This week I'm going to do something a little different and talk about a tv show which (as of late March 2015) is currently available for viewing on Netflix. This show is called Black Mirror, and as is typical of British shows is fairly short, containing a total of just six episodes. (Well, apparently seven but there's only six on Netflix at the moment.) And while I'll be perfectly honest that I don't care for one or maybe two of these episodes, the rest are incredibly fantastic and in my case left me thinking about them for the rest of the day, or even the rest of the week.
Black Mirror is a science-fiction anthology show, much in the same vein as The Twilight Zone, which is probably one of my favorite TV shows. I say science-fiction although some of the stories could happen with existing technology, but most of the stories have a definite science-fiction element to them. However the creators (mainly Charlie Brooker) utilize their stories to make commentary about society today, again very much in the vein of The Twilight Zone. And it's very easy for social commentary to get a little heavy-handed, and that sort of leaks through in a couple of episodes, but at the same time it's really thought-provoking and interesting. And perhaps, in forty or fifty years some of the episodes will be just as dated as some of the more Cold War-oriented Twilight Zone episodes will be, but I like to think that maybe a couple will become timeless classics as well.
As an anthology series, each episode contains its own story, but overall there's definitely a rather dark theme to the series. It tackles various subjects such as human infatuation with media, our relationship with technology, grief and loss, crime, and politics. And overall the episodes are really good because they left me thinking about them throughout the day. Even enough for me to write a blog post about them and tell people they should go watch this show as well. Even if the episode seems a little bit off the mark, it's something that you can talk about. And that's probably one of the greatest powers of tv as a medium, the ability to get us to think and talk about subjects that may not normally cross our minds. That's the power of any medium, really, and tv has definitely made attempts to get us to think about things, but very often shows are just about entertainment. Black Mirror is one of those gems that manages to do both, and I think more people should check it out.
If any of my readers are fans of The Twilight Zone, which I'm going to take a flying leap and guess that they probably are, then I highly recommend that they go and check out Black Mirror. I guarantee you won't be disappointed. (Just don't get turned off by the first episode, okay?)
In the slowly increasingly history of the Arsenal I've really only talked about TV shows twice. The very first official post where I talked about Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, and that one time I talked about my opinions on the sixth series of the new Doctor Who. (Well, okay, three times if you include that time I talked about Firefly in a video.) It's a little funny because it's not like most of the entertainment I consume is just books so that's what I have to talk about. There are plenty of times where I sit down on the couch after a rough day and enjoy whatever happens to be in my Netflix queue at the moment (Mythbusters if you were interested) and there are plenty of video games that I enjoy playing. Perhaps the only person I know who is a more avid fan of the Total War franchise is my colleague Carvan. I think, however, that a lot of the TV shows I watch and video games that I play are pretty out there in the public consciousness and I don't really need to talk about them. I mean, who the heck in the sci-fi community hasn't heard of Doctor Who by now?
Continuum, I suspect, makes a notable exception in that case. I was only made aware of it because it was in a list of suggestions for me on Netflix based on my interest in sci-fi and time travel. Although I've only seen the first season I've ended up with rather strong opinions on Continuum and I have yet to meet anyone who's also seen the show. (Considering that as of writing it's an ongoing series that at least suggests it has got a rather strong following to merit continued existence.) As such I feel justified in writing about this series and pestering you all with my opinions on it.
Continuum is a series that is (originally) set in the year 2077. The governments of the world failed financially and had to be bailed out by the large corporations. As a result the corporations now control and own everything and there are, unsurprisingly, some people who are unhappy with this situation and are leading a rebellion/terrorist campaign against the corporate-controlled government. A handful get captured for bombing the Corporate Congress and were slated for execution but managed to engineer an escape attempt that transported them back to the year 2012, taking with them a police officer called Kiera Cameron. Much of the show then revolves around Cameron trying to stop the terrorists/rebels from trying to interfere with the past so that they can change the future as well as trying to return to her family in her own time. The series relies on a lot of what at this point are time-travel tropes such as the future fish out of water, meeting future famous and influential people, and exploring the paradoxes of time-travel. It doesn't bring terribly much new to the table aside from some Great Recession social commentary, but it's at least fairly enjoyable.
I have, however, two fairly large issues with this series which make me rather ambivalent to the whole thing. The first, and definitely my biggest issue, is how the show handles its portrayal of Cameron and the terrorists/rebels. As you've probably noticed throughout this review I've been adding a stroke whenever I talk about the rebel/terrorist group known as Liber8 in the series. The reason I do so is because I'm not entirely convinced that Liber8 are the bad guys in this scenario. To further explain, in the future of 2077 the freedoms of speech, press, and peaceable assembly have been removed by the government and in many cases martial law has been instituted. In response to these and other harsh measures the member of Liber8, much like V in V for Vendetta have been left with no alternative than violent (and explosive) insurrection. Officer Cameron, by contrast, only occasionally questions the morality of her cause and her support of the existing regime. In the TV show the members of Liber8, who are some pretty hardened criminals regardless of the cause for which they fight, are unequivocally depicted as the villains engaging in theft, murder, kidnapping, extortion, and all manner of other crimes. Cameron is depicted very cleanly as the hero of the series, a traveler lost in time who is trying to do the right thing. However she also utilizes fairly unethical means to gain evidence and confessions in her police work and shows no respect for the legal protections all people are granted when suspected of a crime. And I at least didn't hate Cameron, she was an interesting character and fairly compelling, but there's a part of my brain that was constantly going, "She's a pawn of the government quashing the rights of the people! She violates legal protocol to get results!" That part then picks up a red flag, climbs a barricade, and promptly gets shot but it raises some good points.
The other big issue I have with this series, and perhaps this gets resolved in later seasons, is an inconsistency on whether or not the events occur in one timeline. The first and last episodes of the series pretty strongly state that the series occurs within one timeline and the characters are currently in a time loop and are unable to alter past events in spite of their intentions. However, in the middle of the series they deal specifically with the grandfather paradox and end up with a "Well we just don't know. Maybe we're in a branching timeline. Maybe this is the same timeline but something's different." For my readers who are unaware, the grandfather paradox is a classic time-travel paradox that has bugged the heck out of sci-fi nerds for decades. Suppose you have a time machine and decide to travel back in time to a point before your grandfather has ever met your grandmother. You then kill him. What happens? Some suggest you can kill him, but the timeline will auto-correct and you will cease to exist when the timeline "erases" any errors, a la Back to the Future. Others theorize that you simply cannot kill your grandfather because then you would not be able to exist to come back in time and kill him. Even if you tried your hardest to kill your grandfather the simple fact that you exist means he'll have a series of extremely close scrapes and continue to go on and meet your grandmother.And then some hypothesize that he wasn't really your grandfather all along and in fact you might be your own grandpa, a la Futurama. Continuum takes on the grandfather paradox and actually kills the grandmother of one of the characters, however said character continues to exist after their grandmother dies. Perhaps this is explored in a later season of the series, but because this is very definitely the same timeline it raises the question of how the character's still able to exist when by all rights they shouldn't. It's all very frustrating and makes me wish the series was more consistent with its own time travel rules.
Overall I have mixed feelings on the series. It was kind of enjoyable, but I feel like it doesn't bring anything new to the table and doesn't do everything it's trying to do well. Definitely not on my recommend list of TV shows if that tells you anything.
So recently I stopped putting off watching Series Six of the new Doctor Who and finished it in a couple of days. Overall I did like this series but it left me with some significant concerns as well. I definitely would recommend everyone go watch it if you haven't already because there are some really good episodes in this series, despite its flaws.
Oh, and as a warning, I'm probably going to have to mention spoilers to really get to my problems with the series so if you haven't watched it already go ahead and do that.
SPOILERS AHOY!
So, for me, this series started off really well with the episodes The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon. Those episodes introduced a new villain for the Doctor, the Silence, and set up this series's story arc so I was pretty excited. The problem I had, though, was that I felt like the story arc was not particularly well done and in hindsight this is kind of a problem with other seasons of the new series as well. Basically what I'm noticing is that the creative team of Doctor Who will leave little hints throughout the season and give some foreshadowing, but generally most of the huge story arc will be revealed in the last two episodes of the season in a big finale. (And based on the past seasons there's about a 60% chance of Daleks being involved.) And, to be honest, I was kind of okay with that but this latest series was significantly different because we kept returning to the overall story arc in a majority of the episodes and it became more central as a driving engine for the plot. Unfortunately there were still a couple of episodes that stood on their own and didn't really connect with the story arc. Even then I'm being generous with the episodes that are related to the overall plot but in a sort of indirect way. I really felt this series would have been better served by having all of the episodes build upon the story arc, even if it meant losing one of my favorite episodes The Doctor's Wife.
I also had some issues with the decisions for the character arc of the Doctor during this season. I guess my first major issue is that people, in this case the Silence, are once again trying to defeat the Doctor because they consider him their enemy. For the Doctor this is kind of a big deal because he doesn't like being seen as this evil enemy that destroys everything in its path but that's really unfair. If you think about the enemies that the Doctor fights, they're...well, usually evil. Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, they're all obsessed with conquering the universe and making everyone like them. The Doctor fighting against such foes isn't an evil act, it's heroic. He remains a champion for freedom against forces of tyranny. Yeah, fighting all of those battles can be tough and really wear on the Doctor, but the universe is much better off with him than without. Fortunately the writers kind of addressed this in The Wedding of River Song so hopefully it won't be an issue in the future.
Another problem was that the Doctor kept getting really upset because he couldn't save everyone and felt like a failure as a result. And yes, I can at least understand why the Doctor personally would be upset over every person he's incapable of saving when there are so many that die. However, from a storytelling point it makes a lot of sense. Seeing people die, despite the Doctor's best efforts to save everyone, makes the danger feel far more real and makes the viewing experience more emotional for us, the audience. As terrible as it sounds, we have to see people get killed by Weeping Angels and clockwork robots to raise the stakes of the conflict and make the Doctor's actions that much more critical. In addition, on those rare instances when the Doctor can save everyone it becomes a poignant and cherished moment. If the Doctor saved everyone all the time then his victories would become meaningless for the audience. It is because such victories are rare that they are valuable not only to us but also the Doctor.
A final point was that in A Good Man Goes to War the Doctor summons allies who owe him a debt from across time and space to help him in the Battle of Demons Run. This is all well and fine and made a really epic episode. The problem I had, however, was that some of these characters, specifically Madame Vastra, Jenny, and Commander Strax, we had not met before. From what little we learned about those characters in the episode they seemed really interesting and I wanted to know more about their stories but this was the first, and perhaps only, time that we get to see them. Listen, I'm all for introducing new characters to the Doctor Who universe and considering the Doctor's a time traveler they might meet out of order but there's a right way and a wrong way of doing it. The right way is how they introduced River Song in Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead where the Doctor is just as surprised as the audience and has to be introduced. Even though River died in Forest of the Dead because both she and the Doctor are time travelers we are left with the expectation that we'll meet her again in the Doctor's future travels. An improper way is just throwing in characters we've never met before and flat out stating that they owe the Doctor a debt. I would have strongly preferred that they had stuck to characters we had met before, such as Danny Boy and the other Spitfire pilots, for the Doctor's army, rather than introducing one-shot characters who have an implied history with the Doctor that we never get to see.
So, yes, this series has some issues as far as I'm concerned. Some of my other friends had less of a problem so I guess it really comes down to a matter of opinion. I would definitely recommend still watching this season because there are some ridiculously awesome episodes in there. (The Doctor's Wife made my list of favorites very easily, but it was written by Neil Gaiman so are you surprised?) I really hope that the next series, coming out later this year, will build upon the previous plotlines and reach greater heights.
A while back I watched aFeminist Frequencyvideo which was about the since-cancelled Sci-Fi show Caprica, a prequel and spin-off of the very popular reimagined Battlestar Galactica of the early 2000's. In this video Anita Sarkeesian talks about the character Sam Adama, young William Adama's uncle, who is openly gay but the show doesn't make a big deal out of it. As Ms. Sarkeesian explains, this is a fantastic step forward for media depictions of homosexuals of both genders, but it is far from perfect. Sam Adama is an enforcer for a criminal organization in Caprica and ruthlessly murders the organization's opponents with somewhat phallic knives. Thus Sam Adama is gay, but presented to us as an evil character because he participates in violent murders. I definitely encourage my readers to look at this specific video which I've linked below, and look at more of Ms. Sarkeesian's thought-provoking work.
For many years American media has had overall negative depictions of homosexuals of both genders. In part this can be traced back to the Hays Code initiated in the 1930's and which continued to hold sway over film-making until the 1960's. The code prohibited films portraying anything other than a narrowly defined system of morality which, this being the 1930's, included mixed race relationships and homosexuality. If homosexuals of either sex were included at all in films they were depicted as inherently evil and immoral as a result of their sexual orientation. Fortunately there is no such code today, but American media continues to struggle with its depiction of homosexual characters. When they're depicted at all they're either a combination of outdated stereotypes, such as camp gays or butch lesbians, or their sexuality becomes this huge deal and we go through increasingly dramatic story arcs focusing upon their gayness. Or sometimes even both. There are gradually increasing examples of normal well-adjusted people who just happen to be gay in media, but there are still struggles.
An example of this ongoing struggle with the depiction of homosexuals in media is two homosexual characters from Battlestar Galactica, the precursor to the above-mentioned Caprica. Through its four-season run BSG has two main characters who are revealed as homosexuals, Lieutenant Felix Gaeta and Admiral Helena Cain. I do want to state that as far as I remember the sexual orientation of both Gaeta and Cain were purely incidental aspects of their character rather than being a dominating characteristic. However, out of the diverse cast of BSG who occupy a number of different positions on the moral spectrum, the two main characters who happen to be homosexual also happen to be..well...evil. If it was a coincidence on the part of the writing staff it is an unfortunate coincidence and one we should actively work to avoid. However, if the fact that both main characters who are homosexual also end up as evil was an intentional act on the part of the creators, (And let me just say now that I'm not saying it was intentional, just including that possibility for the sake of completeness.) then the media's depiction of homosexuals is a larger issue than we may realize and definitely should be addressed.
Lieutenant Felix Gaeta
Lieutenant Felix Gaeta
I initially had doubts about including Felix Gaeta in this post at all. For much of BSG's run Gaeta is firmly in the camp of the sympathetic human protagonists. In fact Gaeta's knowledge in both computer programming and scientific research dramatically helps the survival of the humans on numerous occasions; during the Cylon occupation of New Caprica Gaeta goes so far as to risk his life infiltrating the puppet human government and rely vital information to the human resistance. So for most of his time on the show Gaeta is a likable supporting character of the cast.
However it is during the fourth season of the show that a few important things happen to Gaeta. First, we discover that Gaeta is a homosexual and was in a romantic relationship with Lieutenant Louis Hoshi, when previously Gaeta's sexual orientation hadn't been really discussed. Second, Gaeta loses a leg due to an accident and becomes wracked with pain from phantom limb syndrome and becomes increasingly bitter and withdrawn. Finally, and this affects the whole fleet, Admiral William Adama and President Laura Roslin agree to a truce with Cylon rebels to help increase humanity's chances of survival. Many humans within the fleet, including Gaeta, are angry about this decision and feel betrayed by their leaders. Gaeta then organizes and leads a mutiny aboard the Galactica against Admiral Adama and though it meets some initial success, the mutiny eventually falls apart and fails. Most of the mutineers are simply imprisoned in Galactica's brig, but Gaeta and another high-ranking conspirator are executed by firing squad and their bodies dumped into space.
Now Gaeta and many of his fellow mutineers had plenty of rational motivation for rebelling against their leaders, including the perceived betrayal of humanity by the creation of a truce with the Cylons. However, as a viewer I had two lasting memories of Gaeta after the series ended:
Gaeta was a homosexual.
Gaeta was executed for treason.
Although the show does not connect those two facts, the fact that Gaeta's a homosexual is only revealed an episode before he leads his failed mutiny. So those two facts are literally the last two things we ever learn about Gaeta before he dies. I hope no one thought that Gaeta's homosexuality had anything to do with his decision to rebel, but it is an extremely unfortunate coincidence and an unflattering end to one of BSG's two homosexual characters.
I will end this with a final comment on Lt. Hoshi. While Hoshi does survive the series to the very end and was in a relationship with Gaeta, Hoshi was never developed as a character to the level Gaeta was and remained a C-lister at best.
Admiral Helena Cain
Admiral Helena Cain
While argument over whether Gaeta was actually evil or not is still an excellent matter for debate, Admiral Helena Cain was from her introduction was a clear antagonist to the more level-headed William Adama (then a Commander). Cain, much like Adama, is in command of what she believes to be the last functioning battlestar and responsible for the continued survival of humanity. Commanding the Pegasus, Cain quickly becomes consumed with a quest for revenge against the Cylons. When an early attack against the Cylons goes sour, Cain ignores the opportunity to escape and fight another day. Instead, Cain chooses to push the attack and suffer heavy casualties as well as personally executing her second-in-command for cowardice and insubordination. When the Pegasus discovers a surviving fleet of civilian craft, Cain orders all useful personnel press-ganged into service and strips the civilian ships of their Faster Than Light drives, effectively stranding them in space. When civilians resist this brutal treatment, Cain orders her marines to quash dissent with violence. These actions are brutal, but necessary for the continued survival and operation of the Pegasus and can to an extent be justified. William Adama faces some similar problems to the ones that Cain faced and seriously considered more ruthless options, however because he was surrounded by and listened to good people Adama ended up choosing more compassionate decisions than Cain. As the characters themselves state, Adama could have easily ended up acting like Cain if it were not for his advisers.
Where Cain crosses the line into outright villain territory, in my opinion, is her treatment of her Cylon prisoner. The Cylons created a number of artificial humans to infiltrate human society and help weaken it from within and provide intelligence for the Cylon armies. One Cylon infiltrator, under the alias Gina Inviere, works as a computer programmer to put Cylon malware in the Pegasus's computer systems. During her time on the Pegasus Gina becomes romantically involved with Admiral Cain and the two pursue a relationship. However when Cain discovers Gina is a Cylon agent she has Gina immediately incarcerated and orders her crew to begin a ruthless interrogation. Cain specifically instructs her crew to use tools such as fear, pain, and degradation in their interrogation and they ultimately end up using techniques such as torture and gang rape. ...yeah....
Listen, I don't want to get into a huge moral discussion right now because it's neither the time nor the place. I feel like it should be sufficient for all my readers to agree that rape is inherently wrong in all its forms, regardless of time, place, or circumstances. The simple fact that Admiral Cain not only knows her subordinates are carrying out regular gang rapes of a prisoner, but also she effectively orders her crew to do it makes her just as guilty as the rapists. If not more so. If I had to point to a single human character as irredeemably evil in a world of largely grey moralities...I would point to Cain. Again, I do not think that the writing staff intentionally made the homosexual character of Cain this complete monster and I am willing to accept that it was an unfortunate coincidence. A really, really unfortunate coincidence. Ultimately Gina escapes from her cell and kills Admiral Cain in Cain's quarters. As a viewer I saw it almost as a karmic execution of Cain, her sins finally being avenged, and felt little to no remorse over her passing.
During its run, Battlestar Galactica was a flagship show on the Sci-Fi channel and made it ask what it meant to be really human. We saw plenty of Cylons become compassionate and likable characters, and plenty of humans become ruthless and heartless bastards. Out of all the conflicting moral situations on the show, I came to see Admiral Adama and President Roslin as the moral leaders who make tough decisions, but ultimately the right ones. We also experience a wide range of relationships, from the dysfunctional Tigh marriage to the loving mixed marriage of Cylon agent Athena and Karl Agathon to the rampant womanizing of Gaius Baltar. Yet out of all these characters we have only two homosexuals, both of whom come into direct conflict with Adama and Roslin who, again, in my opinion represent the closest thing BSG has to a moral authority. Even if this was not intentional, to a viewer it sends a message that homosexuals are somehow inherently bad and will definitely fight against proper morality at some point. In an age where homosexuals are struggling for civil rights equal to those of heterosexuals, for the American media to continue portraying them in a negative light is both unrealistic and in some cases harmful to their cause. Perhaps as viewers it is time we not only demand a realistic depiction of homosexuals (and other sexualities) in American media, but a positive and accepting depiction as well. It may not stop all the gay-bashers, but it will definitely stop spreading misconceptions and bad stereotypes we could all do without.
This post is dedicated to the memory of Alan Turing, 23 June 1912 - 7 June 1954. Without him, it is probable many more lives would have been lost in World War II and our modern computer-run society might not have been possible.
Now I know what you're thinking. "Carvan! You're British! You can't possibly run for president of the United States!" Well, gentle reader, in reality the president is only a minister of the royal family, given that the United States are a colony of the British Empire. I will petition her majesty for the position and move into the White House at once to begin governing, once the redcoats finish putting out the fire of course.
I think the place is rather CHAR-ming.
But I am getting ahead of myself, so let me begin this by explaining what I fear may become a standard trope of my posts: I'm usually several years behind the times. My frugality (or as Kalpar calls it "Being a cheap bastard") leads me to postpone many of the joys in life until they come down in price. This usually relates to video games, films, etc, and as such I will likely tend to discuss things which have been out for ages already. This must be clearly understood or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am about to tell.
When I was still but an undergrad in college, 10 many many months ago, I was given something. It was a small box containing a number of discs; these discs were of great value and importance so naturally when I received them I was warned against their misuse or abuse. I took the box in my hand and the warning still rings in my ears as I remember the event. She looked my in the eye and said "If you lose or damage these, I'll hunt you down and kill you." And so began my journey through the West Wing series.
If this were an episode, this would be the point where the title sequence would begin
West Wing began airing on NBC in the fall of 1999 and ran for seven seasons, ending in the spring of 2006. It was created by Aaron Sorkin, whose recent works include The Social Network about the rise of Mark Zuckerburg, and Sports Night. Sorkin left the show after the fourth season, and it does show a little in the writing, but the show still holds up as an excellent witty and dramatic series across the board. The series also has a strong cast led by Martin Sheen as President Josiah (Jed) Bartlet, and other cast members such as Allison Janney, Dule Hill, Bradley Whitford, Rob Lowe, Kristen Chenoworth, Jimmy Smits, and Alan Alda.
I'll stop paraphrasing Wikipedia now.
West Wing follows the events surrounding Democratic President Josiah Bartlet's two terms in the executive mansion, and how Bartlet and his staff deal with the crises which arise when one attempts to govern one of the most powerful nations on the planet. The show brilliantly mixes the events of being a world power with events in the characters' lives, pacing out the character development and story development very nicely.
The series begins in Bartlet's second year in office, and progresses to the end of his second term as the series ends with he and his wife flying back to their home state of New Hampshire. During his term, the Bartlet Administration deals with legislative issues, military police actions, an assassination attempt, sex scandals, medical scandals, the deaths of members of staff, terrorism, re-election and campaigning, information leaks, foreign policy issues, threats and kidnapping, the post-Bartlet campaign, and Alan Alda.
I'd like to think he is just playing Hawkeye on this series too, and like many other veterans, he decided to run for president.
As you might have guessed from that list, the series is largely dramatic and has many expertly crafted moments of tension, grief, or conflict. That said, there are some very light tones at points in the program and the banter between the characters is exquisite. The writing of the series is one of its strongest points. Sorkin's first four seasons have a definitely witty tone to them and the character interaction is pulled off to near perfection. The pacing is there, the delivery is there, the dry wit/sarcasm/deadpan humor is there. I have a hard time not singing praises for this. For example, take 57 seconds out of your life (you're reading this blog, so I assume you have time to spare) and watch this clip.
I hope you see what I mean. In addition to Lord Marbury being one of my favourite cameo characters in the series, the interaction between the characters is nearly flawless. As much as it requires strong actors (of which West Wing has many) to play dialogue like this well, the pith and power that most of the speech carries is extremely well crafted.
The acting and characters themselves add so much to the show. Sorkin and the writing crew tend to put a lot of silence in a few of the episodes and the actors use that silence to the fullest. Subtle actions, looks, gestures and all number of tricks convey immense emotion without endless dialogue. In short, they SHOW things without always having to TELL them. Furthermore, the characters themselves each have their own arc carved out over the 7 years of the show and even minor characters become likeable or despised in the short time they have on screen. Each has a distinct drive and motivation and a distinct way of looking at the world which sometimes creates enough drama without having to deal with a national or global crisis.
In addition to the technical aspects of the show itself, one thing which I greatly enjoy about the series are the little tidbits and references which crop up from time to time. Those of you who are history scholars, or who just really enjoy the musical 1776 might notice that President Bartlet shares his name and home state with one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and it is mentioned that President Bartlet is a descendant of said individual. Bartlet's wife is named Abigail, and throughout the series she is a strong first lady who supports her husband in his actions; she is clearly not just arm candy. Abby Bartlet is a force to be reckoned with in her own right, cowing her husband at times with her intellect and insight. Abby is also shown to be an avid proponent of policies like education and womens' issues. In my humble opinion, she bears a striking resemblance to first lady Abigail Adams who shares her name and many of her character traits and policy goals. This one you could also pick up on from being a history buff or really liking 1776. I happen to fall into both camps, so I can't really judge you either way.
History is fabulous
However, nothing is wholly perfect. One of my biggest gripes with the show is the somewhat "revolving door cast" they have for some of the minor characters. People will disappear for whole seasons or simply leave the show without explanation. I understand that the White House is busy and that often the show is juggling a number of plotlines all at once, but the tendency for characters at times to vanish without a trace and then appear months later is a little irksome.
A second problem the show suffers from is the occasional deus-ex-machina. In West Wing, this usually takes to form of one character holding onto a particular piece of information or course of action for the duration of the show, only revealing it to the audience at the end of the program as a magic wand to solve the problem. The dramatic tension that is ended when the magic wand comes out feels a little hollow and cheap, and smacks of "we wrote ourselves into a corner". I wouldn't say that it doesn't make sense in the context of the episode because everything does fit neatly together, it just seems a little lazy at times.
Thankfully instances of this issue are rare, and tends to happen with larger government issues like foreign policy or key legislation where one side is playing the other, however a much more common problem is that Bartlet seems to always win. Seldom does the audience have to deal with instances where Bartlet doesn't always come out on top. He seems to solve so many problems in the country and abroad within his eight years that my suspension of disbelief gets a little stretched. He is the protagonist and we are supposed to root for him, but I struggle to think of more than a few instances where Bartlet has to face a no-win scenario or does not ultimately come out on top.
These flaws aside, West Wing is an extremely solid TV series which I would heartily recommend to anyone with a penchant for higher brow material. It definitely helps to have an interest or understanding in history or public policy, but they do things in baby steps enough that a general audience could watch and enjoy the show. Mixing drama and wit and wordplay the show is intellectual for sure, but it will be a breath of fresh air for anyone seeking a witty series.
And it just goes to show, if running for President in one series doesn't work out just star in a John Candy movie that will let you be in charge
So a long time ago, in the early 2000's there was a TV show called Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, or more simply referred to as Andromeda. Now, you're probably thinking to yourself, "But Kalpar! Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, died in 1991! Did the Canadians use dark magic to summon the ghost of Gene Roddenberry?" That's...that's oddly astute of you dear reader. Well, basically the TV show was based on two ideas that Gene Roddenberry had before he died: the idea of a living ship and the idea of a man somehow being transported beyond his time to a world he doesn't know. With the help of Roddenberry's wife, Majel Roddenberry, writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe managed to create the first season of Andromeda.
Now you're probably wondering what Andromeda is all about. To begin, in the distant future humanity is part of an intergalactic government known as the Systems Commonwealth. Recently the Systems Commonwealth has come under assault from a race called the Magog, which...basically eats everything and moves on. Pretty scary stuff. The Commonwealth has managed to sign a treaty with the Magog, but not everyone is happy with this arrangement, most notably the Nietzscheans, a group of genetically altered humans. The Nietzscheans secretly plan a rebellion and manage to topple the Commonwealth.
In the middle of this is Captain Dylan Hunt, officer in the High Guard (the Commonwealth's military) and commander of the heavy cruiser Andromeda Ascendant. Betrayed by his Nietzschean First Officer, Gaheris Rhade, Dylan Hunt and the Andromeda are trapped on the event horizon of a black hole and enter a state of suspended animation. Dylan and the Andromeda are finally rescued by a salvage team....three hundred years later. The Systems Commonwealth is a distant memory, the Nietzscheans and Magog have ravaged known space, and technology has started to regress. Faced with this nightmarish future, Captain Hunt decides to reforge the Systems Commonwealth and bring back the light of civilization.
Now, I watched Andromeda when it first came out in the early 2000's but only had a vague memory of the earlier seasons so I decided to go back and re-watch the first three seasons. (Right now I'm working on season three, but I have a friend who got further so I'll be relying on some of his advice for this.) The first season introduces us to Dylan and the Andromeda, and we follow Dylan as he discovers the world he knew perished three hundred years ago. The first few episodes show Dylan discovering how the universe has changed and coming to terms with the Fall of the Commonwealth. Captain Hunt eventually begins his quest to reestablish the Commonwealth and wins over the members of the salvage crew that rescued him. The second season of Andromeda is where things start to get weird. Robert Hewitt Wolfe, the leading mind and chief writer for Andromeda had creative differences with the other members of the team. Eventually Wolfe left the show mid-season two which heralded several shifts in the show's direction. At the end of season two, Captain Hunt manages to get fifty planets to sign the new Commonwealth Charter which forms a new Commonwealth government. This is where things start getting weird. From what I've seen so far of season three, the Commonwealth, the government that Dylan helped established, suddenly has become obsessed with being a thorn in Dylan's side. The Andromeda gets a crew of redshirts...which disappear at times, leaving the command crew to solve problems. And then suddenly reappear. To quote Wikipedia, an ostensibly neutral source, "Also in Season 3 the characters often react in ways which are contrary
to their established personalities. Many of the plots and story
structures appear strained and inconsistent." I have a better memory of season four and five since they're more recent, but I don't feel the need to go re-watch those seasons. To summarize, things get weird, Dylan becomes Space Jesus or something, and the series ends.
To be honest, if you're going to watch Andromeda at all I'd stick with the first two seasons. There are plenty of interesting ideas, a unique universe, and a compelling plot. The third season is just....frustrating and the last two seasons are practically a different show. There probably were people who liked the later seasons, but I'm not one of them.
Finally, before I bring this rambling post to an end, I'm going to introduce you to the crew of the Andromeda. I'm going to stick with the crew of the first season and a half. (Rev Bem left the show mid-season two because the actor developed an allergy to the make-up.) I'll go through the characters from left to right on the picture to the left.
Trance Gemini : Initially we know very little about Trance, just that she's purple, she loves plants, and there's more to her than meets the eye. Despite her cheerful and bubbly personality, Trance can be tough when the bullets fly. Oh, and don't pull her tail.
Seamus Zelazny Harper : A genius engineer from the slums of Earth, Harper is in love with Andromeda, in more ways than one. (It makes sense, trust me.) Although small because of his upbringing on Earth, Seamus is a veritable magician with machines and is pretty scrappy in a fight.
Captain Beka Valentine : Captain of the salvage and freighter ship the Eureka Maru, Beka is probably the greatest pilot in the known worlds. She's also had an unconventional upbringing, growing up with her smuggler father on the Maru. Although initially driven by her desire to make a profit, Beka eventually becomes the biggest supporter of the Commonwealth after Dylan himself.
Captain Dylan Hunt: A High Guard captain and commander of the Andromeda Ascendant, Dylan is literally a man out of time. Faced with a universe that's gone to the dogs, Dylan could easily become a dictator with his ship, but instead he decides to rebuild the democracy that once encompassed three galaxies and always remain true to the ideals of the Systems Commonwealth.
Tyr Anasazi : The last survivor of the extinct Kodiak Pride of the Nietzscheans, Tyr is interested in what benefits Tyr. Well, and revenge against the Nietzscheans who betrayed his pride. That'd be nice too. As ruthless as he is, Tyr is a really cool character, constantly trying to outwit Dylan and take his ship which leads to some really great episodes.
Rommie : Rommie is a unique character because she actually is the ship. Remember how I said one of Roddenberry's ideas was a living ship? Well the Andromeda Ascendant has an Artificial Intelligence, called Andromeda, which is a character in her own right. Well, more like three characters. There's the ship's central AI, called Andromeda and appears on the various monitors throughout the ship, and hologram Andromeda who mediates between the central AI and the android. Finally there's the android, commonly referred to as Rommie, who has the ship's AI within her, but develops as a unique character throughout the series. An interesting theme as the series progresses is how Rommie the android has developed beyond the personality of the ship's central AI.
Rev Bem : A magog who has sworn to not take another sentient being's life, Reverend Bem is a priest of the Way, a mixture of ideas from all the major religions on Earth and has spread after the Fall of the Commonwealth. Despite his fierce appearance, Bem is a gentle soul who serves as a counselor for the other crew members.
Hopefully I haven't bored you to death with my little talk about Andromeda, and if you can find it I encourage watching the first two seasons. I wouldn't recommend past that, but there are some who might like it. Hopefully see you next Thursday.
