Technorama

Destiny finds planet Novus isn’t quite what they expected when they drop off their descendants. There are no people to be found anywhere and one of the elder passengers directs them to an underground bunker. After an amazing shot from Destiny to the doors of this bunker (with the crew dangerously nearby) they go in to discover it’s an archive of the civilization’s history since Destiny arrived 2000 years ago all stored on keno-cam.

At first I thought it was a nice diversion to watch the video diaries, but then I started thinking “Seriously? You’re wasting HOW much time watching this stuff?” It’s like reading a book and your name happens to be one of the characters. I could understand a mild fascination, but they seemed to be going WAY to deep in to “what the other Eli/Chloe/Matt/Young/etc did.” Why? Don’t you have supplies to gather?

While they are in this underground archive, earthquakes strike. They determine it is because a black hole is passing by the system and causing terrific tidal stresses on the planet (as they suspected) and they don’t have long. Nothing like a sense of urgency to get the plot moving.

As the earthquakes intensify, Eli has the idea to start uploading all these archives to Destiny (wow, and WE thought reality TV was pointless.)  While watching some of the archives, TJ discovers that the “other her” has ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). She figures it set in about five years after she arrived and she died a couple years after that. When Varro tries to reassure her that “Just because the other TJ got it…” she tells him it’s not something you contract. She’s already headed down that path. OK, now I see the value in watching these other people live their lives.

The earthquakes get worse and they realize they likely don’t have time to upload all the data before they have to leave or the entire place will come down on them. One of the local elders who came along says “We cured that disease 200 years ago.” Will they have time to download enough of the database to save TJ? I won’t spoil it. All I can say is – too bad this show isn’t going a few more seasons. They just set another hook they cannot follow up on.

Funniest scene in the show – the look on Greer’s face as they are going down the elevator to the archive with the soft music playing in the background. I thought he was going to shoot the speaker system. FINE ACTING MY MAN!

There were some saving moments IMHO, like when Volker makes takes a verbal jab at Rush near the end. “It bugs you that we got along just fine without you.” OUCH! How’s Rush going to respond to that?

Despite that, I’m rating this one a little lower. While it was great for character development (watching the alternate people get married, have babies, etc.) I thought it a bit unrealistic. They arrive on Novus with hardly anything. They have to make shelters and tools from scratch yet somehow the men stay clean shaven and always have nice haircuts. I can see after 20 years when they get themselves some tools, but a few months in? Couldn’t the costume department slap some whiskers on those guys for a few scenes? C’mon. They took the time to do lots of aging makeup on Camille, Young, and some of the others. I also thought they spent a bit too much time watching videos of the alternate people. Watching alternate Young help suffering TJ was sad, and knowing that Volker dies from apparent kidney failure – I’ll be he’s thanking Greer now – but how does that move the Destiny story along? A bit too sappy for me on this one. Granted, they don’t all have to be shoot-em up stories. Here’s an idea the writers missed – how about exploring more about the conflict between Brody’s faction and Young’s group on the fledgling planet? Why did they diverge? What happened to the other group? Could there be seeds of descent festering today? (aside from him telling kids to get the hell of his lawn – that was funny.) That makes more sense to me than “could Eli get hooked up with corporal whats-her-face like he did in the video diary.”

Rating: 6/10

Secretary Bishop on the Other Side activates his Machine, triggering devastation on This Side. Peter realizes he has no choice but to enter the Machine and try and break the circuit. Meanwhile, Bolivia resolves to save both worlds by trying to bring Peter back to convince the Secretary to stop the Machine.

Rating: 10/10

Once again this show hits the mark with the acting and story line that throws the viewer for a loop. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend waiting to mainline the last three episodes. This is “to be continued” (not in the usual Fringe way.) You must DVR the shows! For some reason, my DVR lost the scheduled program and I missed the first minute or so. Hello Hulu!

The actors who play dual parts on both sides (John Noble – Walter/Walternate and Anna Torv – Olivia/Bolivia) do an excellent job at keeping the characters separate. My favorite scene this week: Walter in the hospital’s chapel. Well played Mr. Noble!

We’re also seeing some great performances out of Blair Brown (Nina Sharp) as she grapples with revealing the knowledge of  Sam Weiss (played by Kevin Corrigan), the bowling alley guy, who knows something about the machine, but she wan’t supposed to tell.

Of course, we all know the world doesn’t come to an end – there’s a fourth season on the way!

An old (not so friendly) acquaintance of Booth’s helps to catch a killer.

Note: This is a bit of a different show, with only one story line through the whole show. No jumping back and forth between the murder story and a personal sideline.

Booth and Brennan take an airboat out to the middle of the everglades where they are shown the remains of a man. They quickly identify the man by the serial number on a glass eye. He’s a museum guard and after examining the last known footage of him on museum surveillance cameras, the team notices he took something from the museum. It turns out to be a scrap of a suspected treasure map (or chart as Bones later corrects booth: maps are of land, charts of of water.) The map is suspected to lead them to the Spanish wreck of the Santa Esparansa that went down with a huge treasure. Sounds like a good murder motive to me!

Booth begrudgingly employs the talents of someone he knew years before who is exceptionally gifted at finding things. They find one Walter “Wally” Sherman in a sunny Florida bar with his legal advisor, Leo Knox (played by Michael Clarke Duncan – remember John Coffey, the big dude from “The Green Mile”), and his bartender/pilot Ike Latulippe (Saffron Burrows). We find out later in the show that Booth doesn’t like Wally because he was hired to find Booth when he went AWOL to be there when Parker was born. Wally found him and Booth was arrested. No fun. Wally agrees to help find the map, but Booth and Brennan have to find the killer.

Bones is skeptical that Wally has a gift so she gives him a test to find her lost science fair award medal from 7th grade. When Wally comes through with the goods (and a surprise newspaper clipping of Bones and her mom), she’s overcome with emotion and starts believing that he can find anything. Can he find the map?

Wally checks out the museum guard’s crappy apartment and turns up an interesting clue – receipt from a pawn shop who is holding a ukelele. Through some clever negotiating tactics, Wally and his team retrieve not only the instrument (which is smashed), but the person who damaged it. It seems that the guard hid the scrap of map in the uke and a woman with an interesting tattoo reclaimed it unceremoniously. They find the woman, Brittany Stephenson (played by Mini Anden – you know Carina from “Chuck”) by means of a local tattoo shop whose owner is in debt to Wally (this becomes a theme). Wally is smitten by Brittany who rebuffs his advances. He follows her to her boat and notices an old sextant on board. She tells him it’s some sort of old telescope, but he knows she’s lying and up to something.

At the Jeffersonian, Wally shows up with Brennan’s lost medal who says that Angela can help provide details about the missing piece of map from museum footage (of course.) He comments how attractive Angela is and when Hodgins perks up Wally asks “Who are you?” to which he replies “Her husband.” Wally’s comeback is priceless “You rich?” and goes on to explain that “She’s an 11 and you’re a 7, so to figure the difference, you must be rich.” Gotta love those writers. Of course, Angela pieces together the coordinates in nice clear format from several blurry camera angles of the map so clear you can discern latitude and longitude along with an inscription around the compass rose. Based on the inscription, they determine that the coordinates need to be offset from the Greenwich meridian to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

I did note one disturbing continuity/editing issue in this show (which is pretty rare.) While Wally and Ike are flying in her plane having a discussion, their headphones switch back and forth. They are clearly two different models. One has a green mic and one has a black. One has rounded ear cups and one has a more complex design. When the camera is shooting from Wally’s side, he’s wearing one, and when the camera is on Ike’s side, they’ve switched. It was so noticeable, I don’t even recall what the conversation was about.

When Wally arrives at those coordinates with his team, he makes a dive and discovers Brittany’s drowned body instead of the treasure ship. They get her body back to the Jeffersonian where Cam extracts from the victim’s throat the missing chunk of map. They notice some blood on it and continue to extract a finger further down her throat. It seems there was a struggle and Brittany bit off someone’s finger. That should make it easier to find the killer!

While the map is laying aside, Wally runs his finger over the blood and smears it to reveal a Jesuit symbol on the map. He immediately announces that he’s done with his contract to find the map and turns in his expense receipts to Booth. He goes to a Bishop, who also owes him a favor, and tells him that the Jesuit symbol means the prime meridian isn’t Rome, but the Copernican Observatory, just a short distance away. Angela, working in the lab, also figures out the same fact about the same time and relays the information to Booth.

Also part of the back story is the fact that Wally suffered some sort of mentor or physical trauma while in Iraq years ago which gave him his “gift”, but also causes him to be rather paranoid. His friends only want to help him get better, but he doesn’t want to lose his gift. This is a bit of tension between them throughout the show, but it works well.

Wally dives the wreck and heads to the museum with evidence. There we find the museum curator with his hand bandaged up – missing a finger perhaps? He was very helpful earlier in te show to identify the guard and show the footage of him taking the map. See how that diversion went so the guard would get pinned? Ahhhhh! Wally wants to beat him to a pulp, but Leo advises him not to. Instead they throw him in a box where Leo and Ike dump him at Booth’s feet. Booth thinks Wally should be arrested for taking the treasure while under FBI contract, but Leo reminds him that his contract was up when he found the map so he’s in the clear.

In the closing shots, Wally is back in the tropical bar with Ike and Leo having one of their “philosophical debates” on the chalkboard as we first found the trio and Ike exclaims that Wally will never find long lasting love, but Wally makes a comment that the Bones lady might be the one. The camera does a nice switch from there to the Founding Fathers bar as two beer bottles are put down and Booth is still grumbling over Wally having him arrested while holding Parker. Bones states that Wally likely could have had him arrested sooner, but wanted to wait until after Booth had a chance to hold Parker. He feels better and we’re left with another happy ending.

Rating: 9.5/10 (would have 10 had it not been for the plane scene.)

My notes: I rather enjoyed the mono-story-format. It certainly was easier to write during the show rather than weaving two story lines. 🙂 I also liked the trio of Ike, Leo, and Wally. An interesting combination. It may have just been me, but I swear Wally sounds an awful lot like Tee Morris. 🙂 Don’t believe me? Have another listen. Season 6 is winding down – only four shows left. Will they bring Wally back? Will they leave us with a cliff hanger? Stay tuned…

Drones unexpectedly attack Destiny as she comes out of FTL. The senior crew argues a bit about making a quick jump and Rush reminds them that the last time they did that they damaged the ship. They make the jump and get far enough away from the drones. When they come out of FTL they dial a nearby planet with a gate and are greeted by two people who know Lt. Scott and Greer. When Scott asks how they know their names the two people respond that they are their ancestors from 2,000 years ago. WHA????

Eli is intrigued to find out more. He posits that the “other” crew that was lost in the wormhole was actually sucked back in time to that location by a freak of the solar flare. but Young, Rush, and some of the others aren’t buying it yet. (I love the line when Chloe says “You played  lot of Sim City as a kid didn’t you?” and Eli responds “Actually, this is more like Sim Earth.” +10 geek points to the writers.)

Eli, Camille, Chloe, and Scott go back to the planet where they are greeted with reverence by Jason and Ellie (the two they met earlier.) They find out that the original settlement was on a planet called Novus and came this planet via the gates to find additional settlements, but have been stranded for at least 20 years. When they reach the small camp of people, the inhabitants are rather stunned, but polite. Both parties have questions for each other, but settle to drink tea. Camille interprets a Chinese (?) proverb that  the old man makes which is a little incredulous that not one, but two languages would remain that intact after two thousand years. :-/

Back on the ship, we learn more about the two factions on Novus (a population of millions.) One that followed Col. Young and one that thought Rush was back on Destiny and would one day come back to rescue them as their savior. Oh boy! When some of the planet’s inhabitants visit the ship (while bringing supplies aboard) they meet Rush who is rather stand-offish. That’s when we find out that those who don’t believe he’s the savior see him more as Satan. Now we’re talking!

Eli plugs in a “thumb drive” from the planet’s people and starts watching some Keno footage

The planet’s people make one last request to have Destiny take them back to Novus, which 30 years ago was wracked by earthquakes and volcanoes. The colony is in trouble. They are barely scraping by. Eli tells them that they could make it in a week, but Young says they cannot take that many people on board and Rush says they don’t have enough resources to make the trip and would be stuck. And don’t forget the drones might still be on the way. Young agrees that the planet is on their way (to whatever) and they can at least get there, check it out, and they might be able to help fix the gate and rescue their own people.

We find Eli, TJ, and Chloe watching keno footage of TJ giving birth to a boy (fathered by Young) – the first baby born on Novus. The next keno scene jumps ahead to Eli 10 years later regretting that his mother couldn’t see him or her grandchildren. The next scene is an older Young telling those around him that they need to stick together. Young watches that last part and is still of the opinion that they can only do so much, and it falls short of what they can do – just get Destiny to Novus and try dialing back. Suddenly the colony is attacked by drones – and so is Destiny. OUCH!

They get as many colonists aboard Destiny as they can when one of the drones damages the gate on the planet beyond repair with Scott, Eli, Greer, and Camille still trapped there while Destiny continues to take a beating. Col. Young gives the order to make the jump. Back on the planet, the team figures out that the drones have likely been tracking them by locating actives gates. That means the could soon be attacking (or have already attacked) the other colonies sent out from Novus years ago. The crew aboard Destiny figures the same thing – they’re safe as long as they don’t dial. They can’t risk going back for the others either. When Col. Young tells the planet’s survivors aboard Destiny, they are crestfallen.

Eli thinks that he can use a subspace signal from the damaged gate to reach Destiny without triggering the drones (who zero in on the gate event.) So far all he can do is turn it on and off. Eli uses that to send a Morse code message to Destiny where, fortunately, Young gets the message and comes back with a couple shuttles to pick up not only Destiny’s people, but the rest of the planet’s inhabitants.

When they get to Novus, they send down a shuttle and ominously don’t pick up any radio signals. As they get through the significant dust and debris, Scott reports that it’s very cold and comes across an intact modern city, but there’s no sign of life or people. They think it might be a nuclear winter, but more likely a super volcano. Where did the Novus inhabitants go?

Editor’s notes: I found the story line a bit predictable, but still pretty good. It was interesting to see Eli’s eternal optimism in hoping for the two factions of Novus making peace with each other, but the others are more realistic. The look at humanity and “should/can we help them” was intriguing. It will be interesting to see how this all wraps up in just a couple more weeks. FWIW, I read news today that there’s no plan of an SGU movie. Darn!

Rating: 8.0/10