The writers on this show have a great way of juxtaposing similar events but with different people. Often that’s the world of Buffy and her friends in contrast with their enemies, and we do get that here, but there’s a third element as well, presenting a richer and more complex picture. We also don’t get a clear good/evil divide. The three relationships presented in this episode are all twisted in different ways. Continue reading
It sounds a bit like a riddle: how do you destroy a society without laying a finger on it? I don’t know; you probably get the idea. But Rod Serling answers that with The Shelter. The problem is that, like so many of these stories, we’ve got to fill 25 minutes with a concept that really only has about 10-15 minutes of life. This is a good story, but I don’t think we needed the elongated style for what Serling is telling us. It’s a thought experiment in true horror. It makes for a great question for The Book of Questions, but isn’t a 25 minute episode of a 60’s TV show, despite the fact that, at the time, this fear was very real. That’s the one thing you have to remember: this was a very clear and present threat at the time it was first aired. But was there enough content? Maybe but for me, it was held together by one line and I’ll talk about that in a moment… 
Superstition raises its illogical head when junior officer Colby is given a new ship: Lucky 13. With a serial number that has 13 in it twice, and whose digits add up to 13, it’s easy to see why this may be a ship of ill-omen. Coupled that with the fact that 2 crews were utterly lost during missions with the ship, it’s no wonder no one wants to fly her. But superstition can’t hold a candle to the bonds of friendship, loyalty and love.
Something has clicked into gear for the fourth season of The Avengers and there is a confidence and polish to these episodes that was rarely present before. We’ve gone from a series that was solid, watchable entertainment, to a show that is top-notch every week. In particular, the opening sequences to each episode have been remarkably efficient hooks to draw us into the stories. This week we start with a man looking very nervous in a department store, all by himself. There is something disturbing about that, which I discussed for the Twilight Zone episode The After Hours: 
Synchronicity is a weird thing. My sister happened to get my post about the 
I have to say I really enjoyed the first episode of Angel, so I was deeply let down by the second story, Lonely Heart. It does get better about half way in, but it spends the first 15 minutes milling around a bar watching the entire cast being awkward. It probably has a lot to do with the way they get their cases. Cordelia has printed out business cards, but no one has them yet, so we can’t have people come to the detective agency in any normal way. Instead, Doyle again has to have visions which really are such a cheesy way of saying “hey, the writer needs a semi-convenient way of being in this bar… the only one in LA!” You’ve probably heard the expression, “have horse, will travel” (or for our purposes, “have spaceship, will travel”) but this series offers no logical means of getting from story to story so Doyle’s visions are what we have to work with. So off to a bar they go and a several hundred year old vampire wouldn’t have much experience with humans, so he’d have no idea how to talk to them! (Oh, wait, am I being sarcastic?) When he meets Kate, she asks what he does for a living: why does he go with “veterinarian” instead of “private investigator”? He doesn’t have a case at that point so there’s no jeopardy of putting a case at risk and he’s trying to find out who is in trouble anyway. Sounds like a perfect way to make headway. But no, Mr “I’ve never spoken to a girl before” opts to go with “vet”! I was bewildered. Was it supposed to be funny? 
If we were unsure of Kate’s marital status, she makes it clear in this episode. She is Kate Columbo no more: “I went to court and got my maiden name back.” Oddly, Mike expresses surprise at hearing Kate introduce herself as Kate Callahan, although she has done so twice before, albeit overdubbed on the most recent occasion, which supports my theory that these episodes were broadcast out of order, with the decision to change Kate’s surname taken after at least one of the episodes had already been filmed. I also still stand by my opinion that a strong motivation for this decision had to be the way the writers can now tease a romance between Kate and Mike, an added element to the show that was absent from the first season. They are obviously very fond of each other, and that perhaps leads to Kate being granted access to murder cases in a way that must surely go beyond the usual interactions between police officer and journalist. 
This has to be the strangest of the tales so far this season. One of the things I really love about this series is that it’s got a vast range. We’ve seen comedy, drama, plenty of sci-fi and no shortage of horror. We’ve seen action and silliness… we’ve even had an episode with real live people. That’s some versatility; it’s not confined to one type of story, or one type of animation. The episodes of season one haven’t gone past 20 minutes yet and still manage to tell a compelling story. 
I’ve got to hand it to them: this has got to be, hands-down, the most agonizing 8 minutes of television I’ve ever seen. Ok that had to be said, but seriously, if humans need a reminder of just how dangerous space could be, this tiny episode is the training video everyone should watch. And the entire thing is carried by one character: Alex, a Scot who is effectively a space mechanic. She goes out to work on a satellite and a rogue screw hits her from behind. Its hits her in the oxygen tank and she drifts off unable to get back to her one-person shuttle. With a rescue crew an hour away but only with 15 minutes of oxygen, Alex doesn’t have much hope… but she’s not quite ready to give up yet!
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