Category: Reviews

Chris asks. I do. Slowly. We’re now 4 episodes in to this brand new season of Doctor Who, and I’m pleased as punch to report that so far, it’s been pretty much…

“In the aftermath of the World Trade Center disaster, hope is still alive. Refusing to bow down to terrorism, rescuers and family of the victims press forward. Their mission of rescue and…

“Just”¦ be magnificent.” If I do say so myself, those were the words that summed up my entire hopes about this Christmas special. I had so many expectations; a lot of which…

In Brief: Hard-hitting, frightening and humbling. A civic duty to watch. Extended: It may seem an odd film to be reviewing on a predominantly sci-fi website, but An Incovenient Truth is one…

Written by Lee Setford, for Sci Fi Heaven.net, at an exclusive press pre-screening. Right At Your Door is a film that had to be made. With the current world climate there is…

This article contains spoilers for Stargate Atlantis SEASON THREE and Stargate SG-1 SEASON TEN.

Please expand the article to read.

I love temporal mechanics. This is quite possibly the strongest set of related episodes Paramount could release. It’s lined with classics: “City on the Edge of Forever”, “All Good Things…”, “Trials and…

Arriving in the office this morning was a complete set of the Star Trek: Borg Fan Collective DVD set from CBS for review. Owning most of the Trek series on DVD, with…

Picking up the pace, SG-1 looks like its getting back on track.

Avalon Part Two picks up right at the end of Part One, and very quickly resolves the cliffhanger set by its predecessor. Not that that’s a bad thing, as its resolved quite nicely. Daniel’s knowledge saves the day initially, and then Mitchell’s skill at sword fighting keeps them all alive. It’s a nice little sequence with the Knight, but why was it even there? It served very little purpose other for a nifty action sequence and a somewhat cheesy flashback to Mitchell failing in his life. Meh, I suppose I can live with it.

Very nice.

Picking up from a good cliffhanger last season, like Battlestar Galactica, Atlantis doesn’t seem to have lost the pace. The drama grabs you from the start, and doesn’t let go. It’s an hour of television that passes very quickly, for all the right reasons.

Fracking awesome, as Starbuck would say.

This is how you open a second season, not losing one bit of the pace from the first episode. It’s tightly written, and carries over the outstanding production values of the first season.

Well. This is different.

“Avalon” is interesting, let’s put it that way. There’s a lot that works, and a lot that doesn’t. It doesn’t give me the return in energy and excitement I was expecting, and feels more like another slap to the SG-1 franchise. But it gives me hope….

The same year Star Trek Voyager turned off the lights, and packed up the sets, a new show was being created. Rick Berman and Brannon Braga quickly knocked together the idea of having the new Trek series be a prequel – a controversial decision to say the least.

The first season opened to some spectacular ratings in the US, dipping dramatically and suddenly. This continued until this year, when the show was eventually cancelled for its lacklustre performance in the Nielsen ratings. That’s not to say the ratings fell due to show quality – UPN never did any decent advertising after the premiere. The result is a high budget Trek series that tends to twist and turn with exactly what it wants to be. Season One has a clear theme, however – exploration. Season One is the year that shows what the show would probably have been like, had the ratings not fallen. The wonder and excitement is there, there isn’t much danger – it’s all about “seeking new life, and new civilisations.”

In short: Much better than your average summer blockbuster, weak characters and plot are balanced by tremendous visual effects and film-making.

The cancellation of Firefly was, in my opinion, a terrible mistake. And really, it was the network’s fault, not the show’s. Any show that is aired out of order on the Friday night “death-slot” is almost certainly doomed to failure. It is a huge shame this show ended prematurely, it had so much potential. The premise was interesting, the characters involving and the effects impressive. The final product was one that was extremely enjoyable to watch and even addictive.