The survival rate for Star Trek red shirts is not very impressive. Most of us would stand a better chance of surviving a jump into an active volcano but this particular red shirt is Moai. The Moai are hard as rock and can survive just about anything, including service as a Star Trek red shirt. Please enjoy the newest addition to my series of little moai sculptures. With a little luck, Moai Red Shirt will live to see his pension.
FlashForward Season 1: Episode 17, “The Garden of Forking Paths”
And you may ask yourself why would I write a review on a series that was canceled after one season and to that I will respond with the following commentary.
Episode 17 finds FBI Special Agent Demetri Noh tied to a chair in front of this Rube Goldberg contraption that is aiming a gun at his chest. If he attempts to move, this machine will pull the trigger and kill him. If he sits there then a timer on the machine will eventually count down and pull the trigger and kill him. So you see the dilemma. At just the right moment, his friend and partner, Special Agent Mark Benford locates him and attempts to dismantle the machine before Demetri is killed. Seriously, go to Hulu and watch this episode and you will see what I am about to say. Rather than trying to guess at which wires to pull in the correct sequence why didn’t Mark Benford simply stick a key or a pen or some other object that he obviously had in his pocket behind the trigger of the gun? This would have quickly and easily disabled the machine and allowed him to rescue his partner.
There, I’ve said my piece.
I was just turned on to Brother Cadfael and his escapades in western England, in the first half of the 12th century. The character of Brother Cadfael was created by the linguist-scholar Edith Pargeter under the name “Ellis Peters” and orignally appeared in a series of novels as well as on the radio. I am currently watching the television series which stars Derek Jacobi who also portrayed the Roman emperor Claudius in the television series, I, Claudius.
I’m just getting started on Series I which was first aired in 1994 but so far I am hooked. Given that the series was set in 12th century England I was skeptical but the character of Brother Cadfael is well developed and the stories are both entertaining and intriguing. If you get the chance I highly recommend you check it out.
Enter The Walking Dead
I had been hearing both the hype and criticism surrounding the new zombie show from AMC, The Walking Dead so I logged onto Hulu this afternoon to watch the pilot episode. Okay, they ripped 28 Days Later for the opening hospital seen and it took about a third of the show to really pick up speed but from what I can tell, this should be a pretty entertaining series. The zombie effects were first rate and hopefully production costs won’t drive this series to an early demise. The Walking Dead appears to be headed in the right direction. It opens right onto the height of the zombie apocalypse and the main character seems pretty likable. It looks like his old partner has hooked up with his wife and hopefully there won’t be too much over the top drama surrounding this sub-plot. Give me guns, zombies and humans trying to survive. Nice and simple.