Stargate Atlantis - Season 5 Episode #4 - The Daedalus Variations

This was one of the better episodes of Season 5. Of course, that's not saying much: We're only 4 episodes into the season, and I didn't think #2 (The Seed) and #3 (Broken Ties) were particularly good.

(Broken Ties provided closure for Ronon's previous episode with Tyre, Reunion, which was nice, but when the Season 5 DVD comes out, it's not like I'm going to watch that episode more than once. I didn't think The Seed was very good at all.)

I am a fan of shows that have season-long arcs. For example, I enjoyed how Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a "big bad" each season, and I've enjoyed the long-term stories that have been introduced on Atlantis (such as the Michael story arc). I like the suspense of a long story unfolding, I like watching episodes for clues and tidbits about the arcs, and and I like trying to predict what will happen. I also like episodes that contribute to the overall mythology of a series. (I think what I "really" like is re-watching episodes and realizing that some tidbit actually turned out to be important.) So, when I watch stand-alone episodes^[1], I have very high expectations for them: They either need to be interesting or useful.

In order to be interesting, the adventure itself needs to be fun, suspensful, and worthwhile. On a show like Atlantis, unless the doctor is in peril, we know that there's a good chance the heroes are going to survive. (If Joss Whedon ever writes or directs an episode, worry! ;) ) Since there's no threat of death/damage/severe injury, what compels us to watch? Do the characters learn something about each other? Do the characters learn something about themselves? Do we learn something about them? For example, Trio provided the characters with a chance to bond with each other and be resourceful in a non-scifi situation, and Tao of Rodney showed us what kind of person Rodeny is deep down.

In order to be useful, the heroes need to come back with knowledge or technology they can use later on. For example, I thought Inferno was an average episode, but they came back with The Orion, which was important later on.

Getting back to The Dadealus Variations, I found the "interestingness" of the episode fairly average. I was obviously not concerned that the characters might not make it out alive. We knew Rodney would find a way to get them back in the episode's 42(ish) minute timeframe. I don't recall learning much about the characters, other than Ronon's blasé attitude about their alternate selves. Seeing Atlantis' planet in other realities was interesting, although this appears to be of little consequence in the grand scheme of things.

I think it would've been more interesting if the team got stuck in one of the alternate realities, and an alternate "A-team" had to get them back, somewhat of a reversal of what happened in McKay and Mrs. Miller^[2]. That way, for once, "our" Atlantis wouldn't be the smartest A-team out there; they'd have to rely on someone else for a change. Imagine if an alternate Zelenka sent them back! Or, what if an alternate Lorne were in charge of Atlantis? Or, look at what happened in the SG-1 episode The Road Not Taken, where Carter got thrown into an alternate universe, and they didn't want to send her back? Imagine an alternate Atlantis deciding they were too useful to give up (perhaps due to the war with the unknown new aliens we saw in the episode), refusing to send them back, and our A-team fighting against alternate versions of themselves, in order to get back into their correct universe?^[3]

The most useful thing about this episode is that Rodney comes back with the specs to make an alternate reality drive. Sure, Sheppard forbids him to make one, but as the Gateworld analysis points out, Woolsey or the IOA might have other ideas.

The episode's big mistake was the lack of follow up on the hostile aliens that the team encountered in the alternate reality. I kept expecting Sheppard to at least make a reference to them upon returning, such as, "We need to figure out who those aliens are so we can be ready for them if they show up in our reality."

The thing I disliked most about the episode was the, um, Sheppard-wank at the end (when Sheppard talked to alt-Sheppard). And would it really have hurt him to say, "We're just passing through from an alternate dimension"? I don't see why he had to be so coy about who they were and where they came from. For that matter, ISTR alt-Sheppard said that the Daedalus had been destroyed. Shouldn't he have been demanding to know who they were? (Or, you know, suspected that they were from an alternate reality and said as much?)

Overall, I give it 7/10.

[1] Perhaps this episode is leading into a season-long arc or is contributing to the series' mythology, and I just don't know it yet.

[2] Since Rodney got them back by basically reversing the alternate reality drive's course, obviously getting help from an alternate Atlantis would've been out of the question... unless McKay shut off the drive to buy time to think, and it took an alterante A-team to help him fix it...

[3] If they did something like this, no doubt I'd complain that it was too similar to the SG-1 episode, and why couldn't the writers come up with something original? Some people are just never happy. ;)

Rush on The Colbert Report!

Rush were on The Colbert Report last night! That's right - my favorite band was on one of my favorite shows! It was almost too awesome to stand.

"The band Rush is here! Either that, or a drum factory exploded in my studio." LOL.

Click here for the full episode in the "full episode viewer" (which is nicer than the embedded viewer). I recomend watching the whole episode, rather than skipping to the interview and performance. There are little Rush tidbits scattered throughout the episode.

Outlook hatred #3

You click Reply. You type some stuff. You click Save, to complete your draft another time. You close your unsent message. Outlook labels the original message -- the one you haven't yet sent your reply to -- as, "You replied on [date and time you clicked Save]." But you haven't actually clicked Send yet!

You go into your Drafts folder. You delete the draft. Outlook still labels your message as, "You replied on [date and time you clicked Save]," even though you not only never replied, but you have even deleted your unset response!

I can only imagine the misunderstandings this causes. "You never replied to my message!" "But I did reply! It says I replied!!"

Diablo 3 officially announced!

YES!!!

From Ars Technica: Eight years in the making: Blizzard unveils Diablo III

An excerpt:

So far, two player classes have been revealed: the Barbarian and the Witch Doctor. As in Diablo 2, the Barbarian fills the role of basher, using weapons and might over spells to wade through hordes of enemies. The first new class, Witch Doctor, brings to the table a collection of fire spells, curses, mind-control spells, life-draining abilities, and controllable pets. Though speculation is running wild about which other classes will make the cut, many are looking back at Diablo 2 for hints. The original starting line-up for Diablo II was Amazon, Barbarian, Sorceress, Necromancer, and Paladin.

In addition to a brand-new story and as-yet-unrevealed new player classes, known improvements for Diablo III so far confirmed include a Havok-powered physics engine for object and cloth dynamics, as well as water and ragdoll, more side quests including class-specific quests, improved random dungeon creation, class-specific gear with class-unique art, gendered versions of each class, ...

(emphasis added)

I know it's a little thing, but reading that there'd be gendered versions of each class made me really happy. The Witch Doctor sounds like a cross between the necromancer and the druid. The ability to make a female barbarian makes the amazon -- the token female warrior -- a little less "necessary". However, she was the ranged fighter; I assume that gameplay element will be represented. I also assume they will have some kind of elemental spellcaster.

I love story-driven RPGs, I sometimes roll my eyes at "action" RPGs, and I prefer 3D games. But Diablo 2 has a crack-like quality to it. Mr. Entity and I still play it from time to time. I hope they don't screw up the formula.

The official site has a rather extensive gameplay demo.

How much do I hate Outlook? Let me count the ways.

Hatred #1: CTRL+ENTER: If you press this while editing a message, the message is immediately sent. It appears, based on a Google search, that the only way to get rid of this behavior is through (drumroll please) a registry hack. Srsly?? You know, in Thunderbird, there is an option to disable that. I found other workarounds, some more useful than others, such as setting a 1-2 minute delay on sending messages (so you have time to abort the send), a VB macro prompting you if you're really sure you want to send, and the most helpful one of all, not pressing CTRL+ENTER. Wow! If you don't like the way something works, don't do it? You don't say! I have an even better solution: Don't use Outlook at all! (I'm getting massive eye strain from rolling my eyes.)

Hatred #2: The reading pane. When I first started using Outlook at work, I was extremely irritated that when I would click on a message to read it, it would still be flagged as unread; I had to click on another message to mark it as read (or, right-click on it and select "Mark as Read"). I'm used to Thunderbird's behavior of marking an item as read immediately when I click on it. I finally found an option, buried DEEP in the maze-like settings:

Tools > Options > Other > Reading pane...
Reading pane options:
  [ ] Mark items as read when viewed in the Reading Pane
    Wait [  ] seconds before marking item as read
  [x] Mark item as read when selection changes

"Awesome!", I thought. If I select Mark items as read when viewed in the Reading Pane, then all I have to do is click on a message, and it will (after a few seconds, depending on the Wait # seconds... setting) be marked as read.

Then I found that if I was quickly skimming messages I was uninterested in, I wasn't "viewing" the message long enough for them to being flagged as read. No problem, I thought. I'll enable both reading pane options.

How naïve of me!

Despite the fact that the reading pane options are implemented as checkboxes, they behave like radio buttons: if you select one, the other one is immediately unselected. So, I can't select both "Mark items as read when viewed..." and "Wait # seconds before marking..."!! I mean, if it's too difficult for the code to allow both options (more eye strain), the options should at least be radio buttons.

Speaking of the reading pane, that reminds me of another irritation. (This isn't bad enough to warrent a Hatred, since it's a feature I never use.) If you right-click on an unread message, you see that "Mark as Read" is mapped to 'k'. Yet if you right-click on a read message, "Mark as Unread" is mapped to 'n'. So you can't simply remember that 'k' is a read/unread toggle. I wonder why they did that. My assumption is that they are implemented as separate menu items that are made visible or invisible depending on the message's status (read/unread), rather than a single item that's dynamically renamed depending on the message's status. And if they're separate items, then they can't be mapped to the same key. (I mean, it depends on the toolkit they used to develop Outlook, of course, but in my (admittedly limited) GUI experience, something like that could be changed with a callback/event function.)

Belated thoughts: Indy 4

I should've written this when the movie was fresh in my mind, but alas, I didn't. However, I did find an IM convo I had with someone the day I saw the movie, so I dug up the log. ;)

In a nutshell: Too much Lucas, not enough Spielberg.

There are minor spoilers in this review, so I've stuck it in the first comment.

Storm of Zehir!

Storm of Zehir, the next NWN2 expansion pack has been announced! YaaaaaAaaaaAAaaay!


RPGWatch linked to three interviews about Storm of Zehir: those at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Strategy Informer, and Action Trip.

I'm interested to find out what story elements they will use to tie in with 4th edition D&D. I have mixed feelings about the new party system. On the one hand, it'll be nice to be able to make a full party yourself: I rather enjoyed making my "Wheel of Time" party in IWD1. ;) (Although character creation did get a bit tedious in the IWD games: by the time I got to the 4th character, I was getting really tired of going through stats). On the other hand, one of the things I enjoyed about the BG and NWN games was not only what adventures my character would have, but whom he/she would meet along the way. The interviews indicate that there will be some NPCs who can join your party, but that they won't be as fleshed out as the MotB companions.

(I was going to say "the OC and MotB companions", but really, were the OC's companions very well developed?? No, I don't think so. ;) With the exception of Sand, of course.)