Terra Nova

Terra Nova premiered tonight. This epic, 2-hour long premier was produced by Steven Spielberg and has obvious nods to his previous works. It features time travel, the future, a dystopia, a utopia, marines /military, and of course, dinosaurs. Makes sense right?

The first thing I considered about Terra Nova was whether the dinosaurs and time travel were going to be used as a distraction from the fact that the show has a weak premise, terrible story, and laughable acting. The beginning of the episode definitely had the first two, but the acting was passable. The story was predictable and for the most part unoriginal.  The show begins in the future with a family escaping their dying world. To do so, they must travel millions of years back in time, however they do not go back to an earlier Earth but rather an earlier parallel dimension Earth -Terra Nova. This family traveled with a large group of other people and are the tenth group to have done so, with their home Earth still inhabited by millions of other people hoping to escape as well. Once the family is brought back to the past they find the settlement that the previous time-traveling groups had built and discover that not only are there dinosaurs but that this utopia still has a lot of the problems they are familiar with from their own time line: war & politics.

The Shannon family, featured in Terra Nova.

Where this show is most weak is in the dynamics of the starring family. Case in point, when the father reunites with his family the children immediately feel estranged. The father had been in jail for about 2 years, meanwhile the family had to trudge forward. When learning that they could escape their Earth through the time travel project, the family immediately arranged for a way that the father could escape his imprisonment and Earth with them. Upon reuniting in their new homes on Terra Nova, the son runs away and defies his father; acting as a teenager typically does and irrationally lambasting his father for being away. The youngest daughter doesn't remember who his father is since he's been away for years and quickly vanishes from the house; only to be found shortly after with a big family hug. The older daughter is a geek who follows her parent's wishes, much like many other stereotypical daughters in big families on TV. Not too original of a family dynamic, but you add dinosaurs and it magically becomes different right?

Promotional poster provided at 2011 SDCC

As this 2-hour epic continues, the storyline gradually becomes more complex. A fair bit of story is told in this pilot episode but the pacing seemed slow for the first hour. The problem of pacing would likely not have been an issue if it had not been for the plethora of commercials. After becoming ever-so irritated with the commercials I began to time out how long each segment of the show was before another commercial break occurred. It turned out that each segment lasted an average of 10 minutes, and a few lasted for a whopping 4 minutes! This is ridiculous and is likely due to how damn expensive this show was to make. Fox had spent millions on the special effects (which were pretty darn good) and more millions on advertisement (I remember seeing posters & such at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con for this show). Due to the price tag, Fox charged a high price for each commercial spot and apparently made sure there were plenty of these spots. Without all the commercials, the show is actually about 1 hour and 26 minutes long!

All in all, I'll be back to see the second episode. I'm curious as to where the story will go and heck, the dinosaurs are a lot of fun to see. However, I don't know how long my interest will hold as this is not the best nor original sci-fi show I've ever seen, as recently canceled shows such as Stargate Universe and Caprica were much better.

San Diego Comic Con 2010: Episode IX

Barenaked Ladies performing the theme
song to The Big Bang Theory, just prior
to the cast arriving to the panel.

The other three days of Comic Con went much like the first, filled with a crazy cacophony of pop culture entertainment. On Friday we went to Ballroom 20, which is the second largest room. There, TV show panels were put on, unlike Hall H that presents panels about upcoming movies. Ballroom 20, on Friday, included the casts of Stargate Universe, Caprica, and The Big Bang Theory. There were other panels too, but we only stayed for these first three. Big Bang was, in particular, great as it began with the Barenaked Ladies performing the TV show’s theme song. In retrospect we should have stayed in the room, but we were compelled to experience what else the convention had to offer. Unfortunately, we intended to meet the cast of the Big Bang Theory at the Warner Bros. booth. This was the most unorganized and chaotic booth on the main floor. I do not recommend trying to go there as for us our experience included waiting around for an hour wondering where the line began, only to discover the line was somewhere else. Other booths, such as the other TV station booths (ABC, NBC, FOX, etc), were much more organized and had well marked lineups for meeting the celebrities and someone who stood at the back of the line with a sign denoting if the line was full or not. Despite this, we did get to see Anna Paquin from True Blood as she walked past us to enter the Warner Bros. area to sign autographs.

The rest of Friday was not a bust. We walked around the floor checking out all the vendors. The hall is huge and cannot be done quickly. We focused on the comic book creators that were there and found one of our favorite artists /writers: David Mack. After the convention had ended for the day we headed outside into the ever-exciting Gaslamp District where we headed for the Broken Yoke. This is a great little breakfast place that is open late. The prices are affordable and located close to the convention center (between J and K street on 6^th Ave.). As an added bonus, most of the restaurants are to be found on 5^th Ave, so while this place is close not many people were there because the mobs stuck to 5^th. 

SGU & Todd & the Book of Pure Evil

Two shows on the Space Channel are definitely worth watching this year. One show is returning for its second season, and the other is airing its series premier. The first is Stargate Universe, or SGU for short.
 It is returning for its second season following a dramatic cliff-hanger ending. The story is of a mixed group of scientists and military personal who have become stranded on an ancient space ship that is trillions of miles away from Earth. The ship is launching itself ever farther from Earth and the stranded group have been trying to return to Earth via a transporter that is found on the ship. The transporter works, but it has only a limited range except for particular portal stations that are close to Earth but are exceedingly rare and cannot be (as yet) connected with the ship's transporter; connecting is called 'dialing' on the show. This probably sounds complicated, but it is explained very well on the show. The first season is available on DVD in two separate sets: season 1.0 and 1.5. This is an absolute money grab by the Syfy Network that produces the show, but it is nonetheless worth watching.

SGU is just as good as some of the best sci-fi shows that have been produced over the past 10 years. To me, the last decade has been a high-water mark for this genre. Shows such as Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Dr. Who, Reaper, and the Sarah Connor Chronicles are some of my favorites, and SGU proudly stands shoulder to shoulder with them. SGU is also similar to the writing style of Battlestar Galactica, and has a familiar gritty feel to who the show is shot. The atmosphere is always foreboding, but characters such as Eli (played by David Blue) add an element of humanness that keep me coming back. In addition, while at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con I caught the SGU panel and it reminded me of just how great this show is. They didn't drop too many hints as to how the show's story would play out in the upcoming season, but to see and hear how the actors relate to one-another was priceless. Also, Robert Carlyle, who plays Dr. Rush, revealed that he directs one of the episodes. Carlyle is a truly great Scottish actor who to me will forever be remembered for his role as Begbie in the movie Trainspotting and his funny-yet-scary character in Ravenous.


SGU returns in Canada to the Space Channel on October 1st, 10 E/P

Todd & the Book of Pure Evil appears to be another great show. It is not like SGU in subject matter or style of filming /story, but is similar in that it seems to be another great science fiction show that will be truly memorable and yearned for week after week. All that I know of this show comes from a hand full of TV trailers and a short blip I saw on a recap show of this summer's Toronto Fan Expo. The show is about a group of high school students who come across a 'Book of Pure Evil'. Monsters and demons appear to pursue the students because they have this book, and of course, hilarity ensues as these students are shown to be nothing but a group of well meaning bumbling fools. The series is based on a Canadian short film that was made and aired at festivals back in 2003. I have never seen the short film, but the tv show thus far appears similar to Reaper, which is always aces in my book. Also aces, is that this is a wholly Canadian show. It is shot in Canada, with a Canadian cast, and produced by the Canadian Space Channel! I feel like I should eat a poutine doused in maple syrup while watching the first episode. However, one element that is not Canadian is that of Jason Mewes. Most people know him as Jay, from the Jay and Silent Bob fame. He can be incredibly funny, and more importantly if he believed this show was worthy enough for him to appear in, then it has to be at least half decent.


Todd & the Book of Pure Evil premiers in Canada on the Space Channel, September 29th, 9 E/P
A special in-depth preview of the show airs on the Space Channel's excellent program, InnerSPACE, on September 22, 9 E/P