Last night’s Super Bowl was one of the most exciting in recent memory. For this New-Englander-at-heart, the New Orleans Saints’ trouncing of the Indianapolis Colts was the best all-around game since the Patriots upset the Rams a billion football years ago. With all eyes on the field, the toughest competition for the uber-expensive commercials was the big game itself. Sorry, ad execs; the Saints won that battle, too. I’ve always said that Super Bowl ads are overhyped and disappointing. This year’s were no exception. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have the obligatory round-up, does it?

Rather than a “best-of” list, I’ll limit mine to the ads that still stick with me 12 hours later—not necessarily for the reason their creators intended. In no particular order…

Budweiser: “Clydesdale Fence”

In this ad, we see a baby Clydesdale racing a fenced-in calf. Cut to a few years later: the colt has landed a job pulling the Bud wagon and the calf has become a bull, who shows his old pal that he can still run with the best of them—right through his fence. I’m sure Budweiser wanted this to be a stirring celebration of friendship. I’m just not sure they want to associate their product with crashing through fences.

Bridgestone: “Whale of a Tale”

An SUV barrels down the highway with an orca sticking out of the back as three pals race to return their oversized passenger to the ocean. They skid to a spinning halt, throwing the killer whale homeward through a pier fence. In all, a crazy set-up for a decent punchline. If you haven’t seen it, I’ll let you experience it for yourself. If you have, try not to think too hard about what happened before the cameras started rolling.

E*Trade: “Baby Girlfriend”

These talking baby ads have always creeped me out. It’s worse now that I’m a father. Still, my wife laughed at this one. Whether that laugh was out of genuine humor or revulsion, I can’t be sure.

Google: “Parisian Love”

Hands down my favorite commercial of the night, even though I doubt it will show up on other critic’s top ten lists. It combines all the excitement of typing things into Google with the visual style of…typing things into Google. It’s also decidedly European in content for this most American of events. But any search engine ad that can make eyes my well up at the end has to be doing something right.

CareerBuilder.com: “Casual Friday” and Dockers: “Men Without Pants”

Super Bowl ads usually show women in their underwear. These ads showed average-looking men in theirs. A strange choice for companies shilling to your stereotypical football fan. Even moreso considering we’re talking tighty-whities, not boxers. Unfortunately, the only person these ads likely left laughing is the CBS employee who decided to air them back-to-back. Or should that be “front-to-front”? (shudder)

Kia’s 2010 Big Game Commercial

I’m not sure which was weirder: that this commercial featured kids’ toys living it up in Las Vegas, or that one of those toys was Yo Gabba Gabba!’s own Muno. Either way, Kia knows what I like.

GoDaddy: “News”

One of a couple “too hot for TV” ads from the URL registrar and web hosting company. I’m probably several years too late to say this, and I know sex sells, but using the promise of porn to sell domain names is crazy. It’s like using a lap dance to sell carbon monoxide detectors.

CBS: The Late Show With David Letterman Ad

This ad, which features David Letterman complaining to Oprah Winfrey about Jay Leno joining them for their Super Bowl party, landed on a lot of lists and maybe rightfully so. I’m not so sure I liked it. Besides Dave’s mocking Leno impression and Jay’s willingness to poke fun at himself, what is there? It doesn’t prove that Letterman and Leno like each other. It just proves that they both still like money. The only thing that could have made the commercial better is if they pulled back at the end to show that Dave and Jay had their feet up on a human coffee table played by Conan O’Brien. At least it would have been honest.

Coke: “Hard Times”

More an ad for The Simpsons‘ transition to HD than for Coca-Cola, this one still tugged at the ol’ heartstrings. I doubt a Coke and a smile would keep the real Mr. Burns from releasing the hounds, but thanks to this commercial I’d like to think he might.

Among other notable commercials there were a bunch of movie trailers, including one for Disney’s Prince of Persia, which is apparently brought to us by the letter P and the color Yellow; a quartet of vote-able (and forgettable) Doritos commercials; and more random appearances by celebrities. The most controversial ad leading up to the big game ended up being much ado about nothing. Focus on the Family’s pro-life commercial, featuring Tim Tebow and his mother, was prematurely slammed by pro-choice activists. In the end, the ad was short, slight, and didn’t include the word “abortion” at all. Whatever you think of the political issue, I’m guessing more than a few people at NOW are wishing they hadn’t give James Dobson’s group a week’s worth of free publicity.

What about everyone else? I defy you to argue about the quality of the game, but I bet there are those who liked the commercials more than I did. Stand up and be counted! If we learned nothing else from last night’s ad fest, it’s that the best place to get your point across is online.

Meanwhile, back at the Apocalypse.

While in the middle of an apparently typical stripper dream, Dean has a vision of Anna, the fallen-angel-turned-resurrected-angel, who begs him for a meet-up; apparently she’s just escaped from Angel Jail and needs the Winchester boys to help out.

Castiel warns them that something seems a bit off and SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT his instincts are proven correct. Anna didn’t escape from Heaven; she was dispatched to kill Sam and prevent Lucifer from inhabiting his one true vessel and this unleashing all kinds of Hell on the planet. Castiel threatens her, so she travels back in time to kill the Sam’s parents.

Castiel and the brothers follow suit and manage to intercept the younger versions of their folks before Anna can drop the hammer–and blow their minds with the truth of their time-traveling shenanigans.

Eventually Anna tracks the family down and hires a younger Uriel to help out with the killing and their plan actually goes swimmingly: they kill Sam and are about to wipe out the rest of the Winchesters when a bright light appears before Young John Winchester and…BLAMMO! Michael the Archangel is in the house.

Wearing John as a vessel, Michael proceeds to nuke Anna from the inside out (in a pretty cool series of visual effects actually) and banish Uriel into the ether. Then Michael and Dean have a heart-to-heart, as Michael explains that a) he loves Lucifer like a brother but has to kill him because he’s a Good Son, b) Sam and Dean are descended from Cain and Abel (aren’t we all?), c) if Dean says yes, Michael won’t leave him drooling and inert, and, d) Free Will is a crock and he’s going to say yes because that’s the way it has to be.

Following those megatons, Michael resurrects Sam, scrubs the memories of John and Mary and teleports our heroes back to 2010.
Will Dean say yes? Is Free Will a myth? That Michael isn’t as big as a dong as we were expecting, huh?

We shall see how this all rolls out, but for now I am pleased as punch that we got back into the teeth of this arc. This was a great episode, and setting aside the problematic time travel gimmick (which leads inexorably to asking all kinds of questions about “”Shouldn’t they teleport to the Garden of Eden or something and step on Satan’s serpent head before all this craziness gets going?!”), lots of high-quality stuff transpired.

We finally got a look at Michael, and you have to admit the guy makes a persuasive case, even to the point where Dean’s holding out seems a bit wrong-headed. Good to see Castiel, though he was underused, and Anna’s fate was surprising and delectable. The best bits were Sam’s scenes with Mary and John, genuinely emotional and heart-ache-a-riffic.

Best of all, the episode kept the ambitious plot moving forward. Keep it coming gentlemen!

It looks like that banker must have really enjoyed all of those hilarious clips Michael Scott showed him, because Dunder Mifflin found a buyer. In this week’s episode, the gang meets this mysterious new mother company, Sabre (pronounced exactly how you would think sabre is pronounced… and not “sab-ray”), and their bold new managerial style that revolves around metal water bottles.

The episode opens with Michael receiving a box filled with computer equipment. Thinking it’s a gift from their new parent company, he tears the thing open and starts handing out printers, scanners, and fax machines (cable included!) The box was actually for Gabe, a representative coming from Sabre to re-orient the DM branch.

Since hearing of the acquisition, the folks at Dunder Mifflin have had this idealized view of Sabre as saviors, even if they got the pronunciation completely wrong; heck, Andy and Erin even wrote a song about Sabre. All this build up, and all the silly applause when Gabe walks in the door, leads to a great reversal when everyone realizes how crappy Sabre really is. This message is delivered in the best way possible: through a generic “so you’ve been bought by Sabre” corporate video with Christian Slater.

Slater’s surprise appearance in the video was amazing, and it was easily the funniest thing in the episode. His cheesy delivery, the awkwardly staged work environment, and his airy, generic statements about teamwork all made for a good laugh. Even better were the reactions of those watching. Usually this sort of shtick would instantly win over Michael and the gang, but this time they weren’t really buying. Not even Kathy Bates, as Jo the Sabre CEO, could win them over. What was the biggest point of resistance? The new Sabre-mandated water bottles.

I love it when this show steps away from its often goofy or elaborate staging to touch on a minor aspect of real office life. They did this a lot more in earlier seasons, whether it was trouble with a copier or drama in the break room, but have (rightly) moved away from it as the show’s evolved. Going to the water cooler is a big deal for office folk. We will jump on any and every reason imaginable to get up from our desks and walk around. So when Sabre introduces metal water bottles that will hold up to 20 little paper cups of water, Michael freaks out.

For council, Michael runs to the currently-unemployed David Wallace. What a bizarre scene: David’s an unshaven mess, his son’s going all Neil Peart on the drums, and his wife looks like she’s about to skip town. As weird as it is to say, I liked seeing David like this. He’s absolutely crazy. Even better, Michael Scott’s quixotic admiration for him now seems to be gone–maybe it was the hot tub and the Yuengling.

If there’s one criticism I have of this very funny episode, it’s that I wish we could see more Sabre changes. I loved their video, and it’s clear their corporate mindset is very different from the Imaginarium of Dr. Michael Scott, but it would have been great to focus on this entirely; instead, there are two more storylines thrown into the episode.

First, we get to see Jim & Pam go for an interview at an exclusive day care for the child they have yet to have. There were some funny moments, like when Jim walks in on the daycare guy using the child’s toilet, but overall it felt unnecessary. I kind of liked it when the daycare guy asked the couple if maybe they aren’t as adorable as they think they are. Do people really go for daycare interviews before they have a kid?

And then there’s the Erin & Andy thing. If you recall way back at Christmas, Andy re-enacted the “12 Days of Christmas” to win Erin’s heart. It worked, but that’s about as far as things have gone. Andy talks a good game, and he’s as sentimental as can be, but he doesn’t have the confidence to actually ask her out; the ball’s in Erin’s court. I really like these two, and I think the storyline has plenty of potential, but right now it just feels like a more awkward version of Jim & Pam. They need to turn this plotline up to 11.

“Sabre” was a pretty good episode, and a solid return for the series… until it goes away for the Olympics. I’m looking forward to the Michael vs Jo showdown next week!

Original Air Date: January 5, 1967

Three more episodes down and no sign of Star Trek fatigue setting in. I’m still only a little more than halfway through the first season, but I’m already eyeing The Next Generation and can’t wait to get started on that (and if anyone’s got a line on where to find it for cheap, please let me know in the comments section).

Speaking of comments, I’ve been getting some really nice feeback lately and I just wanted to say thanks to those of you who have been reading and are nice enough to show your support. This obviously isn’t a column that’s going to interest everybody, but it’s nice to hear from some hardcore Star Trek fans that appreciate what I’m trying to pull off. I’m first and foremost tackling this because I really want to spend as much time as possible watching Star Trek, but it’s obviously also a challenge to see if I can get through it all. I’m very thankful that people are taking the time to read it, and the support I’ve gotten makes me feel like maybe I can do this after all.

Still a looong way to go, so don’t give up on me.

The Story: While en route to deliver medical supplies to Makus III, the Enterprise encounters a star/galaxy-like system radiating light and energy. As part of his mission, Kirk determines that it’s his duty to investigate it further and charges Spock, McCoy, Scotty and four other crew members out in a small shuttle called the Galileo for a closer inspection.

The Galileo is quickly pulled out of orbit, however, and disappears off the Enterprise’s radar screen. The shuttle makes an emergency landing on the planet Taurus II, where they soon encounter giant, ape-like creatures; two of the Galileo’s crew are killed with giant spears before anyone can even figure out what’s going on. As the stranded crew attempts to figure out how to escape the planet’s surface and possibly find rescue (Scotty determines that the phasers onboard might be used to harness enough energy to achieve orbit), Spock takes charge and repeatedly applies logic to the crew’s plight, much to the dismay of nearly everyone else.

Kirk, meanwhile, is determined to make every effort to locate his missing crew, despite being ordered to proceed to Makus III by the visiting Commisioner Ferris. The Commissioner grants Kirk a few hours to find the Galileo, after which time he’ll have no choice but to follow orders and deliver the medical supplies.

The situation on Taurus II continues to deteriorate. The crew continues to grow increasingly hostile towards Spock and his endless need for logic; they demand to bury the body of one of their lost crew, but Spock — applying logic — points out that it would be far too dangerous and therefore not logical. Eventually, he relents and agrees to have a burial, but the remaining crew is attacked again by the giant ape monsters. Eventually, Scotty’s phaser plan works and the shuttle blasts off back into orbit. However, there’s not enough fuel for the shuttle to continue flying and Spock determines that the Galileo will eventually re-enter Taurus’ atmospher, burning up in the process and killing everyone onboard. As a desperation move, Spock dumps all the remaining fuel from the shuttle, leaving a bright tail in its wake as the fuel burns — a distress signal, of sorts.

The Enterprise, which has already run out of time and reverted course to Makus III, sees the glowing tail of the Galileo and does a quick about-face. Just as the shuttle is burning up as its orbit decays, the surviving crew are beamed aboard the Enterprise and rescued at the last possible second. Kirk calls Spock out on his desperation move, equating it to an “emotional outburst” while the entire crew has a good laugh.

Reflections from a First Timer: Star Trek’s ass-kicking streak continues. We finally get an episode that puts Spock front and center and puts his entire Vulcan, logic-is-everything belief system to the test. Until now, Spock has been more of a foil to the emotionally-driven Kirk; here, though, he’s carrying the show and it’s the supporting cast that’s bouncing off of him. And, as Spock is currently my favorite character on the show, I was more than happy to see him take the lead.

What’s perhaps most interesting about “The Galileo Seven” is the way that it seems to waver back and forth at points between Spock’s point of view and those of the other crew members. Yes, he seems cold when he’s quickly moving on from the deaths of the two crewmen (he’s more fascinated by the weaponry used to kill them), but it’s hard to disagree with him when he’s trying to talk the survivors out of a burial ceremony. It isn’t logical, he tells them, because it puts them out in the open to be killed as well. He’s got a point. That the show eventually comes down on the side of humanity, emotions and all (nowhere is this clearer than when McCoy explains that the monsters are attacking them becaue they’re angry, which actually is totally logical and predictable to anyone with emotions) is, I suppose, part of the point of Star Trek. I dig that about the show — it’s totally pro-human, not just accepting our flaws but actually supporting them as a means of learning from our mistakes. In the end, Spock is only able to save the lives of the Galileo crew by acting more “human” and acting out of desperation. I guess that’s an endorsement of sorts.

I also liked seeing just how much many members of the Enterprise crew actively dislike Spock. He’s the teacher that’s too strict and the student that always has his hand raised all in one, and they all resent him for it. I didn’t really get the impression that it was any kind of prejudice against an alien race — it’s that they really can’t stand his adherence to logic and the fact that he seems so unfeeling. Obviously, Bones and Spock bicker a great deal (well, Bones throws barbed comments at Spock; they’re never reciprocated), but there’s an obvious respect between those two characters. McCoy gets annoyed with the green-blooded Vulcan, but it’s more a love/hate thing. The rest of the crew don’t seem to respect or like Spock at all, and that made his character so much more interesting to me — mostly because he could give a crap. Good for him.

Enterprise Casualties: Four. Crewmen Latimer and Gaetano are killed after deboarding the Galileo, while two nameless members of the Enterprise search party are killed off-camera.

Badass Kirk Moment: “I intend to continue the search…foot by foot, inch by inch, by candlelight if necessary, until the last possible moment! If you’ll keep your nose of my bridge, I’d be thankful.”

“The Squire of Gothos”

Stardate: 2124.5

Original Air Date: January 12, 1967

The Story: On a routine supply mission (don’t they all start this way?), the Enterprise comes across an uncharted planet that Kirk orders be recorded for exploration some time in the future. Suddenly, Kirk and Sulu disappear from the bridge, leaving the rest of the crew to surmise that they’ve been beamed down to the strange planet.

Spock, McCoy and two more crew members for a search party and beam down to the surface of the planet. Though Spock had originally believed the planet unable to sustain human life, the rescue party finds it totally habitable. They come across what appears to be a medieval castle, and inside is Kirk, Sulu and a pompous, overbearing Liberace-like man identifying himself as General Trelane (William Campbell).

Spock locates the missing crew and beams them back aboard the Enterprise, but Trelane, not willing to let his new playmates go, brings everyone back to his castle — now including Uhura and Yeoman Ross. He insists that everyone stay as his guests, offering them food, wine (neither of which have any taste, according to McCoy) and music (at one point insisting that Uhura play the piano, which she’s suddenly able to play). Determining that a wall mirror may be the source of Trelane’s power, Kirk tricks the General into a duel and destroys the mirror. Once again, the captives escape and beam back to the Enterprise, but every time the ship attempts to get back on course the mysterious planet blocks their path. Kirk agrees to return to the surface to confront their tormentor, finding himself on trial inside a courtroom of Trelane’s making.

Trelane finds Kirk guilty of treason and spearheading an insurrection and sentences him to death by hanging. Kirk, however, has other ideas; he sells Trelane on the excitement of killing for sport, and Trelane agrees. A hunt ensues, and just as Trelane is about to kill Kirk two giant bodies of light appear and scold Trelane for misbehaving. They’re his parents, and intend to punish him for acting badly. They bring Trelane back home and allow Kirk to return to the Enterprise.

Reflections from a First Timer: While certainly an entertaining outing of Star Trek, “The Squire of Gothos” is a dip in the momentum that’s been established lately. It too closely resembled “Charlie X,” another episode I wasn’t totally crazy about: the antagonist is a spoiled brat who can control space and time and does whatever he wants whenever he wants to do it, only to be reprimanded in the end by parental figures and summoned back to his home. The major beats — including the resolution — are pretty much the same, with the only difference being that “Charlie X” took place aboard the Enterprise and “Gothos” takes place on Trelane’s home turf. To me, Charlie actually posed a greater threat than Trelane because he wasn’t in control emotionally; I felt like he could lash out and do damage at any time (he took away people’s faces, for crying out loud). Trelane is fairer, in a weird way, and keeps instigating Kirk not because he’s dangerous but because he’s bored and wants to play.

There were things to like about the episode, of course. When Kirk and Sulu go missing, we get to hear Spock do the “captain’s log” voiceover; is this the first time it’s been anyone but Kirk? I like Kirk’s whole speech about what fun it would be to hunt and murder as sport — as an egomaniac himself, the captain knows just how to speak to a man’s ego. And William Campbell is fun and over the top as Trelane. He might be a more interesting villain if the stakes didn’t feel so low. There’s maybe one too many successful escapes in the episode (they get back to the Enterprise, Trelane brings them back; they get back to the Enterprise, Trelane brings Kirk back), but that’s ok. The whole show felt a little like we’d been there and done that, and it’s too early in Star Trek’s run for the series to already be repeating ideas.

Enterprise Casualties: None

Badass Kirk Moment: Selling Trelane on the “fun” of murdering for sport.

“Arena”

Stardate: 3045.6

Original Air Date: January 19, 1967

The Story: Kirk, McCoy and a few other members of the Enterprise crew are invited to dine with Commodore Travers, a man revered for his hospitality. Upon beaming down to the Cestus III outpost for their dinner engagement, the crew finds the outpost has been destroyed by some enemy attack and the entire population wiped out. Before long, Kirk and company are coming under fire from an unseen enemy themselves.

The Enterprise is simultaneously attacked by an alien ship, and with a battle going on on two fronts, Kirk is able to stave off his attackers long enough to beam the surviving crew back aboard the Enterprise and attempt an escape. The alien ship gives chase, however, and just before both parties enter into unexplored space both the alien ship and the Enterprise are incapacitated. A voice comes over the comms system identifying himself as one of the Metrons, a race of beings bent on fighting off any invaders. The voice tells Kirk that he will have to fight the captain of the alien ship in a one-on-one duel to the death; the winner will be allowed to go free, while the loser will be killed.

The remainder of the episode is made up of Kirk’s game of cat-and-mouse with his adversary, a reptilian creature known only as the Gorn. With no weapons with which to defend himself, Kirk must use the terrain to his advantage to stay alive. He is eventually able to fashion some weapons out of the desert planets natural resources, defeating the Gorn nearly to the point of death. However, when called upon to finish the Gorn off, Kirk refuses. The Metron appear on the surface to congratulate Kirk on both his victory and on his decision to show mercy to the Gorn, stating that Kirk shows hope and promise for humanity. They return the captain back to the Enterprise, fully recovered from his injuries.

Reflections from a First Timer: Well, here’s finally an example of a classic, iconic Star Trek episode that I wasn’t all that crazy about. Made famous mostly by its location — it was shot largely at the Vasquez Rocks in Los Angeles — I’ve seen pieces of and references to “Arena” throughout pop culture for years now, most notably in Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey (not only does the duo watch part of the episode, but the Vasquez rocks are where they’re brought before being killed by the evil robot us’s). It seems to me, though, the episode is famous more for ironic reasons than because it represents the best of what Star Trek has to offer. An outsider might look at it and just see some campy fighting, overwrought music, hammy Shatner acting and a guy in a terrible, terrible lizard costume. Come to think of it, they wouldn’t exactly be wrong. That pretty much sums up “The Arena.”

I’ve made note before that I’m watching the “remastered” episodes of The Original Series, meaning that a number of the effects shots (particularly the exteriors of the Enterprise) have been updated and upgraded to be more state-of-the-art and contemporary. And, to be honest, it can be pretty jarring at times. Panels and buttons and compartments aboard the ship can often look a bit clunky, and then we cut to a starscape shot and it looks gorgeous and modern. What’s really funny, though, is that for all that hard work in remastering the effects, there was simply nothing that could be done about the Gorn. It’s a guy in a lizard suit. And on the few instances where it cuts from lizard-suit Gorn to an updated, remastered shot of the Enterprise, it’s a huge leap in technology and aesthetic. It pulled me out of the episode, to be honest, the way that the special edition of Star Wars does when we go from the CGI monsters in the desert to the interior of the Tatooine cantina and a guy in a rubber mask springs into frame. Here it’s 1997, and here it’s 1977. Same goes for “Arena.”

And, once again, we find “Arena” repeating some of the messages of earlier episodes. Kirk decides to show mercy on the Gorn the same way he decided to go back and help the ailing ship in “The Corbomite Maneuver,” and both times the results are the same: Kirk is rewarded and applauded for his compassion. I’m not disagreeing with that message — I prefer that he be honored and not punished for doing the right thing — but like “The Squire of Gothos,” there seems to be a little bit of repetition already at work.

I didn’t hate “Arena”; if nothing else, I finally got to see what all the fuss has been about. But it felt the silliest and campiest of the all the episodes so far, and the one that’s dated the worst. Maybe that’s because I’m so used to seeing it exploited in a way that’s making fun of it a little. I refuse to approach Star Trek with any irony. Gene Roddenberry would never have wanted that.

Enterprise Casualties: Two crewmen (including one actually wearing a red shirt; is he the first?) are killed in the firefight.

Badass Kirk Moment: “An incredible fortune in stones, yet I would trade them all for a hand phaser…or a good solid club.”

After nearly nine months of waiting, the final season of Lost is here to offer… what? Answers? Resolution? Ha! Spoilers follow. (This is a double episode after a major layover, so be warned: this is going to be a long one.)

When last we saw our time-hopping Losties, they were trying to prevent the creation of the hatch that crashed their plane by detonating a hydrogen bomb to stop “The Incident” from happening. Thanks to Juliet and a handy rock, they seemed to have succeeded—in setting off the bomb, at least. As this sixth and final season begins, we see the results of that explosion. A flash of white, then cut to… Jack Shepard, on board Oceanic 815 minutes before the crash that started the series, followed by a little turbulence, some reassuring words from good ol’ Rose, then… nothing. The plane doesn’t rip in half and fall out of the sky. No one dies. Instead of crash-landing miles away from his wife, Bernard returns to his seat after a mildly unpleasant restroom experience. It looks like the bomb gambit put everything back where it should be.

But that’s not how bombs work, is it?

Bombs don’t heal; they destroy. And the only thing you can do when the dust has settled is pick up the pieces. If this season premiere is any indication, we’ll be picking up the pieces for the rest of the series.

As showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse promised, the storytelling game has changed. No flashbacks, or forwards, this year. No jumping back and forth in time. Instead, the explosion seems to have ripped reality in two halves. On the one side, the story of the Oceanic passengers who didn’t crash on a mysterious island, landing safely in Los Angeles with all their baggage—emotional and otherwise—intact (well, almost). On the other side, the ’70s time travelers, propelled by the H-bomb explosion into the future…or is it the present? Either way, they’re still on the island they thought they’d escaped. Both stories occur roughly at the same time (I’ll leave it to the Lost fan site curators to figure out the actual timeline), but the chronology doesn’t matter as much as the fact that Faraday’s master plan seems to have worked and failed at the same time. And if any of this seems weird to you, then you’ve obviously never watched Lost before.

I can’t promise this will make much sense, but let’s unpack this guitar case, shall we?

We’ll begin with Reality #1, in which flight 815 makes it from Sydney to LAX without any unscheduled stops. In this reality, everyone from season one is back, with a few notable exceptions. Most passengers lives appear to be unchanged. Jack is still accompanying his dead father back to the States; Sawyer is still a conniving con-man; Kate is still in the custody of a U.S. Marshal; Sun and Jin are still in need of serious marriage counseling; and Locke, still crippled, is returning home from his walkabout. I say “appear” to be unchanged, but that may not be entirely true. Locke tells Boone (remember Boone?) that he actually went on his walkabout. Did he? Is he lying? Or did the bomb change that detail of Locke’s life? Speaking of Boone, though he appears to be the same guy we loved and lost in the first season, this time he’s traveling without sister Shannon, who apparently never left Australia. Trading a missing passenger for an additional one, “notha life brotha” Desmond is somehow on the flight as well—I assume taking advantage of the leisure time not having to push the button has afforded him.

Some of the changes from season one to now are subtle. Some aren’t. The award for most-changed passenger goes to Hurley, who has turned from unlucky sad sack to the self-proclaimed “luckiest guy in the world.” Not only did he still win the lottery, but the fortune granted to him by the Numbers allowed him to buy the decidedly un-crushed-by-a-meteor Mr. Cluck’s Chicken franchise. He’s rich, and lucky, and, thanks to this flight, now has the unwanted attention of still-bad Sawyer, who looks at the chicken king and sees a big fat pigeon. Look for some serious grifting in episodes to come.

On the surface, it looks like everything the island tore apart has been put back to normal—if not made better than it was—but beneath the calm waters of this newly created reality there’s weirdness afoot (pun intended). Why is drug-addled Charlie (taking a break from his current stint on FlashForward) so mad at Jack for keeping him from choking to death on a heroin baggie; and what does he mean when he says he was supposed to die? Why is Desmond on the flight, and where did he disappear to after the turbulence? What happened to Jack’s dad’s coffin? Did it pull a Desmond and vanish mid-flight, or was it never loaded on the plane in the first place? But the biggest question of all is the one raised by the haunting final shot of the opening sequence: what the heck happened to the island? How did it go from skittering around the seven seas to sinking underwater, Tawaret foot and (even creepier) Dharma swing sets intact?

Perhaps we’ll get the answer to these and other questions over in Reality #2. Back on the still above-water island, Jack, Kate, Miles, Hurley, and Jin go from Incident explosion to waking up next to the exploded Swan Hatch thirty years later. Ears ringing, the group comes to the realization that the bomb didn’t work, which sends Sawyer into a rage aimed at the already bloody doc Shepard, whom he blames for Juliet’s death. He is forced to hold that thought, though, when Kate hears Juliet calling out from beneath the debris. Jumping into excavation mode, Sawyer tries to dig her out, but by the time he reaches her it’s too late. With a few words and a kiss, she’s gone—for real—dying just before she can tell him something important. Back at the van, Hurley is interrupted in his vain attempts to help the dying Sayid by ghost Jacob, who tells Hurley that if he wants to save Sayid he needs to get him to the Temple, pronto.

So while Sawyer stays behind with Miles to bury Juliet (and to find out what she wanted to tell him before she died), everyone else carries Sayid down the hole in the outer wall of the Temple, where they are promptly captured by gun-wielding cult members who take them to the real Temple—home to Jacob acolytes and their 815 passengers who were taken from the beach right after the crash. Hurley convinces the Temple guardian that Jacob sent them, thanks to an Ankh-containing guitar case and a mysterious note, and they are taken to a magic healing fountain. Except there’s something wrong with the fountain; it has gone from crystal pool to a rusty spring. Worse still, the underwater healing ritual goes wrong and Sayid dies, which is exactly what Jacob’s note tells his people not to let happen. Oops. Of course, that’s not the end of the story…

I want to pause for a second and talk about the magic fountain. It would appear that this is the same fountain that healed a young Ben Linus back when he was shot by Sayid. Ironic, no? It gives new meaning to Richard’s warning last season that taking Ben to the Temple to be healed would cause him to be “changed.” Keep that in mind, because it applies to Sayid now, too—perhaps doubly so now that he has actually died and come back to life! His apparent resurrection brings to mind something else Richard Alpert said last year, this time in reference to John Locke. He said that while he’d seen the Island do amazing things, he’d never saw it bring anyone back to life. That would make Sayid’s return from the other side the first time it has ever happened, because, as we learned in last year’s season finale, John Locke didn’t come back to life. He was replaced by a dark impostor. Speaking of which…

Back at the Foot, fake Locke is where we left him at the end of last season: gloating over his successful bid to get Ben to kill his nemesis Jacob. But as we also saw at the end of last year, the jig is up. Outside, the Ajira rescue squad has shown Locke’s dead body to Alpert. They know that something bad has gone down, and so enter Jacob’s home with guns drawn. Bad idea. They know that fake Locke is really the Man in Black, but they don’t seem to know is that he’s also the Smoke Monster. Yep. You can check that one off your Master Mystery list. I’m sure some ornery fans will argue that because we didn’t actually see Mr. Black transform into Smokey, he might be lying about it, but I’m not sure they could have made it any clearer. He’s Smokey, and the ash ring we saw around Jacob’s cabin way back when was placed there either to contain him or to keep him out. Either way, he wants revenge on the Temple folk, and Jacob was the only thing standing in his way. Revenge isn’t the only thing he wants, though. As he tells his unwilling disciple Ben in typically spooky fashion, The Man in Black is tired of being confined to the Island. He wants to go home.

Okay, it’s Theory Time: With the exception of a few notable characters, Lost as a series has been about people trying to go home. To escape from the island, from their personal demons, from their pasts, from themselves. Where, exactly, is “home” for the Man in Black? If he is the unbending evil force he appears to be, home could be everything outside of the Island—a world of flawed humans ripe and ready for his harsh judgment. It’s possible that, rather than some kind of omnipotent equal, Jacob was actually a glorified security guard, tasked with keeping the Man in Black in ashen chains on his island prison. Looping back into the show’s themes of redemption, betterment, and reincarnation, perhaps the Island exists to keep humanity safe from its final, smokey Judgment Day until the cycles of violence and self-destruction have ended. Of course, if that isolation theory is true, why would Jacob lure outsiders onto his lonely Alcatraz, especially when doing so might mean that one of them could interfere with his plans, like Ben did when he was tricked by the Man in Black into killing him? Tough question, but one that might be answered by looking back to Adam and Eve’s story in Genesis. Why would God bring imperfect people in his perfect world? A better question might be why did He give those people the free will to choose to disobey? Leaving Christianity’s answers to those questions aside, in Lost terms, maybe free will is the only way for those imperfect people to improve themselves. Perhaps Jacob brings outsiders to the island to test the morality waters of the world at large, or in hopes that he’ll eventually prove to his evil inmate that humanity is worth saving after all.

Last year’s season finale began with the Man in Black and Jacob watching a ship full of unwitting sailors approach the Island. Mr. Black asks Jacob why he continues to bring people here when it always ends the same, with fighting and death. Jacob responds that things only end once; everything before that is just progress. Could we be seeing that cycle of human progress in the separate realities of Lost season six? If so, which one came first, and which one will bring this winding epic to a close? Did the bomb ploy work, as Juliet tried to tell Sawyer before she died? If not, can resurrected Sayid save the day? Will the Man in Black escape before humanity is ready for him, or (more likely) will everything I just theorized be proven complete hogwash next week?

I realize that I’m being decidedly uncritical for a critic in this first recap/review. To be honest, I’ve never been one to nit-pick Lost. I never hated the low parts as much as other people did. I didn’t even mind season three. At this point in the journey, I’m not sure second-guessing the show’s creators is useful. They’ve gotten us this far, and as far as I’m concerned they’ve more than earned the right to finish this story on their terms. Love it or hate it, let’s wait until it’s all over to render a final verdict. For now, I’m happy to sit back, grab my armrests for support, and let the pilots land the plane. Let’s hope it’s a smooth landing ’cause it’s been one heck of a ride.

My bag is now officially out of wind, so it’s your turn. What did you think? Did the premiere live up to your expectations? What do you think about the show’s new direction? Most importantly, what the heck do you think is going on?

The producers and cast of NBC’s midseason replacement series Parenthood — a reworking of Ron Howard’s feature film — reveal how the show reflects the laughter, tears, and quirks of real life.

Renee is going dark! Two Russian Mafia brothers have held a health clinic hostage with their whiny demands! Starbuck continues her shockingly poor conflict resolution skills! Jack is driving a car! Where do these tension-laden events lead us in this episode?

To Snoresville. Which is somewhere in Coma County in the United States of Shoot Me in the Face.

Last week’s episode was definitely a filler show, but there were flashes of entertainment embedded in the plodding narrative. This week? Just barrels of slowness and tedium. It wasn’t until the very end that we got to sniff around some righteous 24 action, with a few well-placed sniper shots and Jack getting his shout on. That was at like minute 57. Everything that preceded it? Ugh.

Let’s check up on the different storylines that Season 8 is juggling so far:

Renee Walker undercover. The gloomy gus revealed last week that she’s on a self-destructive downard spiral and this is obviously reflected in her deicision-making skills, as she chooses to drop her earpiece down the sink for whatever reason and then, wouldn’t you know, panics when she finds out her evil former boyfriend is going to nuke the deal and probably kill undercover Jack. “Say, Vlad, you don’t happen to have a pipe wrench, do you? Don’t ask, it’s a woman issue.”

Starbuck’s decision-making is even worse. Frantic to cover up her secret past life, CTU Agent/blithering idiot Dana Walsh agrees to get her trashy ex-boyfriend and his trashy friend into a warehouse to steal drug money. The hell???? Strikes me that the fallout from this complicated and obviously doomed mission will be a whole lot worse that telling her boyfriend that she spent some time in juvie.

Boring brothers are boring. So the two sons of the Main Evil Russian Bad Guy go in this clinic and force the doctor to ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

President Hassan arrests his friend. And maybe tortures him? Or sets him on fire and pushes him off the building? Man, I hope so. Something to spice up this flagging sub-plot. Then again, anything’s better than another hour spent on his domestic troubles.

As is the case with similarly lame 24 episodes, this one focused on the dumb storylines, depriving us of consequential Jack Bauer action, Chloe barbs (she did land a nice one on that d-bag Arlo) and, well, anything resembling suspense. I’ll even take more Freddie Prinze, Jr.

Sadly, next week’s show looks even more painful as Jack and Renee have A Moment.

Celebrate the world’s best, during the 2010 Winter Olympics. The excitement begins February 12th, live from Vancouver on NBC.

No, that’s not some euphemism for a disgusting sexual act. Sam and Dean are on a routine ghost hunt that–shockingly!–turns into something far from routine. Spoilers ahead!

While helping out their former babysitter with a poltergeist, the brothers catch the attention of a cabal of teenaged Satan worshippers, who realize that Hell has a bounty on the Winchesters. So they set out to collect what they hope to be a lucrative reward by worknig a body swapping spell, that puts Sam in the meat suit of a 17 year-old boy. Sam’s body is then occupied by a kid who’s way too excited about drinking banana daiquiris and seeing adult women naked.

After some goofy Freaky Friday-like hijinks, the brothers realize the malevolence behind the plot. Unforutnately, one of the idiot teens summons a demon, who is ecstatic at the idea of delivering Dean and the Sam body to Lucifer. A surprisingly easy exorcism later (you kinda have to wonder why the brothers don’t have that Latin ready to roll out on a tape recorder at the first sight of demons) and everyone’s learned a Very Important Lesson. Sam: his life is actually more enjoyable than “normal” suburban living; Dean: his brother is a downer; the Satan-worshipping teen kids: demons from the pit of Hell aren’t the most trustworthy types.

This was another one-off episode but it floated my boat because a) there were suitable call-backs to the season’s storyline (there is an apocalypse still going on, right?) and b) it was clever and fun. The body swap stuff was entertaining, though it would have been funny to see more of Sam’s experience in the body of a 17 year-old, you know, squaring off with algebra and bullies and stuff. Also, this show was clearly made as an energy-saver for the actors, prepping them I’m sure for some long work days as we enter the home stretch.

Next week Castiel finally returns, which is cool.

“The Conscience of the King”

Man, Star Trek is on a run right now. Last week’s episodes, “The Corbomite Maneuver” and “The Menagerie,” were pretty awesome (particularly “Corbomite”; “The Menagerie” was merely good) and set a high bar for this week’s installments. What an unbelievable happy surprise that these episodes are as good or better. We’ve got the first appearance of the Romulans. We’ve got Shakespeare. We’ve got important backstory and mythology. We’ve got a giant bunny suit. If I didn’t have to stop and write about every episode, I’d be getting through them a whole lot faster — they’re so good that I want to watch the next one instantly.

But here’s something depressing I learned from “Memory Alpha,” the Star Trek Wiki page: the episodes I watched this week are numbers 13, 14 and 15 of 80 in The Original Series. I’m not even a quarter of the way done. What’s worse is that I’m only at 15 out of 727 total Star Trek shows. While I remain enthusiastic about watching every episode of every Star Trek, that number is a little disheartening. This Boldly Going project is going to take a while. Like, a loooong while. Like, people may actually be flying around in spaceships by the time I’m done. It’s the future!

Stardate: 2817.6

Original Air Date: December 8, 1966

The Story: Kirk is summoned to the Planet Q by his friend Dr. Thomas Leighton under the guise that the doctor has discovered a new kind of synthetic food. Once there, however, Leighton reveals his true motivation: he believes that Anton Karidian (Arnold Moss), a member of the Shakespearean theater troupe performing on Planet Q, is actually Kodos the Executioner — the man responsible for the murder of thousand of people decades earlier.

Kirk, skeptical of the actor’s identity (though less so after Leighton mysteriously turns up dead), convinces Karidian’s actress daughter to bring the troupe aboard the Enterprise for a performance. Spock, confused and suspicious as to why Kirk would offer transport to civilians (especially on a course that’s out of the Enterprise’s way), begins conducting his own research on Kodos the Executioner. He discovers that Kodos ordered the deaths of over 4,000 people on the planet Tarsus IV when their food supply became scarce. Applying his theories of “eugenics,” Kodos determined who should live and who should die according to his own standards of superior breeding and genetics. Ultimately, the murders weren’t even necessary, as Tarsus IV received aid and supplies to provide for the entire population. Among those murdered on Tarsus IV were the families of Dr. Leighton and Captain Kirk, and both men — along with Lt. Kevin Riley, also aboard the Enterprise — are (or were, in Leighton’s case) the only surviving humans who could possibly identify the long-rumored dead Kodos.

After attempts are made on the lives of both Kirk and Riley (who is poisoned and put into a coma), the captain attempts to confirm the identity of Karidian/Kodos, who is able to remember the murderer’s final words without reading from the paper Kirk has provided. Riley, awaking from his coma, overhears McCoy recording his log and suggesting that the actor might be Kodos, then sneaks away to kill Kodos himself during a staging of Hamlet. Before he can exact his revenge, Kirk confronts Karidian and his daughter, Lenore, and it’s revealed that it is Lenore who has been murdering the eyewitnesses to protect her father from their vengeance. As she attempts to shoot Kirk with a phaser, Karidian sacrifices himself and jumps in the way, dying in the process. Lenore, overcome with grief, blocks the entire incident from her mind and rewrites history to believe her father is still alive.

Reflections from a First Timer: “The Conscience of the King” is a rare Star Trek episode (thus far) in that I liked it more and more upon reflection. I certainly enjoyed it while I was watching it — there’s some great Spock/McCoy banter (about the effects of alchohol and the fact that Vulcan was conqured, which I didn’t know until now) and another solid performance by Shatner as a man torn between responsible leadership and his own desire for revenge, plus a lot of cool Shakespearean overtones (even the title of the episode is pulled from the final lines of Hamlet) that recall (or, more accurately, predict) elements of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. It’s an entertaining hour of the series that suffers a little from being sandwiched between “The Corbomite Maneuver” and “Balance of Terror,” two really awesome episodes (yes, I know “The Menagerie” is in there, too, but I’ve almost forgotten about it already) that showcase Star Trek at its best.

The more I thought about “Conscience of the King,” however, the more it resonated with me. In much the same way that Spock skirts the rules and laws to achieve an endgame in “The Menagerie,” so Kirk does here; watching the captain venture into some moral grey area for reasons he believes to be right offers us to see another side of the character. And while I drew some comparisons between the “perfect robot race” of “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” with Hitler’s vision of Germany, that might have been a stretch. It’s most definitely not a stretch to make the same comparisons with “The Conscience of the King,” as it’s clearly a show about holding former Nazis/war criminals accountable for their actions (the introduction of the whole “eugenics” concept really drives the point home). It’s a tricky area for a network science-fiction series, but it’s handled with care and maturity. While it’s clear that Kodos is a monster, the consequences for his actions aren’t so black and white. Yes, Kirk wants revenge, but he’s not willing to exact it without consideration of what that means (not being sure of Kodos’ identity doesn’t help). It’s what separates the good guys from the bad ones.

The episode also features another goofy, very-’60s song by Uhura (she’s singing to Riley over comms, right before his milk is dosed with poison from a spray bottle. Feel free to read that again). The musical break — like the one in “Charlie X” — reminds us that the show is still something of a product of its time. Too often, it’s easy to think of Star Trek as a show unto itself, removed from any time period or context. Whether that’s because it deals in far-out concepts of the future and space travel or because its legacy has made it timeless I couldn’t say. Every once in a while, though, something pops up that brings us right back into 1966.

Enterprise Casualties: None.

Badass Kirk Moment: “If I had gotten everything I wanted, you might not walk out of this room alive.” Bam! Served!

“Balance of Terror”

Stardate: 1709.2

Original Air Date: December 15, 1966

The Story: While presiding over a wedding ceremony between two Enterprise crew members, Captain Kirk learns that someone or something is destroying federation space stations. The most recent station destroyed is Outpost 4, a station near the forbidden Romulan Neutral Zone. Though the humans and the Romulans have never seen one another (they’ve communicated by radio only), Kirk begins to suspect that it’s the Romulans who are responsible for destroying the outposts.

Surprise, surprise — Kirk is right. A Romulan Bird of Prey has attacked the Federation and is in the process of returing to Romulus to report back on Starfleet’s weaknesses. Spock is able to hack into the Romulan’s onboard cameras, and the entire crew is shocked at their first glimpse of the Romulan race — they look identical to Vulcans. Spock suggests that the Romulan race evolved from the Vulcans, but that they do not possess all the same traits, such as the endless embrace of logic. The similarities between the two races cause one crewman, Lt. Stiles (who lost family during the war with the Romulans), to become highly suspect of Spock.

The remainder of the episode follows the ensuing battle of wits, agility, power and skill between the two ships and their captains. Though the Enterprise is faster and more maneuverable, the Romulan Bird of Prey has a cloaking device that allows it to become invisible, as well as a massively powerful phaser cannon onboard capable of destroying any opponent. Ultimately, Kirk and crew get the better of the Romulans. With their adversaries facing defeat and death, Kirk extends an offer to the Romulan captain to beam their crew aboard and save their lives. The Romulan captian, who has gained tremendous respect for Kirk as an equal in combat, declines the offer and says that it is not the Romulan way just before triggering the self-destruct device on the Bird of Prey.

Reflections from a First Timer: Wow. “Balance of Terror” is the first Star Trek episode devoted almost solely to combat, and another in a steady streak of ass-kicking episodes (seriously, Star Trek is killing it right now and making it very difficult for me to choose my favorite episodes). The show is set up like an old-school submarine duel, meaning that even more than in “The Corbomite Maneuver,” we get to see how Kirk and crew are in a fight. It turns out they are awesome. Essentially an hour-long battle between the two ships (in some ways anticipating The Wrath of Khan, making this the second time in two episodes that the film series can be seen to have drawn influence from specific episodes — and, yes, I know that Khan draws much more from “The Space Seed” than “Balance of Terror,” but the similarities are still there), the show offers the chance not just to see how Kirk uses his wits about him in battle but also how the Enterprise handles in combat. It turns out it’s awesome.

Here’s where having seen most of the films already has me at a disadvantage: the first time the Enterprise crew sees the Romulans, there is a long (looong) pause where we get to see every crewmember’s stunned reaction. I’m assuming that’s because the Romulan captain is played by Mark Lenard, who would go on to play Spock’s father, Sarek, in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and several subsequent Star Trek films. I instantly recognized him as Spock’s father, and assumed that the Enterprise crew were shocked because why was Spock’s dad commanding a Romulan vessel? I asked myself the very same thing. Obviously, I was way off and the reaction was actually due to the fact that the Romulans look just like the Vulcans (which I also had no way of knowing, as the only Romulans I’ve seen look like Eric Bana’s Nero in the 2009 Star Trek). It turns out that Lenard plays Sarek in later episodes of The Original Series, too, but having not seen them yet I couldn’t possibly have known.

This being Star Trek, we do get a few little lessons shoehorned in amidst all the space battle coolness. The most heavy-handed example is yet another lesson about tolerance: Lt. Stiles begins to resent Spock once he learns of the similar ancestry between Vulcans and the hated Romulans, but realizes his own prejudices after Spock risks his own life to save Stiles. This, to me, approaches the subject of racism with a simplicity that’s uncharacteristic of the show; it would have been much stronger for Riley to realize that he’s being unfair to Spock — and to all Vulcans — on his own, without the broad gesture of possible self-sacrifice from Spock. I’m not opposed to Riley wrestling with these feelings. I just feel like it was resolved in too obvious a way. Still, it’s a relatively minor sticking point in an episode that’s otherwise terrific.

Enterprise Casualites: Crewman Tomlinson never does make it to his wedding day.

Badass Kirk Moment: The entirety of “Balance of Terror” is a badass Kirk moment.

“Shore Leave”

Stardate: 3025.3

Original Air Date: December 29, 1966

The Story: The crew of the Enterprise puts its mission on hold so that they can take some much-needed shore leave on an Earth-like planet in the Omicron Delta System. Once on the planet’s surface, the crew begins seeing strange things that are difficult to explain: McCoy sees a giant rabbit with a pocket watch being chased by a young blonde girl (in case it’s not clear, it’s Alice in Wonderland); Kirk encounters — and is again harassed by — Finnegan, a childhood bully; Sulu is attacked by samurai and Yeoman Tonia Barrows is accosted by Don Juan.

Spock beams down to investigate what’s going on, but the strange occurrences continue. A medieval knight charges the group, and when McCoy steps in front of Yeoman Barrows to prove that these hallucinations can’t hurt him he’s run through and killed. Kirk shoots the knight, who upon closer examination appears to be created out of plant life from the planet itself. Both the bodies of McCoy and the plantknight disappear during an attack from a fighter jet in which crew member Angela Martine is gunned down and killed.

After a long fistfight with Finnegan, Kirk and Spock deduce that the strange visions everyone is experiencing are actually being conjured up by their thoughts. Kirk orders everyone to clear their minds; immediately afterwards, an old man appears and explains just that, likening the planet to an amusement park that’s meant be enjoyed. After returning a very-much-alive McCoy to the crew (acompanied by two showgirls), the old man explains that humans would be unable to comprehend the workings of the special planet. All the same, he invites the crew of the Enterprise down to the surface to conjure up any fantasy they like and enjoy the rest of their shore leave. Kirk gladly takes him up on the offer, but Spock decides to return to the ship, having had all the shore leave he can handle.

Reflections from a First Timer: I’m going to float a theory about “Shore Leave” that actually speaks to the circumstances under which I’m viewing Star Trek: if I was simply watching a new episode as it aired each week, an installment like “Shore Leave” might leave me disappointed and a little annoyed. Watching the show in bigger, multi-episode chunks the way I am for this Boldly Going experiment, however, made “Shore Leave” a welcome respite from the intesity of the last few episodes. It’s the first real light-hearted episode of Star Trek I’ve seen, and while it’s not exactly comedic it certainly is goofy at times. Compared to the episodes that came right before it, the stakes are relatively low — pretty much nonexistant, really.

“Shore Leave” reminded me of “The Naked Time,” actually, largely because that episode, too, was somewhat lighthearted and both plots rely on the inner conscious of the characters. “The Naked Time” played that particular game more effectively, though, because the manifestation of their subconsciousnesses actually revealed something about each character; aside from learning that Kirk was bullied when he was younger, not much is revealed about the inner minds and lives of the crew in “Shore Leave.” What happens is just a result of something they happen to be thinking about, not necessarily their fears, passions or what drives them. It doesn’t make for a less entertaining episode, but it does make for a less essential episode. It’s fun and goofy and not much else. Coming as it did at the end of a large block of shows, I didn’t mind that. It was as much a break for me as it was for the crew of the Enterprise, but now I’m ready to get back down to it.

Enterprise Casualties: Bones bites it, but only for a bit, as does crew member Angela Martine (whose husband Robert was just killed in “Balance of Terror.”)

Badass Kirk Moment: Man, that fistfight just goes on and on. John Carpenter must have had this in mind when he devised the Roddy Piper/Keith David alley fight in They Live.

SyFy has offered up an advanced preview of this highly anticipated series’ first original episode of the season…

“Pressure mounts on the Graystones, and Zoe is forced to deal with her new life.”

Caprica 1.1 – “Rebirth” airs Friday, January 29th @ 9/8c on Syfy.