In memory of Ricardo Montalbán, best known for Khan in the classic Star Trek and The Wrath of Khan, but also for his signature role as Mr. Roarke, Fantasy Island‘s elegantly charming answer to Rod Sterling’s narrator on the Twilight Zone.
Montalbán was an incredibly busy film and television actor with six decades of work. However, I’ll definitely remember him as Khan.
Watch the Star Trek Episode “Space Seed,” where we’re first introduced to Khan.
It’s what we’ve all been waiting for, especially since the Sci Fi gods decided to cut Battlestar short. They’re also making us suffer by having us wait an entire year or so to see the 11th Doctor in action, but that’s another story altogether. Staying on topic, the Final 10 episodes of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica will air starting this Friday, 10pm on the Sci Fi Channel.
The last time we saw the battle and travel-weary Battlestar Galactica and fleet (which now includes a Basestar of renegade Cylons), they finally found Earth. So say we all!
Gaeta and “Sweet Eight.” There’s something more to this chance meeting.
To hold us over until Battlestar Galactica 4.5 this January, Sci Fi Channel is running a 10 webisode series entitled “The Face of the Enemy,” where Felix Gaeta is in the middle of a mystery of people dying aboard the Raptor after being lost in a jump miscalculation. To further complicate the story are some friendly Number 8‘s.
Regarding a personal mystery about Gaeta, consider it solved in Webisode 1.
As for BSG 4.5, here’s a sneak peak of an upcoming broadcast episode, where Adama is not happy after Tigh came out as a Cylon.
Stay tuned. BSG 4.5 starts on January 16, 2008.
Parents and children is the theme of the third season opener. Carter tries to exhert a little parental control on Zoe, especially after she gets a job at the Cafe Diem. A testing of small robotic fightercraft goes wrong as one achieves an adolescent level of sentience. Interestingly, they are called Vipers and Zoe later describes them as Cylon. Zoe and the Viper also has a bonding moment where the Viper tries to help her get away from Carter.
Eva Thorne, the corporate killer, is brought in to make Eureka and Global Dynamics more efficient and more money making. She also brings with her a maternal disapproval of how things are run at Global and also ideas. No doubt she’ll be around for quite a while, making difficult situations even more complicated.
While the romance between Carter and Allyson Blake is put on dry ice, the idea of Blake and Stark getting married is out there. She doesn’t say yes yet, but she’s thinking about it.
Product placement is now hard to get away from: cases of Degree product shows up here and there. This reminds me of when Zima showed up on Babylon 5. Does anyone drink that now? Will Eureka’s product placement increase the amount of Degree users? That remains to be seen.
Project Runway has officially been around long enough for it to have generated some clichés. The one that gets used since Season 2 is the show loans contestants digital cameras and they are set loose in Manhattan to take pictures. From simply roaming around in broad daylight to perusing the Met, the idea is that inspiration can come anywhere at anytime. It seems that the producers and writers need a professional equivalent of this exercize.
Of course, the shutterbug clichés meets another one: bait and switch. Whenever Heidi Klum greets the designers with that clipped but chirpy hello, we know something is up. So do the designers, and the silence really is golden (pardon the cliché).
This week’s bait and switch – a night out on the town turns out to be too literal. No going out, no needed stress relief by dancing one’s ass off; just roaming around four key points in New York City taking pictures of the lights. They all seem to take it very well in their ponchos and rainboots. Perhaps they were compensated with a bottomless supply of cocktails after they returned to their suites.
Blayne, AKA Tweaker Beck, takes a beautiful picture of the light, but his dress becomes a walking Gay Pride flag on his model.
For some odd reason, Leanne reminds me of Cassandra, long haired girl who wore sundresses and Doc Martens, on Beavis and Butthead. Her slow, thoughtful way of speaking and even her odd inflection were a little too dead on. Unfortunately, I remember that more than her dress. Not good.
While I don’t care about Keith being ultra pushy during the snap shoot, I thought his dress was conceptually brilliant. It looked great on TV, but it must have sloppy close up. Or, Nina was reaching for a comment.
Emily of the Sarah and Tegan haircut goes. The ruffle is just wrong and now that’s a cliché.
This is where some will ask me to turn in my gay card: Sandra Bernhard as guest judge? Seriously?
Ugh, this season seems like it’s going to be full of celebrities trying to establish their fashionista cred. The only one who really has it so far is Natalie Portman.
Season Three of Eureka premieres tonight. Chris, I promise I won’t be a little too eager with blogging this. I could use the summary function and issue a spoiler alert, but I have the feeling that won’t let me off the hook. I’ll just pursue an editorial policy similar to the one I have for Project Runway.
As for the image above, it was a little odd and eerie (but somehow appropriate) to hear the Eureka theme playing from an ice cream truck during Comic-Con weekend. Unfortunately, no Space Age ice cream was given away.
Project Runway really seems to be grasping at threads for this one: Have the model shop for the fabric, make sure it’s eco-friendly, and have the designer make a dress out of it. Strangely enough, it reminds me a bit of the weight loss episode from last season in that some of the current designers viewed the models shopping for them as “death on a stick.”
Right now, I’m inclined to think Suede, the guy with the blue mohawk, is the spiritual son of the Björk Lady. Talking about yourself in the third person is a little too Björk Lady, even for the Björk Lady. There’s probably a bit of Chris March in him as well (remember the big guy who talked to his garments?). For all I know, Suede probably put a spit mark on his fabric, but he seemed to have talked strips of organic silk into a winning number.
I like to think of Korto as the saner counterpoint to Season 2′s Zulema, but there’s a little bit of an echo of the “clothes off your back” as she makes a dress a little too short in the back. Luckily, it’s not butt-less.
Biker Chick/Betty Paige on crack comes back from last week as she puts a very LA kind of rock and roll chic into a one sleeve white satin number (with lace ups). Nice recovery from the trash bag from last week.
As for the brown fabrics, the and the designers are ephemeral. No wonder the guy who does a brown dress gets canned.
As for Tweaker Beck, he’s much more memorable when he makes fun of the Biker Chick. I can’t even remember what he does.
I guess that’s what happens when you go to Comic-Con and delay the posting, My memory seems to gone right now.
Last season’s PR brought odd personalities such as the Björk Lady and Harry Potter, the talented winner. This season doesn’t seem to short of personalities. I can’t remember anyone’s names right now, but I’ll call one guy Tweaker Beck and another Rufus Wainright. Blue mohawk guy: Vivian or one his roommates from the Young Ones.
I’m not sure if this is going full circle to Season 1′s first challenge or if PR is on its last legs and grasping for straws, but the challenge is to go the grocery store and scoop up whatever materials they can. Austin Scarlet, winner of the Season 1 challenge with his corn husk dress, is back to judge the challenge.
Not surprisingly, a lot them grab table cloths and Tim Gunn bitches them out for it. The aging biker chick goes for the punk rock cliché of the garbage bag and tries to break it, only to fall flat like an inner tube with a hole in it. That would have been a great material for a dress. Rufus Wainright, on the other hand, is more innovative with a dress made of blue plastic cups.
Jennifer, one of the few names I’ve caught, uses material I would love to use: paper towels. It brings back memories of the tissue paper couture I did as a kid.
Tweaker Beck, well, makes a very tweaked out outfit. Michael Kors says it looks like a handiwipe gone wrong. As for Jerry the Asian guy, his outfit looked too nursey or as Kors said, just left the hospital. Needless to say, Jerry leaves the runway.
Korto is the only one who uses to produce to accessorize a tablecloth dress. Kelli, who looks a bit like Reese Witherspoon, wins by burning and staining her materials, creating a not-so-pretty but interesting effect.
Perhaps this season will be an interesting one, but it’s too early to tell. I wonder how much we’ll get to see Tim Gunn losing that cool, “Make It Work” demeanor. Even though that would overshadow Heidi and the designers, it would be checking out.
My one real gripe about watching PR – seeing all those commericals for “Date M Ex.” Jo and Slade, please go away. I guess Bravo/NBC takes care of their own when their music careers fail to take off.
Oh, there’s another gripe: PR’s Bravo website is badly organized. This must be one of Bravo/NBC’s retaliations for the show’s migration to Lifetime (a financially motivated move on Weinstein’s part).
My online version of my MFA creative writing afterlife. So much for the afterglow.
