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Doctor Who (The Second Series): “Curse of the Black Spot”

At long last, an allegory about the British NHS. But seriously, folks...

For once Amy had an excuse to glare as much as she does. First she had to rescue herself from pirates and then she almost got cuckolded by an alien siren. Granted, given the way she had treated Rory in previous episodes, I found it hard not to feel a bit of schadenfreude when Rory was first seduced by the siren -- and no, it was not a self-styled siren -- but then not even Amy at her worst deserved the fate the pirates would have given her had she not been so handy with a sword.

That said, I did find it amusing when the pirate captain not only proved blase about being inside the Doctor's Tardis but proved quick to identify those parts of the Tardis that most resembled the nautical instruments with which he was most familiar. Apparently those people in the past were not always as stupid as we in the present would like to believe. Or perhaps it would be more diplomatic to note that when you've seen one type of ship, you've seen them all. And what else is the Tardis than another type of ship, eh?

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Doctor Who (The Second Series): “Day of the Moon”

This episode began with not one but three chase sequences, one of which ended with the mysterious River Song jumping out a window to her seemingly apparent death. Needless to say, she didn't quite die though one can't help but wonder whether a day will soon come when Ms. Song tries that stunt again and no one comes to her rescue.

The rest of the episode, unfortunately, was a bit of a letdown. On one hand, we did find out the identity of the mysterious aliens we met in "The Impossible Astronaut." And I loved the way Ms. Song referred to the alien operation as being not so much an invasion as an occupation. In other words, Ms. Song and company were living in Occupied America -- which is an odd expression to hear from someone who did not exactly match the image of a Chicana militant.

On the other hand, we were left in mystery on almost every other point of the story and introduced to a mysterious young girl who might or might not be related to either Amy or the Doctor. And despite all the years the Doctor had made a fuss about not using a gun, he nevertheless managed to come with a surprisingly bloodthirsty solution to this week's problem.

I must confess that I am feeling a bit sorry for Rory though. Yes, I get that he will never make an adequate substitute for the Doctor in Amy's eyes but then Amy is not exactly the best of substitutes for past companions herself. And quite frankly, it is been a long while since I have been as annoyed with a companion as I have been with Amy. Perhaps I will warm up to her as the season goes on but at present I find her at best merely tolerable.

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Doctor Who (The Second Series): “The Time of Angels”

Heh. At long last, a totally unnecessary sequel to the episode “Blink.” Though I will give it bonus points for bringing back eccentric love interest River Song and giving the Doctor a memorable closing line.

Plus, this episode added new meaning to the term “Church Militant.” Prior to this, I never really expected to see a religious person join forces with the Doctor -- especially in the new series -- much less be portrayed in such a sympathetic fashion. But in this episode it happened though it often did seem a bit ambiguous as to how sympathetic we should find the Doctor's new clerical allies.

I did find it sadly ironic that in an attempt to make a certain angelic foe seem even more frightful than it was in “Blink,” the episode actually made it seem less frightful. But that's the chance you take when storytellers revisit old territory. Perhaps the next episode will be an improvement.

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Doctor Who (The Second Series): “The Impossible Astronaut”

The high point of this season's first episode: a post-mortem dedication of the episode to the late Elisabeth Sladen, who played journalist Sarah Jane Smith in both the first and second series of Doctor Who.

The low point: the fact that the episode not only ended on a cliffhanger but one of the less thought out cliffhangers to appear in the second series thus far.

In between, the Doctor and his companions had to deal with an eerie race of aliens who specialized in erasing all memories of their existence (the Memento Men?) and win over a former FBI agent with a mysterious secret. (No, the agent's last name was not Mulder). Dr. River Song showed up to carry on her age-old jihad against any headgear the Doctor might wear and if that was not enough, poor Amy was gaining weight and suffering from bouts of nausea. There was also a mysterious astronaut who might have something to do with the show's latest mystery and what's this? A guest appearance by both President Nixon and Nell Gwynn? Words fail me.

Those of you who like mysteries might want to ponder why Amy chose to share a particular secret of hers with the Doctor and not with her husband. (Apparently poor Rory is becoming the Rodney Dangerfield of the Doctor Who universe.) For that matter, what did the FBI agent mean when he talked about having gotten fired for wanting to get married? Was this an allusion to same-sex marriage -- or given the fact that much of the episode is set in 1969 -- was it an allusion to interracial marriage, which would have been still a big deal at the time of this episode? Inquiring minds want to know.

In any event, the answers to these and many other questions should be answered by this time next week. Unless they're not.

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Bones: “The Double Death of the Dearly Departed”

This episode was the first episode of this series that my beloved mother ever saw -- and judging from her reaction, no doubt it is the last episode she will ever see.

To be fair, this was hardly one of the better episodes though I suspect it was the “surprise” conclusion which convinced my mother to give up on it. Any time you see a member of my family tuning out a TV show before the closing credits start, that is usually not a good sign.

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Back to You: “Pilot”

Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton have received a reputation during the last decade or so for being two of the most outspoken conservative celebrities in television. So naturally when the two of them got together in 2007 to star in a sitcom for which Grammer was the executive producer, they naturally chose to star in a show in which one of the major subplots involved the conception of a child outside of wedlock.

No, seriously. Almost fifteen years after the big Murphy Brown debate about the implications of an unwed mother appearing on prime-time TV, two of Hollywood's most notorious conservatives chose to star in a TV show in which one of the main characters was a woman who not only conceived a child out of wedlock, but made little effort to hide such child from any of her co-workers.

Needless to say, we've come a long way from the days when Lucille Ball had to tiptoe around network censors to find ways to refer to her own pregnancy during the filming of her show I Love Lucy even though she and her real-life husband were playing a married couple. And yet as the recent fracas over poor Natalie Portman showed, we haven't come far enough.

After all, one has to ask: if Natalie Portman's decision to attend the Oscars sans wedding ring while she was visibly pregnant was so bad, why was it okay for conservatives like Grammer and Heaton to play unwed parents in a show that essentially glamourized unwed parenthood? After all, it would have been a lot easier for Grammer to have the scripts rewritten so that he and Heaton were not playing unwed parents than it would have been for Portman to just ignore one of the biggest nights in her career because of her pregnancy. For that matter, why was it okay with so many cultural conservatives for Ms. Heaton to essentially play the same type of unwed mother role on Back to You that Candice Bergen got criticized for playing on the '90s series Murphy Brown?

For what it is worth, I am not a big fan of unwed pregnancies -- which is why I have been careful to avoid creating any -- but I am also not a big fan of the notion that they are the worst of all social evils. Nor do I see how lecturing unwed mothers on their “bad behavior” is especially useful at a time when far worse behavior goes on without remark. After all, it could be argued that the father who deliberately walks away from a pregnant woman because he does not want to face the hassle of raising a child is far worse than the mother who conceives a child out of wedlock with the wrong partner because she had mistakenly thought said person would stand by her in the event of pregnancy -- yet for some reason, you rarely hear the same anger being directed at said fathers as often as it is directed against unwed mothers.

In any event, it is not like Back to You would have been one of the better sitcoms out there had it gotten rid of the unwed parent gimmick. After all, the show lasted less than a year and all too often relied on such gimmicks as “funny” ethnic names and a Latina weathergirl who was basically your classic stereotypical dumb blonde with a bad artificial tan and a Shakira wig. The only stand-out among the cast was actor Ty Burrell who has since gone on to a funnier and more famous role in Modern Family. Meanwhile, Kelsey Grammer's TV career appears to have stalled. If it weren't for Ms. Heaton's recent success as a married mother on the TV series The Middle, one would be almost tempted to call this a case of poetic justice.

But it isn't.

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Masters of Horror: “The Washingtonians”

Forty years ago, the premise of this episode would have been considered quite scandalous. Today it barely merits a mention in the local TV guide.

Indeed, it says something about the number of historical controversies Americans have been deluged with over the years that the episode manages to make a remarkably tasteless premise seem remarkably old hat. Even the ending seemed a bit more lame than one would expect from such a premise.

Oh, well. I really doubt that the world is ready for more splatterpunk versions of alternative history, anyway. However, this episode would make an interesting counterpart to the National Treasure series for those of you who have a pitch-dark sense of humor. Just don't watch it on February 22, please. Poor George has been through enough.

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The Sarah Jane Adventures: “Death of the Doctor”

Oh, no! Now it's Matt Smith's turn for a crossover. And it's almost as memorable as David Tennant's appearance. Granted, it didn't help that the aliens in this particular episode are so obviously intent on evil deeds that they might as well be wearing sandwich boards advertising that fact. However, the episode managed to work quite well despite all that.

Special kudos go to screenwriter Russell T. Davies who actually managed to make me sympathize with a character that I had often found quite annoying in the past: Jo Grant. Davies obviously has a lot of affection for the Ms. Grant character and it showed. Plus he had a way of making her character relevant to today's Doctor Who viewers that I didn't quite expect and he managed to do it with stealing any thunder from our beloved Sarah Jane.

Indeed, the whole episode worked best as a shout-out to anyone who had ever received any positive influence from any of the various incarnations of Doctor Who and there is a bit towards the end which managed to become must-see viewing for any hardcore DW fan. Plus our beloved Sarah Jane Smith comes out very nicely as well. But then you all probably expected that.

Anyway, I doubt that we'll be seeing any more crossovers on this show for a while. But then after an episode like this, we really shouldn't need another crossover for a long time to come.

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The Sarah Jane Adventures: “The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith”

Oh, no! It's the last appearance of David Tennant as the Doctor ever! And for what it's worth, it's a doozy.

Plus there's some funny business involving Sarah Jane and the mysterious gentleman she is planning to marry -- and no, she isn't marrying the Doctor but I can't say more than that without revealing -- you know -- spoilers.

However, I will admit that it was nice that the writers for this series found a way to get K-9 out of that black hole. Surely that doesn't count as a spoiler, right?

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House M.D.: “Help Me”

Dr. House makes a genuine effort to turn his life around, even going out of his way to help a young woman trapped beneath a crane. Though the woman’s leg is caught under some rubble that can’t be easily moved, Dr. House refuses to allow an amputation of the lady’s leg until all other possibilities have been exhausted. Once he exhausts said possibilities, he insists on performing the amputation himself.

The woman promptly dies in an ambulance en route to the hospital due to a predictable yet unpreventable side-effect of the amputation, prompting Dr. House to undergo a crisis of faith in which he questions the point of doing anything in a world in which such bad things happen to good people. A world in which even people who make an effort to do everything right get punished.

After two years of seeing people in the real world undergo similarly unhappy experiences, I could not help commiserating with Dr. House and his patient, even though Dr. House’s eventual solution to his problems is not one that I would have chosen for myself. It all too often seems like the world is pointless and cruel, that there’s no point in doing the right thing in a world in which people who do the right thing have no more good fortune than people who do the wrong thing.

Yet it is hard to see how just giving in to despair and not doing anything makes the world a better place. Despair may seem emotionally satisfying in the short run. However, in the long run, it seems just as destructive as the cruelty which provokes it.

Granted, it could be argued that the relatively upbeat ending of this episode is every bit as unrealistic as the hallucinations which marked the end of the previous season. But then it could be argued that Dr. House’s ability to regain a medical license despite years of drug abuse is also unrealistic.

In the end, it depends on which type of fantasy you prefer: the genuinely helpful one or the one which is not so helpful. Should you prefer the fantasy which encourages you to help people because it makes you believe that such things matter or should you prefer the fantasy which encourages you to withdraw from people because it makes you believe that nothing you can do can possibly matter? The answer, as always, is up to you. But I know what answer I would choose. And I don't say that because I'm naturally noble or too idealistic for my own good. I have my moments of selfishness and I have had many times in my life in which I have chosen to choose the easy way. However, I also have a conscience and I would like to be able to sleep at night.

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Doctor Who (The Second Series): “A Christmas Carol”

Well, I'm glad to see that my sister and I aren't the only ones who ever read Kate Douglas Wiggin's The Birds' Christmas Carol though I had no idea our Scholastic Books club had an outlet in Steven Moffat's country.

Anyway, it would have nice if Moffat had been available to come up with a happier ending for Carol Bir -- er -- Abigail if for no other reason than the fact that actor Dave Tennant officially used up all the "I'm sorry, so sorry" scenes one can reasonably tolerate in this series.

That said, this wasn't really a bad episode. More kind of a "eh?" episode. I did like all the Dickens references and the movie references -- even the shout-out to Jurassic Park III -- and I didn't think it was possible for me to like a shout-out to that movie.

I also must confess that I could have done without the Marilyn Monroe reference if for no other reason that Ms. Monroe seems to be the only American actress British sci-fi shows ever reference. Granted, a reference to an old-time British actress like, say, Diana Dors or Barbara Shelley would probably go over most younger TV viewers' heads but even that would be a bit more imaginative than another MM reference.

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Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: “Gnothi Seauton”

The title of this episode is Greek for “know thyself” and is derived from an old quote by the Greek philosopher Socrates. Sarah Connor mentions it at the beginning of the episode and then goes on to note how difficult it is to know one’s self when one is continually changing one’s identity to survive.

Shortly afterward, the cyborg Cameron Phillips gives Sarah a lead as to where to acquire new fake I.D.s for herself and her son and for a change, it does not involve the Hispanic community. Instead it involves a group of kindred spirits sent back by the future to help out the anti-Skynet resistance. Unfortunately, someone meets up with them before Sarah does and that someone succeeds in doing away with all but one member, who is not to be found.

So instead Sarah ends up going to an old connection in the local Hispanic community after all, only to find out that her contact is officially retired. The contact, however, does suggest that Sarah contact his nephew who has taken over the family I.D. business. This nephew proves to be more mercenary than his uncle and Sarah is forced to break into a safe left behind by the dead time travelers in order to find funds with which to pay him off.

Along the way, Cameron learns to imitate the posture of the nephew’s Latina look-out, proving -- among other things -- that it is just not white Anglo-American humans that the young cyborg learns from. In addition, Sarah learns from the nephew about the infamous 9/11 incident of September 2001 -- and her reaction to that proves to be most interesting. Moreover, both Cameron and Sarah prove to be multilingual, giving both of them an unexpected break when their knowledge of Spanish allows them to eavesdrop on the nephew’s bodyguards. As a result, Sarah soon realizes that her old connection is not quite the reformed felon he claims to be but rather an informant who may or may not be giving info to the feds. Sarah confronts him with this information and he comes up with a convincing alibi, but Cameron kills the guy before Sarah has a chance to verify it.

Not that it matters in the long run. Before the episode is over, it becomes quite evident that the contact really was not quite the guy he claimed to be and even in death, his existence proves to be quite inconvenient to the Connors. Which proves -- among other things -- that knowing herself wasn’t Sarah’s biggest problem this time out after all.

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Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: “Pilot”

Heh. The robot’s first name is Cameron. As in James Cameron, the director and co-writer of the original Terminator movie that introduced us all to Sarah Connor in the first place. At least that is the first name given by the robotic bodyguard Summer Glau plays in this series. If that is not ironic enough, there is a FBI agent named Ellison as in Harlan Ellison, the guy who once wrote a short story which may or may not have inspired the original Terminator.

Apart from that, there are relatively few shout-outs to the creators of the original movie as far as names are concerned. For that matter, the third and fourth movies have been ignored altogether for obvious reasons. After all, you cannot very well have a TV show with The Sarah Connor Chronicles in its title if you’re going to base it on a movie in which Sarah Connor is already dead. Of course, we get an inevitable repeat of the classic line: “Come with me if you want to live,” delivered this time out by Cameron.

But there are no references to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s characters and no flashbacks to Michael Biehn’s character’s -- though he is mentioned in passing in a scene in which John refers to his real father having been a soldier who died on a mission. Although Sarah and John Connor seem familiar with the concept of killer robots, the rest of the world still sees their past experiences from the first two movies as just one long zany story told by a pair of crazy people. And indeed, Ms. Connor is still being treated as a dangerous fugitive by the above-mentioned Ellison.

So once more Sarah and John Connor are on the run from the law. And they once again has a robotic protector -- the above-mentioned Cameron. The terminator this time out does not even get to be played by a famous actor but that is besides the point.

This first episode emphasized the sacrifices Sarah makes for John -- for example, running away from a boyfriend who has known Sarah long enough to feel comfortable buying her an engagement ring -- and Sarah’s inevitable fear that said sacrifices are not enough to keep John safe. Plus towards the end, Sarah acknowledges her fear that John may eventually pull away from her. That the more she tries to protect him from an admittedly clear and ever-present danger, the more she will end up alienating him.

A key plot point in the episode involves Cameron using a time travel device to relocate the Connors away from the path of a killer robot. Of course, the Connors and Cameron end up clothes-free as a result of said relocation and we get yet another shout-out to a scene from the original film as Cameron proceeds to procure a wardrobe for the self-conscious fugitives.

The final scenes shows the trio making plans to locate the mysterious Skynet which will supposedly set off World War III in April 2011. Given how close that date is, I guess I should either wish them Godspeed and good luck or pray that they truly are fictional characters. Because if they existed in the real world, that would be most inconvenient.

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Dexter: “The Getaway”

Oh no, they didn’t.

No, they didn’t.

No.

They didn’t.

I’m tired of seeing my favorite characters offed by writers eager to make a point about how serious the world is. Especially since there appears to be something cynical about the way this particular character was chosen. Most of Dexter Morgan’s other acquaintances and his sister are probably going to be immortal as far as this series is concerned. But poor you-know-who? Apparently she got the short end of the stick.

Damnit, if they were going to write her out of the series, she deserved a better ending than what she got.

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Dexter: “Hungry Man”

In a special Thanksgiving special, Dexter Morgan gets together with his would-be mentor for Thanksgiving dinner and discovers said mentor’s family life is not quite as blissful on the inside as it seems from the outside. Indeed, it’s almost impossible to imagine anyone having a more dysfunctional Thanksgiving than the one Dexter has in this episode.

Perhaps they should have just called this episode, “So You Thought Your Thanksgiving was Bad.”

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Dexter: “Dex Takes a Holiday”

Wait! Dexter Morgan is going to take an entire season to catch up with the Trinity Killer but he manages to off a killer cop in one episode?

It is a pity because it seemed good to see Dexter presented with a challenge for a change. Or at least a challenge which did not involve sleep deprivation and silly new father tricks. But unfortunately, said challenge was not provided by a special guest star so it is no big surprise how this episode ends up.

Edited to add:

It should not be necessary to point out this but I will anyway: the fact that one of the characters in this episode was named Zoey Kruger had no bearing on my opinion of this episode whatsoever. I do not even know any Zoey Kruger in real life and I certainly do not have any relatives by that name that I know of. However, I will admit that it seems like an odd coincidence and I am surprised I did not pick up on it sooner.

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Dexter: “Blinded by the Light”

That’s right, Dexter. Get tough with those security lights. Show them who’s boss.

But wait! Is that Rita over there, observing him? Could she finally be getting suspicious of him after these past three seasons?

Well, they do say that marriage tends to change people.

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Dexter: “Remains to be Seen”

Funny Dexter. Always losing body parts. Not his own, of course, but those of his latest victim. It's a good thing he's not a mortician though I suppose losing body parts is bad form for a serial killer too.

If only his new-born infant had a regular sleeping schedule but no, he doesn’t. Thus Dexter's problems with sleep deprivation. And missing body parts.

What fun.

And now Dexter Morgan has to explain away an auto accident to his wife Rita, a woman who may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer but isn’t exactly a blunt instrument either.

Plus there’s that darn Trinity Killer played by special guest star John Lithgow. In past seasons, the guy would already be paying a visit to Dexter’s homicide table but alas, that seems unlikely to happen this time around. Plus he’s being played by a special guest star so I’m guessing he’ll be around a while.

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Night Gallery: “The House”

Dreams. We all have them. And every now and then, some of us have special dreams. The dreams so real that you do not even realize that they are dreams till you wake up. Dreams in which you are basically powerless to control your actions because the minute you try to do just that, the dreams stop.

Elaine Latimer -- the character that actress Joanna Pettet plays in “The House” -- has such a dream. Over and over again, she dreams of taking a long drive in the country, only to come across a mysterious house out in the middle of nowhere. She has no idea who or what lives there yet she is always compelled by the dream to stop and knock on the door. But then she always turns and drives away before anyone answers the door, only to start the whole process all over again the next time she dreams.

Why does Ms. Latimer dream so much about a house she’s never seen before? How come she never sticks around to see who answers the door? The episode never quite answers these questions but then it isn’t quite meant to. Instead we get clues throughout the episode which may or may not be correct.

For example, we learn early on that Ms. Latimer has been seeing a psychiatrist named Dr. Mitchell. During part of the period she has been having her recurring dreams, she has been staying at a sanitarium and has been treated for depression. Although she comes across as a rather likable woman, another patient at the sanitarium describes her as being too dreamy. Almost as if Ms. Latimer was so out of touch that she even made other mental patients feel uncomfortable.

As the episode opens, Ms. Latimer is preparing to leave the sanitarium and return to the outside world. She worries that the dream may be a sign of some recurring mental condition but Dr. Mitchell does not seem too worried by it.

Then Ms. Latimer goes out driving during her first week out and comes across a house which looks just like the one in her dreams. The house is for sale because it is supposedly haunted but the really weird part about it is the way Ms. Latimer seems able to describe every detail of the interior without ever having been there before.

Is she psychic? Or just particularly lucky?

She ends up buying the house on a whim and then she moves in. Shortly afterwards, the dreams start up again. She is driving again and still stopping at the house but she still does not wait around for an answer.

One day she takes a quick catnap in an upstairs bedroom and gets awakened by what sounds like a knock on the front door. But there is no one there when she gets to the front door. The realtor who sold her the house comes by shortly afterwards but he claims to have seen no one on the road.

After the realtor leaves, Ms. Latimer calls Dr. Mitchell. But in the midst of her phone call, she hears yet another knock on the front door. She puts down the phone to go investigate and then...

What happens next?

Ah, that would be telling.

I will say this: the final emotion I saw on Ms. Latimer’s face seemed to be not so much fear or elation but rather disappointment. Why it seemed to be disappointment, I can’t really say. However, dream analysts do like to say that when you dream about a house, you’re usually dreaming about your body. So perhaps that explains Ms. Latimer’s mystery.

Perhaps.

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Dexter: “Living the Dream”

In the first season of this series, lead character Dexter Morgan met up with a serial killer who proved to be a kindred spirit.

Then in the second season, Dexter Morgan met up with a very eccentric British lady who also proved to be a kindred spirit.

Then in the third season, Dexter Morgan ran across a Hispanic prosecutor who, despite his obvious ties to the law enforcement community, also proved to be a kindred spirit.

So should I even try to guess what will happen in the fourth season?