SORRY EJO, GONNA SKIP 'THE PLAN'

The review on io9 of the video release of the telefilm The Plan - the "last" installment of the Ron D Moore version of Battlestar Galactica confirms all of my worst fears. I'm going to take their recommendation and ignore it - there's no point in reheating and making a new sauce for spoiled food.

UFO

This was a fun show. The theme is great (Hawaii 5-0ish) ... supposedly UFO is being remade too and they'll screw it up for sure (unless Bowie's son [Moon] or Coppola's son [CQ] directs - they get the zeitgeist) ... I've got my own thoughts on the reality of UFOs here ... more on the original series here



... and here's a fun new lamp for alien abductee believers

io9's BSG THE PLAN TEASERS

Bah. My worst fears realized. I had hoped the last installment of Battlestar, The Plan, would redeem to some extent the gawdawful ending to the series but these new io9 teasers utterly negate that hope. Instead of getting inside the Cylons' heads and seeing things as they do it looks as if its soap-opera time and they'll merely replay scenes we've already seen (Doral blows up, Cavil tells Boomer "one shot in the head," etc.) with the priority being to connect-more-dots to flesh out the tortured, convoluted mess of Ron Moore's finale. Ellen as the Fifth - it's the Pam wakes up in Dallas of our era.

SGU REVIEW

Okay, I wound up watching the Stargate SGU 2-hour opener and it was okay. But, really, they should pay royalties to RDM and David Eick, et al. It is one thing to pay homage to good work with your own work, it's quite another to lift another work almost in its entirety. This image of the cast their equivalents sorta sums it up (glad to see that nice kid from Make Me a Supermodel got some work): we get the stereotypical edgy black guy, the Roslin character, the Helo character, Summer Glau slumming, the Baltar ripoff, Apollo, the Seth Rogan type (kill this character quickly please), and Adama.

HOW TO DO A GREAT ENDING

The best sci-fi show ever in terms of telling a cohesive tale with a very satisfying ending is Lexx. All the story threads come together rather seamlessly by the finale, and many have had their individual day in the sun. The mix of sci-fi, horror, camp, and satire was a rare gem indeed during its run.

I was fortunate to get to meet Xenia Seeberg the night before the last ep aired here in America. She's a sweetheart and as stunningly gorgeous in person as onscreen. For those of you who have not watched Lexx yet, give it a try. If intelligent satire is not your thing, or you don't understand camp - it's not for you. But it is absolutely brilliant - with lacerating insights and knowing winks that we the audience get to share. It is a celebration of science fiction, storytelling and a wink and a nudge to entertainment industry insiderness.

High points are the First Season 1st ep (Season 1 was four two-hour tv movies); Season 1, ep 4; the story arc of Mantrid in Season 2 and Lykka's end; the meditation on good/evil/heaven/hell in Season 3; and the hilarious romps through various genres in Season 4: vampires, mummies, guns, UFOs, dumb Americans, internet porn cams, Gen-Xers, right-wing US militias, Vietnam, underwear-sniffers, and evil little children (with great guest stars along for the series' run, like Britt Ekland, Rutger Hauer, Tim Curry) make it a classic.

Watch the entire thing, from beginning to end, and if you're in the business learn how to do a comprehensive story arc for your whole series with a satisfying and poignant end (er, that means you RDM).