things that go bump in the night.

It was interesting to see how Henricksen bonded with Dean and Sam, which made his death at the end more tragic and poignant. Henricksen would've been a great ally and convert to the hunter ranks, but now the brothers'll have to get by on their own, like they always have. Thegood thing is the Feds now think they're dead, giving them room to maneuver without pesky law enforcement stiffs trying to arrest them.

As the brothers, Henricksen, and the local cops struggled to stay alive, Dean and Henricksen focused on keeping safe the sheriff's secretary, Nancy. A sweet girl and a virgin.

When Ruby came to help out, she was understandably upset to learn that they'd lost the Colt. But she comes up with a plan, cast a spell to destroy every demon in 1 mile, including herself.

The cost?

Cutting out the heart of a virgin.

Sam considers it (another sign of his slipping to the Dark Side), which bothers Dean to no end. But Dean and Henricksen veto that course, making Ruby leave 'em to their fates and bemoaning that she picked the wrong side in the demon war to support.

Dean strikes on an alternative plan, let the demons into the jail and fight 'em off.

Brilliant?

Somehow it works. The brothers and friends break the demon seals--then reseal them and cast a spell that offs all the demons and saves their hosts. Except for one who got away before Nancy could finish laying down a line of salt.

After Sam and Dean leave, a little girl comes in, looking for them. When Nancy asks her name, she says "Lillith" and casts a bright white light that blots out everything.

Ruby visits Sam and Dean, bringing to their attention a newscast of the jailhouse being blown up with the presumed loss of everyone there. Ruby gives the brothers charms to hide 'em from Lillith and warns they better listen to her next time and be willing to do what it takes to come survive.

"Jus In Bello," acceptable practices while in war, is the perfect title for this episode.

The only quibble I had with this episode was the demon possessing Henricksen's boss (the first one on the scene), Deputy Director Steven Groves. He kept up the FBI director act--until he tried to blow Dean away with a silenced 9 millimeter. Nice play on Dean and Sam playing law enforcement, but why pretend when he had the brothers alone and why not fry 'em with flame from his fingertips, snap their necks with a snap of his fingers, etc.?

I can hardly wait to see what'll come next in the next few episodes. The brothers have to decide how ruthless they have to be in fighting the demon war and Sam may have to consider stepping up to take Lillith for the role of the demon messiah in order to "save" Dean from going to hell.

If Dean does, though, I feel the writers are talented enough to get good mileage out of this storyline and keep it going for a lot of episodes. Maybe all of Season 4?

Here's hoping the CW renews the series for next year.

Breaking WOTF update:

I got a voicemail today saying I'm actually a Semi-Finalist eligible to get a crit from K.D. Wentworth.

This was a surprise...

I'm looking forward to poring over K.D. Wentworth's thoughts before I fire the story off to Baen's Universe--or Analog. :-)

Hailing frequencies closed.

WOTF Results

I just got a letter in the mail today telling me that my "Ra-Gho-Zu" short SF fiction story placed as a quarter-finalist in the 1st qtr of the WOTF 2008 contest. My name will be posted in the WOTF blog sooner or later.

They're calling quarter-finalists "Honorable Mentions" now. It's still the same thing. We don't get anything except a credit on a short story/novel cover letter to an editor at the most.

Quarter-finalist in 2006 and a quarter-finalist in 2008 again... Unlike the first time, I also get a certificate (and a footnote mention in the WOTF blog).

I could keep on submitting to WOTF except I have to move beyond short stories and onto novels I need to write. Short story publications don't earn fiction writers very much. Reputations are made with novels, which pay better (even though few novelists earn enough to go without a day job). I will go to plan B now: shopping my story with likely short fiction markets (one at a time since simultaneous subs are frowned on).

Two candidates that stand out to me are Jim Baen's Universe and Analog Science Fiction & Fact.

On with the grind.

Stargate Atlantis: "Harmony"

"Filler episode"
Rodney finally gets the girl. She just has to grow up.

Overview: Two gorgeous princesses, Mardola and Flora, on a medieval Pegasus galaxy human world sweet talk Sheppard and Rodney into accompanying their preteen sister, Harmony (aka Adria at 7 in SG-1 Season 10 "Flesh and Blood"), on her rite of passage as queen to nearby Ancient ruins.

Sheppard and Rodney must protect Harmony on their journey from a "Beast" and some Genii hired by Mardola, I believe, who doesn't want Harmony to become queen and is after a Genii alliance. Along the way, Harmony develops a crush on Sheppard like pretty much all the other Pegasus women he's run across. She also proposes to him to be her king.

At one point, when Sheppard decides to head back to the castle, Harmony slips off to continue on her own. Sheppard and Rodney go searching post haste. When they find her, she's roasting a bird over a spit. Impressive, but how did the Genii not find her? Since they're closer to the ruins, which the "Beast" doesn't enter according to local lore, Sheppard agrees to push ahead.

Sheppard and Rodney eventually work out that the "Beast" is actually a defensive screen of Ancient microdrones that take out everyone who doesn't have the Ancient gene. Harmony, who has the gene along with Sheppard and Rodney, is able to recharge her pendant, an Ancient data crystal of some sort, as Sheppard and Rodney repair the defensive systems to drive the Genii off. Harmony gushes over Rodney who took her down from a hail of Genii bullets earlier.

Back at the castle, Harmony storms into Mardola's room with some servants, who search her things and find a Genii radio, exposing her as a traitor. At her coronation, Harmony unveils a speedily crafted painting of a heroic-looking Rodney protecting her with Sheppard cringing in the background. Will she propose to Rodney, too?

My reaction to Harmony was conflicted. On the one hand, she was bratty and manipulative. On the other hand, she was also smart, precocious, brave, gritty enough to eat a bird's heart, and a good huntress and woodsman. The things she can do with her little pocket knife. It would've been interesting to see her do 'em. It was also funny the way how she played McKay and made him look like a villain to Sheppard, stealing a food bar from his backpack and giving it to Rodney for Sheppard to catch seemingly red-handed. LOL.

Something that wasn't clear as the episode went along was why Harmony was the would-be queen when she had two older sisters ready to take the throne? Who's ruling in Harmony's stead as she comes of age? And if Team Atlantis has been to Harmony's world before, why is it only now Sheppard and Rodney meet her for the first time?

At one point, Rodney and Sheppard theorize about how the Ancients must have developed drone technology on the planet (very coincidental and convenient), which is why there are people with the Ancient gene who can use the Ancient technology in the castle. What technology? There wasn't any sign of it in the castle scenes.

The pseudo-Arthurian light fantasy dialogue that all aliens on Atlantis and SG-1 speak in (except for Vala and Ronon who talk very Earth-like) was broken by modern-sounding dialogue lines such as:

Harmony (to Sheppard and Rodney): "We can go when the coast is clear."

Mardola (into radio to Genii field commander): "I need an update."

And Harmony's name is pretty hippylike compared to her sisters' monikers. I have to consciously overlook the conceit that the aliens and nonEarth humans on Atlantis and SG-1 speak English. It jars when the storytelling suffers, like it did in this episode. It would've been nice if the producers had SG-1 and Atlantis discover translator technology they can use in offworld contacts.

It also wasn't clear whether the Genii leader Ladon Radim sanctioned the Genii strike force or if they were rogues. What would Harmony's world have gained from allying with the Genii over Atlantis? And just what did Atlantis get from Harmony's world in return for all food, medicine, and help against the Wraith they offered over the last few years?

The Genii in this episode were anonymous and not very competent. In one scene where Rodney and Harmony were without Sheppard, a squad of Genii got the drop on them. The Genii squad leader disarmed Rodney, but rather than step up to pistol whip Rodney and take Harmony, he let Rodney ramble for mercy for a few minutes. During which time, Sheppard maneuvered in the background to take out the squad with one shot.

The unnamed Genii field commander was able to go between the castle to confer with Mardola and the forest search for Harmony without any apparent loss in time.

The Genii have been glaringly absent this season. When we last saw Radim in Season 3 "The Return" Part 1, he was trying to recruit Teyla and Ronon to join him as he was organizing a resistance against the Wraith. It seems that storyline's been forgotten by the Atlantis writers this year.

And there was no mention of why Sheppard and Rodney were offworld without the rest of Team Atlantis. It's just as well. I doubt Rodney can get a lot of stock out of beating Sheppard for the affections of a preteen girl.

This episode encapsulates a lot of the sloppy storytelling that's been plaguing the series. After the first two seasons, I keep expecting more, but the show has been falling short for me in several episodes this year.

I hope the showrunners turn things around before they get worse.

WHAT AN AGENT DOES FOR YOU
By
MICHELE WALLERSTEIN
A screenplay & novel consultant


All writers know that they want an agent, but few writers know what to expect once they get one.

Agents, generally, are responsible for what’s known as the (3) three S’s of representation. They are: SIGNING, SERVICING and SELLING.
That’s it. It sounds simple, but it isn’t. First of all every Agency is different in its size, which means that the individual agents may have more, or less, personal responsibilities. You must change your expectations if you want to work the system well and in a productive manner.

Defining the 3 S’s is easy. The doing of them is complicated.

1. SIGNING requires a variety of efforts. The agent must research and find the writer he/she wishes to sign. Then they must launch an attack to lure the client. That means getting to them, taking them out to lunches, dinners, drinks, Hollywood parties, screenings and more. It requires a modicum of charm and deceit. The deceit lies in “stealing” a writer from another agency who may have been doing an excellent job. The new agent needs to assure the writer that they will be much better. Signing also requires knowing who all of the hot “newbie” writers are and trying to get them. That means going to screenings of independent film, film festivals, and new writer seminars. It means reading all of the new material that gets some heat. The charm lies in being able to sell a writer on signing a contract with an agency they may not need. As you can imagine, all of the above takes a great deal of time.

2. SERVICING means keeping your current clients happy. Wining and dining them is important. The agent must read all their new material. This includes going over new story ideas, treatments, spec scripts and pitches. Servicing often means listening to client’s personal problems, philosophies, interests etc. It may also include going to their weddings, their kid’s Bar Mitzvahs, confirmations and many other personal occasions. As you can imagine, all of the above takes a great deal of time.

3. SELLING means being able to get a huge amount of information as to what the town wants to buy at any particular moment. This requires great personal relationships with a large number of producers, studio executives, story editors, television show runners, assistants and development executives. Agents need to have good reputations with these people so that their material gets read quickly and with an open mind. Agents have to know how to close a deal, get the material to the right people, get buzz going around town about a new spec script and often they must have the ability to package a project with the right director, star and producer. Packaging in and of itself is very complex. As you can imagine, all of the above takes a great deal of time.


Once you understand the basic work of your agent you also need to know the differences between large and small agencies. Let’s start with the larger agencies. ICM, William Morris, APA, etc., are big and have many agents, employees, department heads, a legal department, an accounting department, various talent departments such as actors, music, literary, and more. All of this seems well and good until you realize that this means that your agent must go to endless meetings and be subject to the pressures of inside competition as well as outside competition. They are also under the pressure of doing what they are told by their department heads and the heads of the agency itself. However, they do have those helpful legal and accounting departments to work with them on negotiating deals and reviewing tedious contracts.

The smaller agencies sometimes don’t have the help of legal and accounting departments, but they do have a certain amount of freedom and time to better service their clients with more personally and with more thought. They are often people with more entrepreneurial spirits and creative bents.

Whereas in a large agency the client is more likely to speak to the assistants on a regular basis, in the smaller agencies you will be more apt to have a real relationship with your agent.

Certainly there are more differences within different agency structures, and I will deal with those in future articles. I hope this gives you the basics of what to expect and the knowledge of what your agent is doing when he/she is not on the phone with you.

Michele Wallerstein is a novel and screenplay “doctor” who was formerly an agent for writers, producers and directors in Hollywood. She was Executive Vice-President of Women In Film, is a member of the Academy Of Television Arts and Sciences, serves as a guest speaker at numerous seminars and Film Festivals and writes monthly articles on The Business Of Writing for various ezines.

For her consulting services and/or questions Michele can be reached at:
email: novelconsult@sbcglobal.net
Web site: Novelconsultant.com

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: "The Turk"

"Average"
Is the series stretching thin?

This episode started on an interesting note with Sarah seeing the scientists of the US Manhattan project developing the A bomb, shooting them, and then seeing them morph into Terminators with weapons that they aim at her.

Sarah wakes up and sends John and Cameron off to school, while she begins sussing out other people who could've carried on Dyson's work after he died.

The main stories in this episode were: Sarah investigating a former intern of Dyson's, Andy Goode, for signs of whether his homemade AI, The Turk, had the capacity to become sentient, John and Cameron finding their niches in their unnamed high school, Cromartie coopting a molecular biologist into growing synthetic skin on his metal exoskeleton, and Agent Ellison bringing up the rear as he investigates the murders of the unknown Resistance team.

I felt that Sarah's time with Andy was filled with lots of good moral angst as she decided whether to kill Andy or not in order to stop Skynet's development. Along the way, she was being trailed by an unknown survivor of the Resistance cell, who is waiting for some unknown reason to make contact. It was a good twist resolution to see Sarah set Andy's home on fire, hopefully destroying the Turk, in place of putting a bullet in Andy's forehead.

It was puzzling to see Cameron lose the human touch she had in the pilot and channel a semi-lobotomized River Tam from Serenity instead. It would've been interesting to see what classmate relationships Cameron and John could've developed, but it didn't happen. Instead things focused on a girl whom River--er, Cameron talked to in a bathroom, who was upset over a hallway painting of a door with the letters "IDAN." The girl was so upset she jumped off the roof of the school gym. Without knowing her or the context, getting involved with her death was a bit tough. John tried to climb up the building to talk her down, but Cameron kept him rooted to help keep their low profile. It was nice seeing John begin to want to take action to help others, but I wondered what the first day of school established? I expect John and Cameron will be too busy with Cromartie and the other Terminators to get caught up in on-school dramas, though.

Cromartie steals several units of plasma from a hospital, goes to the apartment of a molecular biologist, and writes up a complex biochemical equation on the scientist's wall. It's apparently for skin generation. At the end, Cromartie sits up in the scientist's bathtub, which is full of blood, and he's swathed with new skin. The scientist cuts open the eye socket linings, letting Cromartie show us his bright red eyes. Thing is, we were shown an earlier scene in which Ellison and the police arrive at the scientist's apartment to find a guy (the scientist?) with his eyes removed. Was the bathtub scene a flashback? Also, why should Cromartie care so much about maintaining cover as a human? I'd think that his overriding imperative would be to continue seeking out John--and inform Skynet that John has jumped to 2007 to bring more Terminators into the hunt.

We see Agent Ellison playing catch up to Sarah and company. The police wonder why he's so interested in what they think is a drug bust gone bad. Ellison learns that one of the dead Resistance fighters has finger prints that match up with a 4-year-old boy living in Ohio. Interesting. It seems to me that Ellison is being set up into becoming a believer and ally. I wonder if it'll matter down the road?

Charlie was completely absent this time around. I wonder what role, if any he'll play in future episodes? I still don't see the purpose he played when John visited him in his apartment in "Gnothi Seauton."

Lots of dangling threads in this episode which I'm beginning to suspect aren't getting woven into a smooth tapestry.

Moonlight: "The Mortal Cure"

"Above average"
A premature season finale... A bit on the open-ended side.

I understand "The Mortal Cure" wasn't meant to be the season finale. That said, I thought it could've been better when I consider the last few episodes that'd come earlier.

This episode was centered around Mick getting the "cure" and getting tangled up in the trouble Coraline got herself into with Lance, a powerful ancient vampire...and her "brother." The B-storyline of Beth grieving over Josh, learning that he was going to propose to her, and being angry at Mick for refusing to "turn" Josh wasn't complementary, but a distraction.

I felt that Beth's part could've been reduced to her receiving condolences for Josh, learning about the ring he was prepping for her, and blowing Mick off at the beginning and then meeting Mick at Josh's funeral when he got the cure towards the end. The rest of the episode could've been devoted to Mick and Coraline to better effect.

Anyhow, after Beth gives him the cold shoulder, Mick goes to his office, where he picks up a scent...

The older a vamp gets, the more rank? (if that's the right word) the vamp becomes. New "Moonlight" worldbuilding detail. Ergo Coraline and Josef must be musky. Mick's apartment is rank.

A tall, cocky-looking guy with a black eye stands on Mick's balcony, giving him a lordly smile. A thickset linebacker type stands at the tall guy's back like he's "an indentured servant." The tall guy proceeds to demonstrate that he knows everything about Mick, including the fact that Mick was sired by Coraline, who he wants.

Mick says he doesn't know where she is, and the tall guy and his manservant go leaping off the balcony into the night a la Spiderman, but without the webslinging. Nice.

Mick goes to Josef, who says the tall guy is Lance, an ancient vamp who makes Josef seem like a "pauper." Lance never leaves Europe, but since he has, Coraline must've done something major to draw him to LA. Josef warns Mick to stay out of things and look out for himself. Naturally, Mick doesn't take Josef's advice.

Mick looks through hospital video footage during the time of Coraline's disappearance to see that she was carted out by a vamp friend of hers, Cynthia. With the help of his vamp hacker friend, Logan, Mick tracks Cynthia to a LA hotel. Cynthia says Coraline took off for Europe. Mick doesn't believe her, he leaves, and she abruptly drops out. I wondered why she was brought into the episode in the first place?

Somehow, Mick tracks Coraline to a warehouse where she's running experiments on a "compound" with plants and monkeys. Lance comes busting in alone, dispatches Coraline's vamp lab tech, and is about to take her away with him when Mick intervenes--

And gets his butt handed to him.

Coraline runs off, then so does Lance. Mick stays to put out a lab fire and calls the cleaner squad in. The head cleaner, a lady vamp named Celeste, lets slip that the warehouse is a hot spot for her crew--and that Mick doesn't need a catastrophe to call her up. Mick barely gives her a nod and heads off. What purpose did Celeste's crush on Mick and knowing that she's been coming to the warehouse serve?

Mick finds Beth at his apartment, who wants to lean on his shoulder over Josh. Coraline then shows up, and Beth leaves. Coraline then reveals that King Louis, and several members of the French court before the French Revolution were vamps, making the French Revolution out to be a vampire purge. Coraline also infodumps on Lance being one of "seven brothers" among the vampire aristocracy, who used the "cure" to temporarily become human and avoid the guillotine. Interesting reinterpretation of history, but I'm on the fence about Louis himself being a vamp.

Beth tells Mick that she simply wanted to know what it was like to "live again" so that she could know love with him and give back a little bit of what she took from him. This sounds like quite a character struggle. Too bad we didn't see this on the series (and how she survived being burned alive). She cuts Mick's arm, dabs the "cure" (a reddish paste), and the wound stays unhealed.

As the two go off to hide, Mick goes on about how he starts to feel warm and human again. Which is when Lance reappears. With his manservant this time. (Why wasn't the bodyguard at the warehouse, too?)

Mick starts to go paranoid on Coraline, saying she stripped him of his powers so Lance could take him down. But Lance points out he can take Mick down any day of the week at his vampire best, and it's simply not about Mick.

Fisticuffs commence, and Mick gets tossed around like a rag doll. He does a good job staking the bodyguard, though. Coraline holds up for a little while against Lance. But when Mick bats Lance in the back with a pipe (why not take the baddie's head off?), Lance just shrugs it off and tosses Mick into the back window of a nearby car.

As Lance advances on Mick, who lies gasping on the pavement, to apply the final coup de grace, Coraline offers to go quietly with Lance and give him all the compound she stole from him. Lance accepts, but not before telling Coraline she's in for a world of punishment at the hands of "him," their sire no doubt. Somehow, Mick realizes that Coraline is one of the vamp aristocrat siblings. Lance stakes Coraline, tells Mick "Welcome to the family," and takes off with Coraline.

Mick staggers home, puts some bandages on, eats a couple loads of Chinese delivery, and sleeps on a couch for the first time in years.

He shows up at Josh's funeral, where Beth realizes that he's human again. But only temporarily. We see that Beth is wearing Josh's grandmother's ring even though she'd said earlier that she wasn't sure whether she'd have accepted Josh's proposal.

Mick and Beth give each other searching looks at the priest orates on how life is finite and we have to make the best of the time we have. But where will these two go considering that Mick being a vampire is their stumbling block and his "cure" is temporary?

Some interesting elements and issues were raised here, but not focused on. No doubt they'll be developed when the WGA finally gets its act together and works out a deal that'll end the writers strike.

In addition to the other nits I noted, I thought we could've seen Josef come to give Mick support--and get beaten down alongside with him to show what a good friend he is. After all he owes Mick for helping him out with the ex-military hitman in "Sleeping Beauty." And with Josef coming out to face Lance, we could've gotten to see some of the tensions between "modern" vamps and the more "ancient" ones. Moonlight is apparently going with the implication that older vampires are more powerful than newer ones like in Forever Knight and Buffy/Angel. I'm fine with that.

This episode wasn't bad, but I felt it could've been better.

Stargate Atlantis: "Quarantine"

"They did this one already"
A "computer goes berserk" episode... It's been done better on Trek.

A computer medical quarantine program, either an Atlantean one or something written by Rodney, activates out of the blue and locks people into different parts of the city: Rodney and Katie in a bio lab, Carter and Zelenka in an elevator/transporter, Ronon and Keller in sickbay, and Sheppard and Teyla in Rodney's computer lab. The self-destruct sequence and a distress beacon that can alert the Wraith are activated.

Needless to say, Team Atlantis manages to save the city and shut down the beacon to keep the Wraith and Pegasus galaxy at large from learning Atlantis' new location. It's Zelenka rather than the usual hero Sheppard, who shuts down the power to the computer system to save the day.

The Atlantis producers have said they wanted to avoid reusing old plots, but they've already done it a few times this season and this week's installment was another retread. The premise of an old program coming out of nowhere to take control and wreak havoc is one of SF TV's overused standard plots. At least two others I can think of are: Trek TNG Season 5 episode "Disaster" and Trek DS9 Season 3 episode "Civil Defense."

"Quarantine" by comparison to those episodes strikes me as less dramatic. One tech bug I wasn't certain on was how the city's computer system shut down the Atlantis expedition's wireless communications, which I believe is Earth-based technology.

I will pass on a plot recap detailing the various situations. The main thing that went on in this installment was relationships: the likely start of a couple (Ronon and Keller), the ending of another (Rodney and Katie), a nonevent (Sheppard and Teyla), and a crush that'll likely go nowhere (Zelenka on Carter).

I'm not necessarily against Ronon and Keller coming together, but I feel that there could've been a lot more setup over several episodes to this relationship to help build up fan investment as in the case of Kira and Odo on DS9. I don't see at this point what those two have in the way of chemistry. For example, Ronon makes Keller feel safe and Keller makes Ronon feel like smiling for the first time in years because of a quirky sense of humor...

Ronon simply sniffs her hair, then the two lean in for a kiss as power cuts out, then comes back on line, and sickbay unseals as the city's computer system reboots.

Rodney goes through a major panic attack when he's locked into the botany lab with Katie just before he proposes to her. Katie finds the ring Rodney was going to give her and is thrilled, but Rodney is too preoccupied with predicting they'll both die. Needless to say, Katie realizes Rodney isn't marriage material and Rodney says it aloud at the end when the two wordlessly break off their relationship. Unfortunate. It seemed to me that Rodney was overreacting at the behest of the writer.

Sheppard and Teyla talk a little bit about how he came down hard on her when she finally came clean about being pregnant. Is Sheppard jealous? I'm not sure. He doesn't seem to be either. The writers don't seem to be clear on this either. A funny bit was Sheppard worrying about Teyla going into premature labor, seeing her react when the baby kicks, then climbing out of the lab to reach the control room just four stories up the spire they're trapped in. There was a tense moment when it looked like Sheppard would fall, but it was just a moment. This episode needed more.

Zelenka gave Carter a self conscious look in the elevator when she took off her jacket because of the apparently rising temperature. Is the elevator air tight and overheating from carbon dioxide buildup? Is Atlantis located on a humid ocean? Something else? We learn that Zelenka has pet pigeons (on Earth?), which contributes what?

For the main storyline of Season 4, would it have been a bad thing for the Wraith and the rest of the Pegasus galaxy to learn where Atlantis was roosting? With Carter having been absent during episodes where more major things happen, it was dissatisfying to have her appear in a filler episode where nothing really happened.

Season 4 of Atlantis is really striking me as hit or miss and in need of a direction with the premature demise of the Pegasus Replicators.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: "Gnothi Seauton"

"Character Development"
Quieter than the pilot, but a solid series arc setup for all that.

Being used to the breakneck speed of the flicks and the series pilot, I had to dial down my internal clock in order to stay with the pace of "Gnothi Seauton" ("Know Thyself" in ancient Greek).

I like the way how the title was used to reinforce this episode's theme, adding multiple layers to the story.

The central problem this go-around for Sarah and company is getting new IDs for themselves. We find Sarah and John "time-lagged" in a home they're likely squatting in. Looks like John's cobbling together a portable hacker computer interface.

Cool.

John's going stir crazy from being cooped up for 3 days, though. He wants his new ID already. Sarah tells him to be patient when Cameron walks into the living room and asks about new IDs. LOL.

John suggests Sarah track down Enrique, the "best fake paper guy ten years ago." Cameron lets slip that future John sent better ones into the past.

In no time flat, Sarah has Cameron taking her to a safe house manned by resistance fighters from the future with weapons, money, fake IDs, etc. Only when the ladies show up, they find some guys riddled with bullets. Sarah and Cameron set to examining the poor stiffs, but one stops playing possum and tosses Cameron around like a rag doll. This episode's Terminator.

The baddie's logic circuits decide on a tactical withdrawal to assess the situation, so he sets to running. Cameron gives chase and Sarah follows on a motorcycle which she gets from a guy after waving a 9 mil semiautomatic.

Somehow Sarah finds the Terminator and sends her motorcycle skidding his way to take him down. Just as Cameron comes to finish the Terminator off, she gets rammed by a car. When it brakes to a halt, Cameron tells a yuppie family to "Please remain calm," pulls her head out of the windshield, and climbs off the hood and runs off like she's right as rain.

When Sarah and Cameron head back home, Sarah asks why they had to jump since she could've used the last 7 years to get John ready. Cameron says it didn't happen when she died two years earlier from cancer. Interesting.

Sarah and Cameron then go to Enrique, who's happy to see Sarah alive again, but has retired. He points them to his nephew, Carlos who's very good, but not "a true believer."

Carlos is willing to offer first class IDs--for 20 grand. Sarah gasps at the nevvy's extortion and keeps Cameron from knocking off a cop, who's trying to figure out if she's a new drug running gang banger.

Meantime, John steps out to explore 2007 LA. He wanders into a computer store, where he discovers the internet, looks himself up, and finds a listing of Charlie, Sarah's fiance. John goes to Charlie's home to....I don't know what. There he runs into Charlie, applies a joint lock when Charlie gets too close, and runs off.

And a roadside worker who found the head of the Terminator from the pilot, Cromartie, deposits it in his flat, where its eye lights flash back on. Its body then busts out of a scrap pile in a junkyard and takes out a yard worker when he comes to investigate.

When we get back to Sarah, she decides to go back to the safe house to see if they can find money or anything else they can use. John joins her and Cameron this time around.

When they see a poster of a kitten hanging on the wall, they deduce something's off, rip the poster off, and find a safe. I couldn't help but wonder why the LAPD didn't notice the poster, too, or why the Terminator from earlier didn't use IR or something to notice the safe in the wall?

Anyhow, Cameron sets out to rip the safe open. Except she's short-circuited by a live current and knocked out for 2 minutes to reboot. John opens the safe and Sarah empties. They have to hurry since the Terminator is downstairs tracking for survivors. Sarah shoves Cameron out a window onto a waiting car and ushers John out just as the Terminator walks in. Seeing nothing, the cyborg heads off to logically find another hideout.

The road worker who found Cromartie's head is trying to wind down to TV and beer when a guy with a motor cycle helmet walks in. The worker raises the visor, sees a head attached to a robot chest, and gets dispatched. The "guy" picks up Cromartie's head.

Sarah and Cameron get the IDs from Carlos, who raps with his hermanos in espanol. We then find Sarah back in Enrique's apartment with a gun to his head. She says she picked up from the nevvy that Enrique is a "rat." Will he sell her and John out? Enrique pleads very eloquently that he would never do such a thing when Cameron pumps a few rounds into him.

Cameron points out that she did what Sarah knew she had to do, but couldn't. Sarah shoots back that she didn't know what she would've done and that Cameron wasted Enrique for "possibly lying."

When Agent Ellison comes to investigate the scene, he plays a phone recording by Enrique who promises to give him some very interesting information.

John and Cameron go to enroll in the local high school. And as Sarah goes in for a CAT scan in the oncology department of a local hospital, she winds things up with a monologue on how we have to know ourselves since we're all we have in a world that's going to go boom.

This ep didn't have the intensity level of the pilot, but it did lay down the situation and set things up for Sarah, John, and Cameron as they gain their bearings in 2007.

I'm hopeful of seeing a big payoff in the episodes to come.

Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles: "Pilot"

"Series Pilot"
What a beginning! With a mega ending too.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this TV installment of the Terminator franchise, but this pilot rocked.

It starts off with a dream sequence in which Sarah picks up John at school to go on the run except cops nab 'em. Then a wooden-looking big guy comes along and blows most everyone away--including John.

I figured then something was off.

The next clue was when a mushroom cloud goes off behind the school, revealing the big guy as a Terminator, who grabs Sarah by the throat--

And she wakes up in bed with her fiance in 1999. It's obvious that she cares for the guy, which is why she cuts out on him when he leaves for work. She can't stay in one place too long and can't get close to anyone with robots from the future after John, humanity's future leader.

She tells John to get ready in half an hour. Pack one bag plus the guns. And she'll make pancakes. LOL. In an incongrous, serious kind of way.

Sarah's jilted fiance goes to the local cops to seek help in locating her. FBI Agent James Ellison shows up to learn what he knows about Sarah. Ellison gives the fiance (and us the viewers) the low down on how Sarah broke out of a mental institution to level a high end computer R&D lab and supposedly kill a top computer scientist, Miles Dyson.

Sarah and John relocate to a "hick town" in New Mexico. John's feeling out of place in school when a hot girl, Cameron, strikes up a conversation and basically insinuates herself in his good graces. Reluctantly, John parts company with her to report home to Sarah like a good boy.
Agent Ellison shows up in town fishing for Sarah.

The next day, John tells Cameron a little about himself (without specifics) in chem class. A wooden-looking guy comes in, saying he's the sub. We know who he is and he proves it as he takes attendance, hacking a gash in his leg as he works his way to John. He pulls a 9 mil out and starts blazing away at John.

Cameron takes a few hits, though, letting John dive out a window. Motor servos exposed and grinding in his leg, the Terminator says "Class dismissed" and busts out of the room on John's trail. Didn't think this AI would care about these kinds of niceties.

He has John in his sights, pauses a hair too long for dramatic reasons, then gets railroaded by Cameron, driving a 4X4. When John stares at her, she says "Come with me if you want to live."

John gets in and takes in stride rather well that Cameron, with several gunshot hits in her body, is apparently another "good" Terminator sent to protect him.

At the local diner, Sarah cuts out the second the local news reports gunfire at the high school. She shows up to find John when the wooden Terminator somehow sneaks up on her, takes her prisoner, and lures John to the house with a flawless impersonation of her voice.

The Terminator carries Sarah home over his shoulder and props her in a chair. A figure with his jacket hood up comes in, calling for Sarah in John's voice. The Terminator calls out to with Sarah's voice and pumps a few rounds into him. Except it's Cameron again. The two smash the house between 'em and shotgun blasts from Sarah, who grabs a holdout rifle from a hidey hole in a wall. I can't help but wonder why Sarah doesn't load up on grenade launchers and other heavier ordnance considering her attackers're robots constructed from highly refined metal alloys?

Sarah and John bug out in their 4X4. Cameron temporarily short circuits the big Terminator with a power line, then jumps into the back of their truck and climbs in the cab.

Sarah takes Cameron in stride, and they hole up to plan their next move and get supplies. John and us notice how humanlike Cameron is. Apparently she's been equipped with advanced behavioral subroutines in 2027--to provide John with some pleasant company? I'll be curious to see where this goes.

John then tells Sarah that he's not the future savior of mankind and that he can't keep running. She has to try to alter the future to make things safe for him. Sarah agrees and changes her mind from crossing the border into Mexico to visit Dyson's widow in LA.

After Sarah convinces her she didn't kill Miles and Cameron lights up the blue LEDs in her eyes, the widow says all the research on Skynet was destroyed as far as she knows. No joy there. And the Terminator tracks John down again.

Sarah and company drive away and blow him up, but not before she gets a bullet in the shoulder. When she wakes up after a patch job by Cameron, they all head for a bank where Cameron has a safety deposit box reserved since 1963.

Cameron relieves a 60-year-old security guard of his revolver and gets a teller to fork over the deposit box keys and lock 'em all in the bank vault.

I found myself wondering what Cameron's exit strategy was as the police made their inevitable appearance outside. Under Cameron's direction, John and Sarah open boxes filled with the pieces of an energy weapon. Cameron lets slip that an engineer went back to 1963 to build the vault and leave them certain resources should the need arise.

Nice.

After Cameron sets an isotope solution charging to red and gives the weapon to Sarah, she unseals a few more boxes and some beyond cutting edge computer panels extend into view. The controls for a time machine.

Looking a bit battered, the Terminator shows up, ignores the police who stare dumbfounded, and tears the vault door down.

Cameron sets the temporal coordinates as the Terminator approaches. Sarah blows him away just before they all vanish in a sphere of temporal energy.

The sphere reappears in a highway that stops evening traffic, depositing John, Sarah, and Cameron sans clothing. Drivers gawk and catch them on live video with camera phones.

A highway construction sign flashes "2007" as Cameron stops a car with guys who want to show her a good time. She thumps their heads and gets them to volunteer their clothes.

We fade out with Sarah and company poised to seek out Skynet before it's created and destroy it.

I can hardly wait to see what happens. It looks like the initial 12 episode order was complete.

This pilot was filled with nods to the films that all savvy fans can't not fail to notice. The ending went in an unexpected direction, which is always good. Hopefully, things won't tank after this pilot, like they did for "Bionic Woman."

Moonlight: "Love Lasts Forever"

"Series Classic"
Josh-heavy installment. The show just keeps getting better.

I'm impressed with how the series producers are taking a familiar concept to a good place. Too bad the bloody writers strike is keeping production on new episodes from going ahead.

Just one more left after this episode.

Speaking of which, "Love Lasts Forever" opens with Josh pressing Chemma Tejada, an El Salvadoran drug lord, to either help bring in some Latin-American drug dealers in the US or face a grand jury.

Tejada tells Josh to do what he has to do and be ready for "a miserable future." Tejada took out the wife of the last prosecutor who went after him back in El Salvador. I guess the guys from the Colombian Medellin cartel don't have anything on Tejada. Josh's prospects aren't looking bright.

Mick and Beth are in her apartment kibitzing over a blood sample he got from Coraline before she vanished. They decide on a private lab when Josh shows up to warn Beth about Tejada. He also signs Mick up for her protection detail.

Some goons in mask beat on Josh in a parking lot as he goes from his office to his car. When they have him curled up on the ground, they leave a picture of Beth by his face and warn they'll see her next if he doesn't back off of Tejada.

Josh hightails it back to Beth to tell her that he's recusing himself from the case to save her. Beth then goes noble and selfless, saying how her safety doesn't matter against the need to put Tejada behind bars. Josh muses how he'd forgotten about how cute she was when she crusaded. A spark's rekindled, they kiss, and...spend the night together.

Tejada is holding his daughter's quinceanera (15th birthday party), a Latin-American sweet sixteen gala. As they dance, he tells his daughter nothing's too good for her. Too bad he's a ruthless thug. Josh crashes the party with Lt. Davis and a few squads of cops. Josh says Tejada shouldn't have made things personal. Tejada tells Josh he doesn't have much time left. Looking like bullyboys, the cops haul Tejada from his daughter's party. Ironic.

Josh goes ahead with pressing charges and gets a judge to set a bail of $5 million dollars.

Meantime, Nick and Beth're getting the low down on Coraline's blood, which is...normal.

Aside from the fact that it's like a child's sample, being free of toxins and free radicals that adults inevitably gather (unless they eat well). And the sample is A-negative, extremely rare. As in less than 15% of Americans rare. It's also Beth's blood type. Outside the clinic, Mick reveals that children's blood is the best for vamps, especially if it's the same type as the vamp's original blood. I'm speculating here, but I won't be shocked if Beth turns out to be a descendant of Coraline's. Another reason Coraline singled her out as a potential vamp daughter?

Mick comes up short when he hears a high-powered automatic rifle being assembled and loaded. Supersonic vamp hearing is so handy. A sniper targets Beth in the head with a laser scope and fires--

Nick drags her down at the last millisecond, then dodges superquick toward Tejada's goons, who bug out. Nick goes back to Beth, who only has a few scratches. She worries when she sees he has blood on his chest. It's not his blood. It's Coraline's. Damn.

The vial's crushed. But Mick and Beth have more pressing concerns right now.

At Beth's apartment, Josh makes sure Beth is OK and that her police escort has been suitably beefed up. He and Mick have a nice bonding moment over how they want to keep Beth safe.

Josh steps out to his car, where Tejada's thugs grab him and stuff him into their car's trunk. Pretty blatant. I would've nabbed him out of sight of Beth's police detail. Nick and Beth jump into her car and go chasing after 'em. But they're out of sight. So Nick calls a hacker friend (human?) to triangulate on the GPS locater in Josh's cell, which Beth calls. As she assures Josh, who's gagged, that she'll find him, Nick's hacker friend triangulates the return signal in a remote corner of Griffith Park somewhere near the observatory. Nick and Beth peel rubber and call the police to meet 'em.

Tejada's thugs pause in the park as they wait for a park ranger to drive away. They're just about to bump Josh off when Nick and Beth come barrelling. Nick shrugs off a few hits and takes the thugs down, while Beth keeps her head to the ground.

They open the car trunk and are about to get Josh out when a thug revives, gets a spare gun, and pumps a few rounds into Josh.

Nick knocks him out, gets Beth to call an ambulance, then does first aid on Nick, revealing he was a medic in WW II. In a sequence worthy of "House" and "Grey's Anatomy," Nick puts pressure on a belly wound, uses a neck tie as a tourniquet to bind Josh's leg, and cauterizes a severed artery on Josh's neck with a car cigarette lighter.

But Nick senses that Josh's leg wound is still bleeding, so he bums Beth's necklace to tie an artery off. But Josh goes unconscious and Nick hears his heart stop. He and Beth're doing CPR when Davis and the cops show up. Late.

The ambulance shows up even later. The medics put paddles to Josh, but no joy. As the cops cuff Tejada's thugs and the medics look 'em over, Beth begs Mick to "turn" Josh.

Mick can't, and Josh is gone. Beth glares daggers at Mick.

At the police station, Davis gives up trying to pump Tejada's goons for their jefe's whereabouts. With his back to Davis, Mick turns vamp, and asks the goon where Tejada is.

The goon freaks out and tells the "diablo" where to go to a bar. Mick sends Davis off on a wild goose chase and goes to the bar.

Nick himself monologues on how things go the same in every bar fight, like when the barkeep pops up with a gun in hand. He goes vamp, beats down the patrons, and gets Tejada's location in the oficina, where Mick finishes him off. We only get to see Mick start to bleed him dry.

Mick shows up at Beth's apartment to let her know Tejada's been taken cared of. He tells her he couldn't inflict the curse of vampirism on Josh (not to mention reveal his secret in front of the cops and medics).

When Beth asks why he keeps "living," Nick says to himself it's because of her. Aloud, he mumbles, "I don't know." She then asks if Mick would let her die, and Nick says "Yes."

Things don't end on the best note here.

Which is perfect.

How can one not feel for Nick and Beth?

Once the strike ends and the second half of season 1 (the first half of season 2 more like) kicks off, I do wonder how things can keep going at this pitch? I totally understand why Josh had to die, but there were some interesting possibilities here. If Josh had lived, it would've made things even more interesting for Nick and Beth.

And if Nick had "turned" Josh, we would've gotten to see Beth torn between two vamps--and gotten a whole new storyline with Josh getting used to being a vamp and Nick bringing him into the fold as his sire and maybe seeing those two come to blows over Beth.

I can hardly wait for the season finale.

If only it weren't for the bloody writers strike. Too bad no one can lock the negotiators for both sides in a room and keep 'em there on bread and water till they stop acting like kids holding their breaths and make a reasonable deal.

Stargate Atlantis: "Spoils of War"

"Revealing"
The best Wraith episode in a long while. Maybe the best yet.

Carter is absent. Again. Nor is she even mentioned. And Team Atlantis got on just fine without her. It amazes me how the Atlantis producers have developed a Jekyl and Hyde tendency to mix in questionable character, plot, and other creative faux pas into the show. IMHO, the series has been better in the past and it would be stellar now if it weren't for the producers' constant tinkering. This is the episode I've liked the most since "The Seer." This episode's focus is much stronger than "This Mortal Coil" and "Be All My Sins Remember'd." One reason why I was dissatisfied with those two eps was because I felt they tried to juggle too many subplots at the same time. To use a hypothetical example, how satisfying would "Siege" Parts 2 & 3 have been if they'd been compressed into one episode?

Regarding "Spoils of War," we get to see what happened to Sheppard's Wraith "friend" after the Wraith went their separate way following the destruction of the Pegasus Replicator homeworld. We focus on Sheppard's Wraith "friend," who orders darts from his ship to go zipping about the Replicator city as the Replicator blob reaches critical mass. He keeps his ship in orbit till the last moment when the darts return and the Replicator homeworld goes boom. A Wraith then presents him with a ZPM.

Cool.

In Atlantis after the battle, Rodney points out to Sheppard that the locater beacon they'd implanted into his "friend" a few episodes back is active in an isolated region of the galaxy. But it's broadcasting well away from any Wraith activity, which is stirring up now that the Pegasus Replicators (sans Weir's secret faction) are kaput. Sheppard goes "hmmm," then decides to check it out see what's up with his "friend," who he nicknames "Todd" after an old friend. This moniker will probably stick when and if this particular Wraith resurfaces. I'm on the fence about it m'self.

As Sheppard's and Lorne's teams equip for their mission in the armory, Teyla shows up and tells Sheppard she wants to get back on the active duty roster. Shep tells her "No" and he and his people take a puddle jumper out to the location of Todd's beacon.

Apparently, the Daedalus and Apollo are in the Milky Way or zooming in between galaxies. I felt this would've been a good opportunity for more development of either Caldwell or Ellis, but it didn't happen.

Anyhow, Sheppard and the rest track the beacon's signal to a drifting Wraith hive vessel. They board and find Wraith bodies sucked dry and lots of battle damage. On the bridge, they find the beacon--without Todd attached to it. Apparently, other Wraith have jumped Todd's ship and taken him away for unknown nefarious reasons.

Rodney does some repairs. And Ronon (apparently intent on doing something about his lament in Season 2 "First Strike" on not being able to contribute in science/high tech situations) fiddles with some bioorganic panels. Without knowing how, he reactivates some virtual displays that flash on in midair. After Rodney's spate of surprise peters out, he starts to read the status readouts (without a translator program?) to see how spaceworthy their new hive ship is.

Sheppard flies back to Atlantis to pick up Teyla to help fly the hive ship. When she steps onto the bridge, she's magically able to activate and use the systems to her heart's content like what Sheppard does with Atlantean tech. Thanks to her pregnancy? She wasn't able to interface so easily before. I also can't help but wonder how she can plot courses through the Pegasus galaxy without formal flight school training in subjects like navigation and piloting?

Rodney comes up dancing with glee over some data he uncovered about a "facility" that was instrumental in helping the Wraith win the war against the Atlanteans. Sheppard and gang decide to go check it out. Hiding behind the moon of a Class M world, they find a hive vessel in orbit over the "facility." Teyla stays behind against her protests on the hive ship with Lorne and his team. Sheppard takes Rodney and Ronon with him down to the facility on the planet.

They pass a Queen, who's hibernating in a web harness of some sort. Then witness a larval adult Wraith warrior being taken out of its sac. Appropriately freaked out, they press ahead. At this point, I'm theorizing that this is a breeding facility, which is all well and good. But it was established in Season 2 episode "Instinct" that the Wraith start out as children.

Meantime, an apparent Wraith commander with guards revives the Queen. He says that everything's gone well with the latest brood of warriors. When the Queen orders her commander to bring their "prisoner," he says they may need to keep the "prisoner" around longer for his knowledge of the facility's systems. When the Queen asks if he's ready to offer himself as food in the "prisoner"'s place, he orders the guards to go get him. We find Todd in a holding cell. When the guards unseal the cell to fetch him, they get taken out by Sheppard and gang. Talk about good timing. Todd leads Team Atlantis to where the ZPMs are powering up the facility. They pass a chamber stuffed to the gills with thousands of maturing Wraith. Rodney rightly points out that a single Queen can't possibly provide enough genetic material for so many Wraith.

Todd says she can for those who serve as cloning templates. Wicked awesome. So that's how the Wraith got the numbers, which helped them win the war against the Atlanteans all those millenia ago. So how did they outproduce the Ancients in warships and other military materiel?

When Sheppard gives Todd an accusing look, Todd says he'd planned to create an army to wipe out the other hives except a member of his crew betrayed him. Nice twist but what motivated this betrayal? It would've been nice if the commander was also the Wraith who betrayed Todd. And I believe Todd, too. Apparently, being a prisoner of the Genii for who knows how long has given him a certain empathy for humans. (Speaking of which, when will the Genii return?)

The haunting alarm shriek goes off (I like it. Very otherworldly. Brings me back to the pilot "Rising.") when the Wraith realize Todd is missing. Todd and company hurry along, but get waylaid by Wraith warriors. Todd escapes while Sheppard and the team get stunned.

Back on the hive ship, Teyla frets about the Team when she detects a dart flying inbound from the planet. She and Lorne consider blowing it to kingdom come, but Todd makes contact and they let him aboard.

Todd urges they fly to Atlantis and come back with reinforcements to destroy the facility. Teyla and Lorne want to help the team, but Todd rightly points out they can't fight their way past the other hive ship and reach the team in time.

But Teyla says she has a way...

Sheppard and the team're dragged up to the Queen. She asks Sheppard how he learned about the cloning facility. When he resists her mental coercion, she's intrigued and switches tacks. Spill your guts or one of your friends is dinner. She chooses Rodney, who moans over being picked first for the first time ever. The Queen's about to suck Rodney dry when she stops, stares around, and orders the other Wraith to put Sheppard and the team back into holding.

Teyla's doing mental handstands back on the hive ship, where she's apparently taken control of the Queen's body. Nice, but since when did she have that kind of power. Teyla doesn't know how long she can keep it up and the other hive ship locates them...

Sheppard and the team stare dumbfounded as the Queen comes to their cell, unlocks it, and gives them their gear. It all comes clear to them when the Queen says, "John, it's me."

Meantime, Teyla faces off with the Queen in her mind. The Queen is impressed, but knows Teyla can't keep it up. She then realizes and shares with us that Teyla is pregnant and being helped by her baby. Since when can a baby boost Teyla's sketchy mental powers. The father is obviously being revealed out of the blue as being other than normal, which makes his absence during the first half of Season 4 more annoying to me. Teyla and her baby match minds with the Queen. The other hive ship comes to close quarters then, and commences with the pounding. Todd proceeds to fight back as best he can with his ship being damaged and all.

Before Sheppard and the team head off for the puddle jumper, Teyla via the Queen asks for help. Sheppard fills the Queen with a few shots and goes for the exit. Again.

Teyla comes out of her mental torture session with relief to find the hive ship falling apart around her. Todd wants to cut off, but Teyla and Lorne insist they wait for the team to come back in the jumper.

But it getting real close...

Sheppard makes contact then. Teyla and Lorne're ready to cut out the second he enters the dart bay, but Sheppard has an idea.

The Wraith commander in the facility receives a message that the damaged hive ship is headed his way. We then get a cool shot of the hive ship flying and crashing into the facility. No shields and ground to space defenses?

Sheppard and gang (sans Todd) view the explosion on the surface from the safety of the puddle jumper. Todd got away on his own in a dart. Too bad we couldn't see everyone's departure from the hive.

It'll be interesting to see whether he comes back as a friend or foe.

We need more episodes like this: tight plot and good character interactions. The dialogue of the Wraith and Pegasus humans can be sharper and less stilted, though. Only the Earth humans talk naturalistically (but then that's been a characteristic of Stargate: SG-1 from the beginning). And it would be nice to have story developments properly foreshadowed and fleshed out.

Grey's Anatomy: "Lay Your Hands On Me"

"Average"
An episode about faith?

The final episode of Grey's Anatomy (GA) written before the strike.

The season started out surprisingly strong for me, then meandered to a relative plateau. The show opens with a monologue on life or some such by Bailey rather than Meredith. It was OK, but it didn't really do anything for me personally. Derek and Sloane're doing a morning run through some picturesque Pacific Northwestern woods, where Derek points out the spot on which he wants to build a house for Meredith. Meredith's not good enough to deserve McDreamy and the episode bears my opinion out as it goes on.

Derek tells Meredith in her mom's house he has a spot for their home, and she freaks out. Again. Everyone wakes up to the smell of "sulfur" for breakfast. I raised an eyebrow at Lexie rousing in the same room as George. Lexie and Alex have an awkward moment in which she observes that Ava didn't stay over. Alex reminds her that he said he was involved with someone else (who is married, has a daughter, and wants to throw her life away). Meredith lies to Derek about making breakfast for Lexie and the rest, who bite carefully into their..."fare."

Meantime, Bailey and her husband're having another argument as she goes out the door to work. I wondered why he hadn't moved out already after the tiff in "Crash Into Me" Parts 1 & 2?

At the hospital, Hahn gets Alex to help prep a woman for heart surgery when Izzie backs out. The woman happens to be a holistic healer who heals a man with heart problems (I believe) with the touch of her hands. She's wheeled back to her room, where she wants to have her procedure explained to her so that she can heal herself and avoid surgery, which is "barbaric." I agree myself, but till we get Star Trek-like medical tech, we're gonna have to go with blood n guts and drug-based medicine. Incidentally, Sloane teases Hahn about how she's using hostility to mask her attraction to him. I can see that, but not why he's attracted to Hahn at all. Except maybe as another notch on his bedpost? Naturally, Alex and Hahn don't put much stock in the woman's...um...approach. Hahn tells Alex to page her when the patient "codes." LOL.

George's mom shows up at the hospital and displays baby clothes for Callie's approval. Apparently, George has put off telling his family about his divorce. Callie skedaddles as soon as she can without spilling the beans.

Lexie goes around trying to scare up epinephrine (adrenaline) to deal with a rash from her allergy with the eggs Meredith made for her. Rose lets Derek off the hook for not following up on their kiss. And Bailey goes about the hospital ignoring her husband's constant paging--till he shows up in the ER with their baby, Tucker, crying and on a stretcher from having a bunch of books crash on him in their family apartment.

Bailey freaks and the Chief and the rest of the staff have to cajole and escort her out of the vicinity so they can diagnose Tucker's internal injuries and operate. Izzie stumbles across George's mom. When Mother O'Malley goes on about how hard a time George and Caliie must be going through (having a baby), Izzie spills her guts on how terrible she feels about breaking about George's and Callie's marriage. Izzie realizes she let the cat out of the bag and vamooses as George shows up to greet his suddenly horrified mother.

Mother O'Malley goes on about how sacred marriage is in the eyes of God, and George has to leave to answer a page. The healer's "healing team" shows up to start prepatory work. Alex looks at 'em like they all belong in strait jackets. Then they start pointing out how Alex has some dark chakras (nice touch) especially around the throat, which has him spreading the pain that turned him from a sweet boy to a not so sweet man. Mother O'Malley and Callie commiserate. Callie (and George later on) says that getting married in Las Vegas wasn't a promising sign for a stable marriage. I saw that coming right from the second those two came into the hospital newly hitched last year. Further, I still don't see why Callie was brought into the show at all and made a regular. Derek finds Bailey freaking out about whether or not she properly sealed a baby gate that Tucker toddled through. He gives her a great soothing spiel about how Bailey and her husband are good parents who love their baby, accidents happen, and nobody's to blame.

Meredith and George watch outside. As Meredith wonders over Derek's touch, George spills the beans about Derek's kiss with Rose. Meredith stomps away furious. Accidental revelations are in vogue in this episode. Things're said to happen in 3's, but there wasn't a third accidental one this time around.

The woman healer finds Bailey and her husband in pediatric ICU worrying over Tucker, who can't breathe on his own because of fluid buildup in his lungs. She asks them to find it in themselves to forgive one another and join her in giving Tucker a burst of healing mojo. And Tucker cries out later on, showing that his lungs're clear. But of course.

Izzie talks to Meredith about why she pursued cardio surgery to get some of Christina's faith in her ability and purpose for herself. But now Izzie apparently doesn't know what to do with herself. I lay that at the hands of the show's writers who've taken her (along with George, Alex, and Meredith) down some silly paths.

Alex then brings Izzie to the faith healer to explain the surgery because she's the "bright and optimistic" one. The healer and her team point out that Izzie certainly brightens Alex. The seeds of a renewed relationship whenever Season 5 gets going? If so, it's about time. It would've been nice to see if the healer healed herself.

Meredith finds Derek and says she can't trust him since he didn't tell her about Rose. Derek points out that she's making excuses and pushing him away again. He says he can't stay with her anymore and breaks things off. I hope they stay that way.

Derek finds Rose and asks if she wants to join him for dinner. I couldn't help thinking "Yes!" when she accepted. Hahn admits to Sloane that if they weren't working together she'd likely be all over him. Can't say I really care about this matchup. Can't say I'm really thrilled about Hahn replacing Burke on the cast neither. As unpleasant coworkers go, she's pretty one-note and dull about it to me.

George asks Lexie how her apartment search is going and if she needs a roommate. Another possible matchup which I theorized about earlier after "Crash Into Me" Part 2? I'd be curious to see how that goes.

And as Bailey watches over Tucker, she lets slip to Meredith that her husband went home to get some sleep and pack up before going to a hotel room. Pity they can't seem to patch things up. I'm concerned for Bailey's sake, but I can't say I'm too involved neither.

Bailey monologued at the end about how watching Tucker made life clearer (guessing that she sees Tucker is important) and people have to be there for one another (but her husband left and how does this relate to the rest of the cast?). Nothing much for Christina and the Chief in this episode. I liked the woman healer, but she struck me as a major deus ex machina device. If she hadn't been around, I wouldn't have cared to wager on Tucker's chances.

As this premature season finale wrapped up, I found myself wishing that Shonda and the writers had shown us the fall out from the other interns learning about George's repeater status after Alex spilled the beans and I wished that we'd seen more continuing storylines with Meredith's and gang's interns, who suddenly vanished in the last few episodes.

This wasn't a bad episode, but I felt it could've been better.