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December 07, 2004
Some odds and ends on a dreary day.
The Clone Saga Lives Again
A buddy stopped by while I was eating lunch and we got to talking comics (just like in the good old days). And we started talking about the current storyline in Amazing Spider-Man. We’re both of an age where the notion of teenage virgin Gwen Stacy deciding to bed 45year-old-or-so Norman Osborn ruins our perception of the character. I began thinking of ways it could be ignored or undone. For a brief, shining moment I thought of a way to use the dreaded Gwen Stacy clone. Then, after some quick internet research, it appeared that professor Miles Warren, creator of the clone, started on his path to lunacy as a result of his student’s death meaning the clone wasn’t around to service Norman.
Anyone else have a good idea?
On Barry and Steroids
Another thing that bruises the little kid inside me is the notion that in 2005, Barry Bonds will break Babe Ruth’s homerun total, shoving the Bambino down to the #3 on the All-Time list.
I was heartened by last week’s news about the steroids finally coming to light. There’s a terrific column in the New York Times today pointing out any good health food store carries legit version of the two substances Bonds claims he was provided via BALCO. In other words, he’s lying through his teeth in a most unconvincing way.
If Major League Baseball has a commissioner with some balls – and I mean some serious cojones – he would suspend the players involved, strike their accomplishments from the record for the period they were believed to be “enhanced”, deny them Awards consideration (Bonds as MVP? I don’t think so.) and finally, tell Union head Donald Fehr to take a hike.
Instead, MLB has Bud Selig.
Back in the day, people moaned when Happy Chandler was commissioner and insisted that Roger Maris had to break the Babe’s single season record in 154 games or there’d be an asterisk by his name since, comparing apples to apples, Maris took more games to accomplish the same feat. Following that same apples to apples thinking, players who used legal methods to buff up (you know, proper diet and exercise, some weight training) should not be penalized by Bonds or Giambi or anyone who cheated.
And it’s become clearer than ever that Sammy Sosa has stopped taking the steroids. His physique is back to human dimensions and his number shave plummeted back to earth.
Another black eye for the National Pastime and another disappointment.
Almost Caught Up
In a productive burst, Robbie and I are now caught up with NYPD Blue and Jack and Bobby while the family is pretty much caught up with the rest of our prime time programming. All that remains are 9 episodes of Enterprise to slog through, although I hear it’s having a pretty good season.
Blue is definitely heading towards a conclusion and is easing the characters through the transition nicely. The cases remain solid, the character interactions pretty terrific. It’s a shame some familiar faces aren’t around but the ghost of Bobby Simone (Jimmy Smits) provided some terrific acting moments for Dennis Franz. The show isn’t as intense or as surprising as it used to be but at least it’s going out with its head held high.
J&B has been a bit more uneven but is finding its footing. I like a lot of the various character moments, the script allowing the characters to actually speak to one another rather than do some exposition and move on. Grace (Christine Lahti) has been a bit more fleshed out and has been very strong in her relationship with Jack in the last few episodes, especially the one in which he loses his virginity. I also like how the various characters are thrust into dealing with the less likely counterparts so Bobby playing chess with the University President comes off as fresh and filled with nice bits. The show should stick around and I hope it doesn’t get further clobbered come January when it not only has to fend off The West Wing but Alias.
Now all I need is time to sampleHouse which people tell me is pretty fine stuff.
Posted by Bob Greenberger at December 7, 2004 03:50 PM
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Comments
I'm not distressed by the Gwen Stacy revelations; from my perspective, they've added an incredible new layer to the mythology. And my distaste of the clone saga stuff is such that I would hope they wouldn't decide to bring in a clone. But if you really feel the need to preserve Gwen's status, you could always bring in a Gwen from a parallel universe....
My favorite commissioner was Bart Giamatti. He wouldn't have stood for some of what these players are doing today.
Enterprise has been quite watchable, surprisingly; I think a lot of it has to do with some excellent guest starts, such as Brent Spiner, Robert Foxworth, and John Rubinstein. And, of course, the absolutely delightful Jeffrey Combs, who should be featured in every episode of Star Trek, ever. As for J&B, I'm still enjoying it, especially the way the characters are real people -- Jack's reluctance to go all the way with Missy was the type of thing that makes a viewer think, and realize that it's entirely possible for a teenage boy to want to fight his own physical desires. I just hope her father doesn't find out.
And it's a shame about Chicago.
Posted by: Michael A. Burstein ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://bgb.malibulist.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 7, 2004 04:22 PM
*sigh*
I was SO looking forward to ENTERPRISE when it was first announced. The possibilities of watching humans fumble about while getting their footing in the universe were quite exciting, and Scott Bakula has always been a pretty serviceable actor.
And then the series came.
It has the wrong look. It should look like a less-evolved version of the Enterprise that Kirk captained; instead it looks like it comes from the same era as NEXT GENERATION, DEEP SPACE 9, and VOYAGER.
The science is wrong. They started out for about three episodes being worried and afraid and inexperienced with the transporter; suddenly it's the same old same old as it has been since Shatner first uttered, "Energize!"
The universe is wrong. Characters on the Enterprise have grown up in space and have visited other planets before. This is nuts. The thrill of the original series was that the Enterprise was EXPLORING places never before seen. Now the Captain Kirk Enterprise turns out to have covered well-charted territory. Captain Archer has met the Klingons, the blue people with the antennae, the green dancing-girl people, and he's about to meet the Romulans. In addition, they have invented huge threats via the Xindi and the chameleon race, not to mention the time-travel arc. NONE of this should have been shown, because the STAR TREK of Captain Kirk gave no hint of its having ever occurred.
I was so looking forward to this. To me, the creation of things is the most interesting part. My favorite period of American history is everything up to the end of the War of 1812. The early Catholic church is fascinating. How and why people wind up doing what they're doing, and how that affects a culture, that's riveting stuff.
Instead, the casual observer (and I am one; I never really felt fondness for the original series) will see a show that looks like it should follow, not precede, STAR TREK.
Not that anybody connected with the series cares what I think, anyway.
Posted by: Mike Flynn at December 7, 2004 07:42 PM
I'm new here, and though I used to read and revere comics, I can't justifiy the incredible cost anymore... but I still care...
What's going on with Gwen? What's the story. Tell me so I can be equally outraged!
Thank you and Merry Christmas (or any other appropriate holiday). :)
Posted by: Robbnn at December 8, 2004 09:07 AM
House...watch it. It's brilliant.
Enterprise..getting better, but too little beagle time:-(
As for Mike Flynn's comments, Enterprise should look like a less evolved version of Kirk's Enterprise? What..use unpainted cardboard boxes for the set? There is the matter that we're around 40 years later, and the art deco-esque trappings of 60's science fiction wouldn't work today. You can fault Enterprise for lots of stuff...mainly bad writing, casting and too little beagletime, but production design isn't one of them. Enterprise looks like a wonderful cross of today's technology and that of Star Trek. One of the most brilliant things they did was in a season one episode, Phlox is recording a letter to a colleague, and the disk he's using looks like the step between a Zip disk and the plastic cards Spock used.
You complain that Enterprise uses Klingons and Andorians, but then complain that they've created new aliens....so they should go to unpopulated worlds?
Yes, Kirk & Spock went where No Man has Gone Before....which is further away then where Archer & co are.To get to where No Man Has Gone Before, you have to pass Where Man Has Gone Before.
Posted by: Scavenger at December 8, 2004 12:20 PM
Re: "Fixing" Gwen Stacy:
Anyone else have a good idea?
Yeah. Norman used a very subtle "date-rape drug" on her, rendering her so suggestible that she didn't even know she was being controlled or manipulated. Later, she thinks to herself, "Why the hell did I do that!?!?!? I don't believe I did that!" But it doesn't occur to her that she'd been drugged.
Posted by: Leviathan at December 10, 2004 11:47 AM