I Voted Saxon!

The redemption of Benjamin Linus

You know, not since I think Gul Dukat in Star Trek, Deep Space Nine, have we had such a well depicted bad guy on a television series. This episode focuses mainly on Ben, and throughout the entire episode I was sitting there thinking that he WOULD actually take the bad route. Right up to the very end, this Machiavellian mastermind loves his control. Throughout the series however, he’s realised his one mistake – Alex. While not technically his daughter, he’s grown to raise her and chose the island over her. Because he thought his faith in the Island, faith in the Jacob will pull him through. In alterna-world, it’s a pretty mundane existence, but with the same Ben. He can have the principal’s job, however Alex’s (in this world, just a gifted student and no relation outside of school) application to college will be thrown in the bin. For a second I thought – “will he do it? he hasn’t had the experiences of the island since a child (the breaking point (so far) of the original timeline..), he hasn’t learnt life’s lessons?” Apparently, the good of the somewhat mundane yet good world has done him the world of good. Oh, and Artz is back as the science teacher. It seems even in this world, all these characters stick together.

We see similar aspects with Jack and Richard. The loss of faith. Jack because he thought the island would fix him. Richard now doesn’t have Jacob to look to. Yet fate is a cruel mistress in the Lost world. They can’t die – maybe they can still age unlike Richard, but the island has much more in store for them. So what do they do?? I almost feel in a way, like I said last time, that it’s a parallel to religion in someways. Jacob the good, yet not providing any answers. Being frank (yet cruel) to Ben when he tells him that he’s not important. When it’s more than an invisible man up in the sky and we truly believe in the island when we can see the mystic happening around, you WANT to know what’s going on. There’s probably a very good reason to why (like us) they’ve been kept out of the loop when it comes to answers. A point to all of this? I don’t want the end to say – “actually, Jacob was wrong. Flocke is fine to leave, end of show”. It would seem a bit of a cop out.

A few other notes -

When did the timeline split? The island is now underwater in Earth-A, yet Ben still went there as a child, and just left with his father. Maybe they evacuated the place when the bomb exploded? End of the island?? (although how could they survive something like that?? I’ll give them a little leeway there…)

Only last week I was saying “I wonder what happened to Charlie” and whether the character was coming back. If he is the person to be returning by Jacob’s hand? Or maybe Jacob had nothing to do with it, and just knew it was going to eventually happen?? He’s very anti-Ben at this point and I have a feeling that he won’t be cosying up to him, even for the good of the island. And also – Does that mean the eventual return of Penny/Des? I hope so. Even though I’d love a happily ever after for those two, you KNOW stuff like that is pretty impossible in the Lost world.

All round, a really good episode. Less WTF moments, but some really well done scenes with Ben and Ilana as she is ready to kill him.

Welcome to the latest review of Lost, where Jack certainly does NOT want to be a lighthouse keeper and we get a whole new generation of Daddy issues for him!

If someone with a knife to your leg asks if you are still friends, YOU SAY YES!!

This week there’s a lot of things happening in real 2007. Hurley’s on his (what seems) to be twentieth game of Plant naughts and crosses with (whatever happened to scribbling in the dirt?) where Jacob comes back and tells him to get a pen – He’s got work to do. Looks like now that Jacob’s dead Hugo’s the little errand boy, seeming that he’s the only guy who can see dead people. He doesn’t manage to find a Dharma notepad, so he’s arms all blue with instructions. Apparently he’s got to take Jack to some lighthouse where they can light it and summon someone who will help. After a brief encounter with Dogen, Jacob teaches Hurley the magic words he wishes he knew all the way back in Season 1 – “I’m a candidate”. Firefly fans try and decipher the harsh language Dogen spits out and from then on it’s a mainly a few character moments with Jack and Hurley. There’s one point when Hurley says “This is like the good ol’ days!” which is replied by a foul look by Jack. Mind you, foul looks is pretty much all you get from Jack in this episode. He’s had a gutful again. He thought that the island would “fix” him, never mind looking within himself to find out why he feels like this. We stumble across the old cave and Adam & Eve, where Hurley gives a few ideas (maybe they’re time travelers from the dinosaur age? My guess at the moment is Rose and Bernard) and Jack and Hurley are both amazed that they have never seen a lighthouse on the island before. I’m surprised the “Somebody else’s problem field” has worked for this long. Douglas Adams would be proud.

In the lighthouse, we see those silly old numbers again. Matched up to names. When Jack lines it up to his number (despite the instructions by Jacob) we see Jack’s childhood house. Before we get to see what’s behind Hurley’s window, Jack smashes up the glass. He’s realised that Jacob’s been manipulating them all for a very long time. Outside Hurley’s one to add to this list as well – this was all to get Hurley and Jack out of the Temple, and to show Jack that’s he’s important. They’re certainly playing Jack up as the reluctant hero. I just wish he was less emo about it all. It gets a little annoying from Jack after a while..

Meanwhile, on the other side of the island, we return to Jin and Claire’s last encounter. In the three years since we last saw Claire, she really has turned batshit insane. We have Rousseau 2.0. She’s got her little camp setup packed with traps, dynamite, the works. One of the fellows from last week wasn’t exactly dead. Jin wakes up next to this tied up guy, Justin (for the 80s kids, it’s in fact BLT from Degrassi Jnr High. Remember him?) who pleads Jin to let him go, Claire is batshit crazy. Well, Jin soon discovers this fact himself. Claire thinks they’re hiding Aaron in the Temple. Jin lets slip what really happens, but covers it up quickly. Claire’s relieved, if Kate DID look after Aaron, she’d have to kill her too. And Claire REALLY doesn’t want that. Just before she starts hearing voices, or a three headed monkey, Jin is saved by Claire’s new friend. Well, she says “friend”, I say Flocke. Jin, be scared Does that mean Christian WAS Smokey? Or is he a completely different character in the jungle? Be interesting to see how that one goes and whether we see Christian in the normal timeline again…

As for Earth-A, or alternate timeline, WE HAVE MORE DADDY ISSUES!! This time around though, it’s with Jack’s son. Yeah, even I went “WTF” there. Starting off he seems like most teenagers – Emo, Sulky, resentful… But we find he’s an akward kid whose father/son relationship is very much like how Jack and Christian were. Jack and his (less bitchy) mother go rummaging around Christians things looking for his will, and, of course, we find out about Claire, but that story is cut short and we return to Jack looking for his son David. He’s run out. Not back to his mother’s house, or to some club on a drug bender, but TO PIANO PRACTICE?? Looks like David’s issue is he’s afraid he can never live up to his fathers expectations. We have a sweet moment and it’s also kind of sad – back in the original Earth during Hugo and Jack’s walk, Jack scoffs at one point announcing “I’d be a terrible father. I could never have kids”.. At least we know in this timeline he doesn’t have one…

Wasn’t a bad episode at all. Jack is never my favourite character to explore. It does seem that’s he’s having a better attempt at life on Earth-A, though. He gets along with Mother, even though he’s broken up with his wife (that’s an interesting question to see) he still has a pretty good kid and has given up the booze… As for the rest? it just seems that these characters we’re watching week after week have been manipulated into this final showdown that is coming soon. More of a build up, but still interesting TV

SPOILERS, As usual…

In which we see Kate’s story as a girl on the run again, and Sayid finally gets a taste of his own medicine..

Deep breath, Claire. You’re about to go into Labour. AGAIN.

So this week we return to the flash-sideways? Is that a good way of putting it? Kate and Claire are in the taxi running for their lives and as soon as we get rid of the unimportant taxi man, it’s all about them. What I think they’re doing with these sideways stories is showing us a more “what if”, alternative universe, much like the new Star Trek movie and that their lives wouldn’t have been that much different if their plane didn’t crash. It begs the question “if that’s so, how did Jack etc end up back in the current day?” but even I scratch my head at that one. Best way I think.

I mean, look at it. The adopted couple end up not being able to keep the baby and Claire ends up going into premature labour. Apart from a nice little cameo from Ethan, or Dr. Goodspeed (obviously the Rom surname was a pseudonym of some sort) Claire decides to keep the baby and Kate ends up caring for Claire way more than she should.

I have to say, I have to giggle about poor old Artz copping it episode after episode. He must be a character the writers delight on making him suffer.

Back in the original timeline?? Sayid comes back from the dead and he gets a red hot poker, and some electrodes on the nipples, and DEFINITELY not in the kinky way. I mean, Sayid’s alright, but it would of been a nice moment where he goes “now I know how they all felt…” or something like that. Sawyer cops a brief comment before leaving, but he’s gone by the time the event happens. As for magical Sayid? The Gods champions? Claire playing for the “white” side (or if Jacob IS the good side) and Sayid being on the “black”, or Smokey’s side. The rest of that story was drawn way out as the whole group go “woah” and Jack and The mysterious Chinese guy get into a pissing competition about who is cooler and whatnot. Withholding information this late in the game?? Better start coughing up the answers soon, boys, we’ve only got one season left….

As for Sawyer, you really get the sense that he truly has lost everything. Finally finds love in Juliet and he gets it cruelly taken away from him. Kate follows out of a sense of… what? Love still? She says to Sawyer the reason she came back was for Claire, but you can tell from her reactions earlier with Jin (who also left the temple, looking for Sun in (of course) a later episode) and her tears when Sawyer and her have a little talk that I think Kate still has some feelings for our Western boy. My guess is that something happens with Juliet and Sawyer in the alternate timeline, I mean he’ll bump into Kate in some very too convenient way but by the end of the season, they’ll be happy in some way or another..

All in all, not a bad episode. There was less shock in this episode around, more of a building up to things. Poor ol’ Hurley maybe gets two words to bleat out (and while Jack admits that he didn’t save Sayid, he never tells him it was Big Hugo… Poor guy … Props where Props are due…) and the present day Claire reveal right at the very end probably will be a tease for another couple of weeks…

Joss Whedon (if you don’t know who that is, seriously. Come on. Wiki and enjoy the good TV ) this week released his new television show on Fox, the same TV station that screwed him over with Firefly, believe it or not.

This evening I got my junk food, sat down and watched the pilot episode, and enjoyed it.

Yeah, I’m not a Joss nut. I enjoyed Firefly immensely, Buffy and Angel were fun but it’s not essential TV viewing for me. This show I’m not exactly too sure with yet.

Eliza Dushku plays a down on her luck girl who has obviously run into some trouble in her life. She finds the illegal and highly mysterious “Dollhouse” and offers to work for them for five years, where she becomes “Echo”. The catch? She exists in a simple, mind wiped state until she is needed – when they implant her with any personality the company needs her for. The rich and important hire her for a night out where she will genuinely fall in love with you, next day she’s a hostage negotiator. Everything she experiences is then wiped and she’s back to her clean slate for the next day. But can you really wipe a soul?

That’s the story that Joss is going for here. Slowly in her wiped state she begins to click, form bonds with the other actives. We don’t see much of that in the first episode, but we do discover that the memory implants aren’t exactly perfect – the negotiator profile of the real person who it was copied happened to have been tortured as a little girl and the kidnapper of the case she is working on happens to be the same man, so she has to deal with these brand new fears implanted into her.

While most police and the general public think that the Dollhouse is a myth, one cop disagrees and continues to hunt for these people, even interfering with proper police cases and getting himself into trouble.

Unlike most other Joss stories, there’s not a whole lot of mystery to start off with. In the opening episode of Firefly we were wondering who all these characters are and where do they come from (and still do today). Apart from Echo’s seedy past, there’s not much else to go with. I have faith that there’s more to this story, I’m guessing it will be a slow reveal. Let’s hope not too slow. And it’s not as humorous as Joss’s previous work. All of his other stuff has had some great moments you can’t help but giggle at, even though it’s not meant to be a comedy piece. Having Joss in this serious mode is a little unusual..

The acting is pretty good too. Eliza does a great job playing a different characters this week. One moment a happy go lucky 20 something to a serious “don’t mess with me” woman who sorts out hostage negotiations..

So far I like but not overly impressed. I’ll keep watching for the moment. Hopefully things will slowly unravel and I will be able to smile in acknowledgement as I rewatch it much later on down the track.

Martha. Rose. Sarah Jane. Every other character who is available? Check.

Russell T Davies crams as much as he can for the two part finale. He may not be leaving for another year, but I think this the concluding chapter to his four years on the show. And it’s a pretty good one too. I wouldn’t say it was prefect, but getting all the characters from the spin offs together, throwing out so many references to past stories – It’s all here. Even a second Doctor! I didn’t see that coming. I knew the regeneration would be quickly brushed off but didn’t expect that.

However, Rose continues to annoy me. Here we are, trying to be told that Rose has grown up, she doesn’t need the Doctor any more. Part One all she does is pine for him (although their initial meet up before the cliffhanger was a great moment) and when she finally gets back, she turns into child mode again. Not any more mature, still pining after the Doctor, so much so she’s given a spare Doctor. That was “interesting”, to say the least. Here’s a question, he’s meant to be an identical copy, if a little more angrier, slightly human. You think he’d like to be stuck on one planet? Living a normal life? Don’t think so. And what about Mickey? He doesn’t even get a farewell scene with Rose, I thought that was interesting. His scene with Jackie was probably the sweetest moment – “I’m going to miss you the most”. Awww. At least the rumours of a Torchwood with Martha and Mickey are probably true. We may see these two in the Whoniverse again, but I think that’s the end of the Tylers. Sad, really. I thought Rose would get a better send off than that. I was expecting her death actually.

Donna is the hero in this piece. Her DoctorDonna link was clever, and it was brilliant seeing her becoming more like him. The end with her back to the way she used to be was a little sad. I would of liked to have seen a little moment with maybe not her remembering anything, but a glimpse at her slightly changed for the better. Doctor’s moment with her grandfather was great. Shame we won’t see him again. And his moment with her mum – “try telling her that once in a while” – great to see that my main criticism of Turn Left was addressed.

Davros wasn’t that bad. Still the same old madman, although the weapon reminded me a little of the universe killer from the Big Finish Dalek Empire episode, which name completely escapes me. I think laughing Dalek Caan and his twist to the good side at the end was the best. Seeing what the Daleks really were was a top moment. And no reset switch! Thank god for that!!!

I have to give this episode 4 out of 5. I really think this episode could of done with another five or so minutes, it was very fast. That moment where all the companions all around the TARDIS saving the day was one of the best scenes from the series so far. Well done Russell. You may have had your weak moments and I am looking forward to Stephen Moffatt, but you started a show we thought long gone and made it a success again.

*The scene – BBC Wales, Doctor Who offices*

Russell T Davies- So, Steven, What’s something we can use to get the fans talking for the middle of the season?

Steven Moffatt – Hmm, got to keep people from tuning out, eh Rusty? (In my head, everyone calls him Rusty. Deal. ) What about Daleks?

Russell – Nah, too soon. Let’s keep them for an end of season thing. Not after the dreadful New York two parter.

Steven – What about Adric?

*Both crack up laughing and fall over the place for ten minutes*

Russell – Very funny. Come on, any serious ideas?

Steven – I know! Let’s give him a kid!

Russell – *giggles* Yeah, nice idea! Keep the old school fans angry and the message boards fired up.

Steven – Pub?

Russell – Yeah, sort this out tomorrow. I can’t concentrate after that Adric comment.

Okay, poor attempt at humour there, but I know for a fact Russell dreamt this up to get people talking. I suppose he’s taking the safe road by technically making her a genetic offspring, and not some one night stand in his reckless past (now THAT would be funny!) but the episode works well. Georgia Moffat (Daughter of Peter Davison, The Fifth Doctor) does a good job as Jenny. She’s cute, she’s feisty and works well as a Doctor-Lite. And a potential future companion. Having the Doctor face the past by looking into the eyes of another Time Lord is a nice moment, especially with himself and Donna. Keeping Jenny alive was a good but as well. You just know she’s going to come back to the show one day.

Donna is Donna in this episode. Again, the whole “are you a couple” but grates but Donna figuring out whats going on is a pretty good moment. Have to say though Martha stole the show. No longer in love with the Time Lord, she’s more independant and becoming another Doctor herself, not just in medical terms. That speech with the Hath? Reminded me of the speech The Doctor gave Lynda back in “Bad Wolf”. Freema is an amazing actress and I hope that they get her on Torchwood next season. To only have her reoccuring within the shows is a crime.

As for the story? I like the twist on the time-factor (not the paradox), but the alien & human working together was a little Star Trek/Darmok for my liking. Still, it worked well and otherwise we wouldn’t have that amazing moment with Freema on the surface. I can’t say enough good things about Freema in this episode. I think she did a better job than David. I mean, David’s great but we’re starting to get used to this Doctor now. I think there’s still a few surprises left in him but we’re beginning to pick how The Doctor is going to react. (off topic, that’s why I want to see him in Torchwood. To see The Doctor in a much darker setting and to see whether they’d portray him any different).

Anyways, enough Freema gushing. It’s a 4 outta 5 this week. The story wasn’t incredibly original but the acting in this episode all round was a good job. Bring on Agatha Christie!

I have to admit for a sec, when I saw the previews last week of Jenny kissing, you couldn’t see the other side’s face. I thought it was a female. Hah.

Donna returns, just in time to encounter the cutest aliens the Whoniverse has ever seen.

Oh, yes. Spoilers ahoy. If you don’t want any kind of spoilers for Torchwood or Who, I’d advise you to bookmark and come back later.

Only a night after the finale of Torchwood in probably one of the most frustrating but sad endings, which seems to be Russell’s style, we have the fun romp of Who back on our screens. It looks like it’s been some time since The Titanic – The Doctor’s talking to himself, missing having someone with him and regretting his actions with Martha. (I think, one of the nicer moments Russell has given the whole Martha/Doc angle) Still, no rest for the Time Lord. He’s investigating some strange goings on with the latest diet fad gripping London. People are taking diet pills, and strangly enough, it’s actually working! The Doctor knows this is too clever for normal humans. What he doesn’t know is Donna has figured the exact thing out.

Time has passed, and she’s beginning to regret her refusual to join Team TARDIS. Who can blame her. She laments to her Grandfather (remember the old guy in Voyage? Yep. That’s Donna’s grand-dad. There’s a reason for this. It was originally meant to be played by Donna’s father but the actor passed away days after filming the first episode.) and ignores her mother, who still is annoying as ever. She’s sticking her nose into weird conspiracy things hopefully she’ll eventually bump into the Doctor again. But we join the adventure as they both sneak into the same building and (of course) continually narrowly missing each other time after time. It gets a little tedious after a while, but their eventual meeting is one of the funniest moments of the entire episode.

The alien threat and the bad guy is probably the more disappointing element of the episode. Miss “Foster” is an alien “nanny” of these little cutesy creatures that are being made out of peoples fat. The creatures are all CGI and cute, and there really isn’t a moment in the entire episode that you feel any kind of fear for these creatures. Even Miss Foster, which is a deliberate cliche of the whole “supernanny” TV craze. That’s one thing about Russell, he doesn’t do subtle well.

Still, we get a lot of running up and down corridors, the beginning of the arc mystery (bees, anyone?), a few surprises here and there and a satisfactory conclusion which is essentially a re-introduction to this year’s main Doc/Companion duo. Donna is much less annoying this time around. She’s still loud, and it looks like she’s not going to take any crap from anyone, Time Lords included. What I do like however is their relationship is set from the get-go. “Mates”. Friends, even behind the scenes they’ve said this as far as it goes. Apart from the obvious scene with Donna/Doc/Donna at the end, I thought we’d get a few moments of witty dialogue and next week’s preview. How wrong was I.

They throw this small scene at us. Brilliant, but annoying as we’re going to have to wait probably until episode ten to see what it all means. If you dont want to be spoiled, don’t click on this link -

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yYAsSKwp6g&hl=en]

I just hope they don’t make her so she’s still pining for The Doctor and she hasn’t moved on. I hope there’s much much more to it than that.

Either way, a good but not perfect start to the Season. 3 and a half out of 5.