april 2008 « 2008 Television Episodes

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Partners in Crime (Doctor Who)

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

“Partners in Crime” is the first episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 5 April 2008. The episode reintroduced comedienne Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, who previously appeared in “The Runaway Bride”. Donna and the Doctor (David Tennant) meet while separately investigating Adipose Industries, a company that has created a revolutionary diet pill. Together, they attempt to stop the death of thousands of people in London after the head of the company, the alien Miss Foster (Sarah Lancashire), creates the Adipose, short white aliens made from human body fat.

The episode’s alien creatures, the Adipose, were created using the software Massive, commonly used for crowd sequences in fantasy and science fiction films. The episode is stylistically different from other Doctor Who episodes; “Partners in Crime” has no clear antagonist, and the creatures are in a different style to Doctor Who‘s regular “big [and] scary” monsters.

“Partners in Crime” features the return of three other characters. Jacqueline King reprises her role as Sylvia Noble from “The Runaway Bride”. Bernard Cribbins reprises his role as Wilfred Mott from “Voyage of the Damned”. Cribbins was recalled to replace the character of Geoff Noble after actor Howard Attfield died. Billie Piper briefly reprises her role as Rose Tyler for the first time since the second series’ finale “Doomsday”, in a scene that was not included in preview showings.

The episode received many positive reviews. Most critics liked the special effects used to create the Adipose. Critics also praised Tate’s subdued acting in comparison to “The Runaway Bride”; Donna was changed from a “shouting fishwife” to a more emotional person when she became a full-time companion. Critics’ opinions were split over the episode’s plot: opinion on executive producer Russell T Davies’ writing ranged from “pure pleasure” to “the back of a fag packet”.

Synopsis

The episode primarily focuses on Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), a previous companion who appeared in “The Runaway Bride”. After her encounter with the Doctor (David Tennant), she became disenchanted with normal life and regretted declining his invitation to travel in the TARDIS. She started investigating conspiracy theories in the hope she would find him. She confides her regrets to her grandfather Wilfred Mott (Bernard Cribbins), an amateur astronomer who met the Doctor before in “Voyage of the Damned”.

The episode concerns Adipose Industries, which is marketing a diet pill to London’s population with the slogan “the fat just walks away”. Believing the treatment to be otherworldly, the Doctor and Donna investigate the company separately, and find that the slogan is literal—the pills use latent body fat to parthenogenetically create the Adipose, small white aliens which spawn every night, removing a little of the host’s body fat each time. In an emergency, multiple Adipose can spawn by using all of the body’s organic tissue, killing the host. When the Doctor and Donna meet, they are confronted by Miss Foster (Sarah Lancashire), an alien who is exploiting Britain’s overweight population to create the Adipose for the Adiposian First Family. Miss Foster mentions that the Adipose species “lost” their breeding planet and hired Foster to find a replacement; she chose Earth, knowing that it was illegal.

Foster accelerates her plans, feeling threatened by the Doctor’s invocation of galactic law and fearing he may inform the “Shadow Proclamation”, an interplanetary police force. Throughout London, the Adipose begin to spawn, soon numbering several thousand. The Doctor and Donna prevent total emergency parthenogenesis occurring, while the remainder make their way to Adipose Industries. The Adiposian First Family use their spaceship to collect the Adipose, but kill Foster to hide any evidence they used Earth illegally. The Doctor refrains from killing the Adipose because they are children; Donna notes that his previous companion Martha Jones made him more human, citing his infanticide of the Racnoss in their previous encounter.

At the end of the episode, Donna accepts an offer to travel in the TARDIS. She makes a detour to leave her car keys in a safe location for her mother Sylvia (Jacqueline King), and asks a blonde woman to help Sylvia find the keys. The woman turns towards the camera, revealing her to be Rose Tyler (Billie Piper). She fades from view as she walks away from the area. In the final scene, Donna asks the Doctor to fly by her grandfather, Wilfred, who sees her and celebrates on his allotment.

Production

Casting

“Partners in Crime” features several actors returning to the series. Catherine Tate was offered the opportunity to return as Donna Noble during lunch with executive producer Julie Gardner. Tate, who expected Gardner would ask about appearing in a biopic, later admitted it was “the furthest thing from [her] mind”. Tate’s return was controversial amongst Doctor Who fans; the criticism she received was compared to Daniel Craig after he was cast as James Bond. Howard Attfield, who appeared as Donna’s father Geoff in “The Runaway Bride”, filmed several scenes for this episode, but died before his scenes for the remainder of the season were completed. The producers retired his character out of respect, and dedicated him in the closing credits for the episode. Producer Phil Collinson suggested transferring his traits to the unrelated character Stan Mott from “Voyage of the Damned”, and rewriting his role as Donna’s grandfather. Executive producers Russell T Davies and Gardner liked the idea and recalled Bernard Cribbins to the role to re-film Attfield’s scenes, with the character renamed as Wilfred—a name Davies favoured for Donna’s grandfather—in time for the credits of “Voyage of the Damned” to be changed.

Writing

I see her as a slightly warped Mary Poppins. She’s quite austere. She’s a strong woman. When I first read the script, I thought, oh, well, of course she’s a baddie… but the more I read it, I thought, ‘No, she’s doing what she’s doing for legitimate reasons.’

—Sarah Lancashire

Davies took a different approach while writing the episode. David Tennant and Sarah Lancashire noted the character of Miss Foster had good intentions but was morally ambiguous. The premise of the Adipose pill was equally ambiguous with rare side-effects, but was a “win-win situation” for anyone involved. Davies based the character of Miss Foster on the “Supernanny” Jo Frost and Argentine philanthropist and politician Eva Perón, and Lancashire compared her character to Mary Poppins. The Adipose are a different style to regular Doctor Who villains; antagonists such as Lazarus in “The Lazarus Experiment” or the werewolf in “Tooth and Claw” were singular monsters designed to scare the audience; the Adipose were written as “cute” to provide a “bizarre [and] surreal” experience.

Davies made some changes to Donna’s character. The character was “rounded … out from being a shouting fishwife to someone who’s quite vulnerable and emotional”. Donna was written to provide a “caustic” and “grown-up” attitude towards the Doctor, in opposition to Rose and Martha, who fell in love with him. Tate considered Donna to be more equal to the Doctor because her character did not romanticise him, allowing her to question his morality more easily.

Donna’s mime

In this production, the script requires Catherine Tate, as Donna Noble, to reintroduce herself to The Doctor in mime. The stage directions by writer Russell T Davies are as follows.

Donna does a little mime. I came here, trouble, read about it, internet, I thought, trouble = you! And this place is weird! Pills! So I hid. Back there. Crept along. Looked. You. Cos they…

Tate says Davies had suggested that she might come up with something on the day. She improvised her mime during filming.

Filming

The episode was in the fourth production block in the season, and was filmed in October 2007. The out-of-sequence filming allowed producers to use props to “seed” later episodes; ATMOS, a plot device in the episodes “The Sontaran Stratagem” and “The Poison Sky”, is referred to by a sticker on a taxi’s windscreen. As the episode mostly takes place at night, many scenes were filmed in the early morning.

The scene where Donna and the Doctor investigate Adipose was difficult to film. The scene took thirty shots to complete, and Tennant and Tate experienced problems avoiding each other on-screen. The scene was filmed in a loan company’s call centre in Cardiff’s outskirts on an early Sunday morning, with the company’s telephonists serving as extras.

Exterior shots of Adipose Industries were filmed at the Welsh Gas Board building in Cardiff’s city centre. For health and safety reasons, Tennant was prohibited from performing his own stunts in the window cleaning platform. His only shot that required stunts was when he catches Miss Foster’s sonic pen, a shot that took several takes to perfect.

Adipose

The Adipose were inspired by a stuffed toy Davies owned. The name comes from the scientific name for body fat, adipose tissue. Davies’ brief outlined a “cute” child-friendly creature shaped like a block of lard, similar to the Pillsbury Doughboy. Further consultation with post-production team The Mill resulted in the ears and the singular fang each Adipose has.Stephen Regelous, who won an Academy Award for his software Massive, flew to London to supervise the creation of the crowd special effects. Regelous, a Doctor Who fan, was enthusiastic about helping The Mill with special effects, stating that “When I first found out that the Mill was working on Doctor Who, I was quietly hoping that Massive might be used to create hordes of Daleks or Cybermen and with series 4, I jumped at the opportunity to be involved.” The Mill created two types of Adipose: extras with artificial intelligence and independent movement, and “hero” Adipose, which were hand-animated.

Broadcast and reception

Broadcast and ratings

The episode was broadcast on 5 April 2008 at 18:20, the earliest timeslot since the show’s revival in 2005. Davies criticised the BBC’s scheduling department and claimed the show could lose 1.5 million viewers. The show retained a similar time of broadcast for a further four episodes, before returning to around 19:00. from “The Doctor’s Daughter” onwards.

The preview version of the episode supplied to the press and aired at the press launch omitted the scene that features Rose; before broadcast, only the production team, Tate, and Tennant had seen the scene. The scene contains Rose’s departure theme, “Doomsday”. Tennant commented “on the night of transmission … the Radio Times won’t have told you it’s coming, it’ll come as a genuine [...] prickle up the spine”.

Overnight figures estimated the show was watched by 8.4 million viewers, with a peak of 8.7 million, 39.4% of the television audience. The consolidated rating was 9.1 million viewers. Doctor Who was therefore the most watched show on 5 April, although the Grand National had a higher peak with 10.1 million viewers. The episode’s Appreciation Index was 88 (considered “Excellent”), the highest for any television show aired on 5 April.

Critical reception

The episode received many positive reviews. John Preston, writing for The Daily Telegraph, called the episode an “undiluted triumph”. Opening his review, he said “last night’s episode struck me as being as close to 50 minutes of pure pleasure as you’re likely to get on television”. He noted the episode’s clever tackling of the topical theme of obesity, and its mixture of emotion and special effects. In closing, he said “the dejected critic, denied even the smallest nit to pick, walks glumly away”. Scott Matthewman of The Stage lamented that the Adipose were not threatening enough. He liked the Adipose’s execution of Miss Foster, a “momentary pause in mid-air, gravity only kicking in when the character looks down”, comparing it to Wile E. Coyote and Chuck Jones, which “[was] a nice little touch in an episode … full of them”. He also appreciated Tate, saying that “David Tennant finally has a partner who is approaching an equal”. Sam Wollaston of The Guardian wrote that Tate was “not right for this role” and “too hysterical, too comedy, not cool enough”, and felt her inclusion was an attempt to trade on the popularity of her own series and “broaden the appeal of [Dr Who] still further”. He also found the music “a bit oppressive” but concluded that, despite these criticisms, the show was “still awfully nice television”. Keith Watson of Metro gave the episode 4 stars out of 5. He admitted that despite his dislike of Tate, “she isn’t that bad”. His review of the Adipose was positive, citing them as a reason of the quality of the show. Closing, he said “it split [his] sides”.

Jon Wise of The People said “Doctor Who is a super-galactic way of spending a Saturday night indoors”, and appreciated that Donna was not romantically interested in the Doctor, unlike Martha or Rose. Ben Rawson-Jones gave the episode a wholly positive review, summarising it as containing “pure fantastic family fun, delivering a winning blend of action, comedy, poignancy and one unexpected shock cameo”.

The episode received several negative reviews. Andrew Billen, writing for The Times, lamented that Davies had “forgotten that Doctor Who’s main task is to send children scuttling behind sofas while entertaining their fathers with the odd philosophical idea, the occasional classical reference, a joke or two they would probably not wish to explain and a wee bit of space totty”. Billen also criticised the writing and acting, but commended Tate for a “toned down performance”. Alan Stanley Blair of SyFy Portal summarised it as “a runaway Saturday morning cartoon in desperate need to a solid story”. Blair found flaws with the comedy and the music in the episode, but was impressed with Tate’s acting and Piper’s cameo. Kevin O’Sullivan of the Sunday Mirror criticised Tate and Tennant for overacting, and had concerns about the writing: “It didn’t exactly ooze tension. All we got in the way of terrifying space enemies was Sarah Lancashire hamming it up as an intergalactic super nanny, a couple of security guards with guns and lots of cute little fat babies.”Ian Hyland of News of the World criticised the child-friendly storyline, comparing it to “the back of a fag packet”. He also criticised Tennant for appearing “jaded” and Tate for “still shouting”.

Tags: april 2008, catherine tate donna noble, david tennant tenth doctor, james strong, lindsey alford, minutes, phil collinson, russell t davies, russell t daviesjulie gardner, series, the fires of pompeii
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The Sontaran Stratagem

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

“The Sontaran Stratagem” is the fourth episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 26 April 2008. The episode features the return of former companion Martha Jones, as well as the return of the alien Sontarans to the series. It is the first of a two part story, followed by “The Poison Sky”. This is the Sontarans’ first appearance since the 1985 Colin Baker story The Two Doctors.

Plot

Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) calls the Doctor (David Tennant) to ask for assistance during an investigation by UNIT. Minutes after the TARDIS materialises in contemporary Britain, Martha authorises the raid of an ATMOS (Atmospheric Omission System) factory. The Doctor introduces his companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) to Martha and UNIT; Donna instantly befriends Martha, but is concerned about UNIT’s ethics and asks the Doctor why he is associated with them; the Doctor ambiguously replies he used to work for them in the late twentieth century.

ATMOS is marketing a satellite navigation system developed by child prodigy Luke Rattigan (Ryan Sampson). The system also reduces carbon dioxide emissions to zero; UNIT requested the Doctor’s help because the technology is not contemporary and potentially alien. UNIT are also concerned about fifty-two simultaneous deaths occurring spontaneously several days before the narrative. The Doctor travels to Rattigan’s private school to investigate the system, and discovers that the episode’s events are being influenced by the Sontarans.

The Sontarans depicted in the episode are part of a battlegroup led by General Staal, “the undefeated” (Christopher Ryan). Instead of an instant invasion, they are tactically approaching an invasion with a combination of human clones, mind control, and ATMOS; Martha is captured by two of the controlled humans and cloned to provide a tactical advantage against UNIT.

A subplot depicts Donna returning to her home to warn her mother Sylvia (Jacqueline King) and grandfather Wilfred Mott (Bernard Cribbins) about the Doctor, having been advised to do so by Martha. Concerned about the implications of telling the truth, Donna reneges from warning her mother. At the end of the episode, the Doctor investigates the ATMOS device attached to Donna’s car and discovers a secondary function: the device can emit a poisonous gas. Wilfred attempts to take the car off the road, but is trapped when Staal activates all 400 million ATMOS devices installed in cars worldwide. The episode’s cliffhanger depicts Donna shouting for help while the Doctor stares helplessly at a street full of cars emitting the gas, while on their ship orbiting the planet, the Sontarans prepare themselves for battle.

Production

The episode features the return of the Sontarans, who last appeared in the 1985 serial The Two Doctors; a centric appearance by UNIT; and Martha Jones, who had last appeared in “Last of the Time Lords” and made special guest appearances in the Torchwood episodes “Reset”, “Dead Man Walking”, and “A Day in the Death.” The brief that executive producer Russell T Davies gave to writer Helen Raynor included the terms “Sontarans”, “military”, and “Martha’s back”.

Martha’s departure allowed Davies to change the character’s personality. In her reappearance, she is more mature and equal to the Doctor in comparison to falling in love in the third series. Several aspects of her character were debated: in particular, her status and reaction to Donna. Raynor elected to emphasise Martha’s medical career over her military career, and avoided a “handbags at dawn” scenario because she felt it would rehash Rose Tyler’s (Billie Piper) initial opinion of Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) from the second series episode “School Reunion”.

The episode is the first centric appearance of UNIT since the show’s revival. Their name has changed from United Nations Intelligence Taskforce to Unified Intelligence Taskforce at the request of the United Nations, who cited the political climate and potential “brand confusion” as reasons for disassociation. The new acronym was coined by Davies after several meetings among the scriptwriters. The UNIT privates Gray and Wilson were specifically written as “alien fodder”. The episode refers to inconsistencies in dating UNIT stories when the Doctor is unsure whether he worked for UNIT in the 70s or 80s.

This episode continues the pattern of having monsters from the classic series return in the new one. Davies commented that the Sontarans were “always on his list” of villains to resurrect. The time and location of the episode was deliberately chosen because every Sontaran story except for The Invasion of Time was set on Earth.

When interviewed on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Catherine Tate stated that she had been filming alongside ten actors playing Sontarans for two weeks before she realised that there were actors inside the Sontaran costumes. She had assumed the Sontarans “ran on electricity”. It was not until an actor removed his helmet to reveal his real face that she realised her mistake. She stated she was “freaked out” by this and said she “nearly died”.

Raynor initially envisioned the poisonous gas would be emitted by factories, but changed it in later drafts to cars for several reasons: the episode would provide social commentary and the idea of an “evil satnav system” was “much more engageable” and “irresistible”; Davies thought the concept was “so very Doctor Who“. Because the series was produced out of order, the “ATMOS” subplot was seeded in the episode “Partners in Crime”. The “fifteenth broken moon” of the Medusa Cascade is also mentioned. The Medusa Cascade was previously mentioned in “Last of the Time Lords”, “Partners in Crime”, and in “The Fires of Pompeii”. In the episode, a system installed in a UNIT jeep undramatically explodes; originally, Raynor wanted it to be a large explosion, but reduced the explosion to several sparks to reduce costs and to lampoon an action movie cliché. The opening scene, which depicts the system driving its occupant into a canal, was filmed at Cardiff’s docks. The scene was the first time a car-cannon had been used since 2005, and was required to be completed in one shot. The car fired into the canal was removed immediately afterwards to clear the shipping route.

The episode, like “Aliens of London” and “The Lazarus Experiment”, properly introduces the lead companion’s family. Unlike the Tyler or Jones families, both Sylvia Noble and Wilfred Mott had met the Doctor before (in “The Runaway Bride” and “Voyage of the Damned”, respectively), providing Raynor with an additional subplot. Expository dialogue explains Mott’s absence from “The Runaway Bride” as the character having Spanish flu. Wilfred’s positive opinion of the Doctor is different to Sylvia, who “joined a long line of mothers that don’t get the Doctor”; Davies had wanted a family member who trusted the Doctor since the show’s revival.

Despite the Sontaran’s clone culture being asserted in the classic series, “The Sontaran Strategem” is the first episode to depict cloning. Originally, all of the factory workers were to be clones, but Raynor reduced it to only Martha to solve continuity problems with the second part. The template clone was portrayed by Ruari Mears, who wore a prosthetic mask which took longer to apply than any mask he had worn. The scenes involving the cloning tank were filmed in a Welsh shampoo factory and reused a prop from “The Fires of Pompeii” as the tank which contained the clone. Davies and Agyeman enjoyed scenes set in the cloning room; Agyeman enjoyed playing an “evil companion”, who she and Davies felt made the real Martha “warmer”, and Davies thought Privates Gray and Harris discovering the tank in a darkened room was “classic Doctor Who“.

Broadcast and reception

“The Sontaran Strategem” was the most watched programme in its timeslot, with 7.06 million viewers. The episode was the second most-watched programme of the day, beaten by Britain’s Got Talent, and was the seventeenth most watched programme of the week. The episode’s Appreciation Index was 87 (considered Excellent), the highest figure recorded on its airdate.

Continuity

According to The Sarah Jane Adventures website (before the series started), the website revealed that Sarah Jane Smith was investigating ATMOS and the villainous Luke Rattigan. However, it was evident that she found out that Kaagh and his race were the ones behind the Earth burning.

Kaagh the Slayer (known as Kaagh the Shambles to Mrs Wormwood of the Bane) said that he was fighting off UNIT and the Doctor gave him his scar as a result of the fire.

Tags: 1st of part story minutes, april 2008, catherine tate donna noble, david tennant tenth doctor, douglas mackinnon, freema agyeman martha jones, helen raynor, nikki smith, russell t daviesjulie gardnerphil collinson, series, susie liggat, the poison sky
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He That Believeth in Me

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

“He That Believeth in Me” is the third episode in the fourth season (as the producers regard the two-hour movie special Razor as the first two episodes) of the reimagined science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica. The episode aired on SCI FI and Space in the United States and Canada respectively on April 4, 2008, and aired on Sky1 in the United Kingdom on April 15, along with the following episode “Six of One”. The episode’s title is a reference to the Book of John, chapter 11:25-26 in the New Testament of the Bible, which quotes; “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live…” The episode was generally well received and also won an Emmy Award.

Following the events in “Crossroads, Part 2″, the fleet arrive in the Ionian Nebula to find a clue that will lead to Earth, only to find that the entire rag tag fleet had mysteriously powered down, and hopelessly surrounded by Cylons. Lee Adama also encounters Kara Thrace, who was thought to have been killed in “Maelstrom” and claims to know where Earth is. The episode also deals with the aftermath of the identity of four of the five final Cylons, Samuel Anders, Tory Foster, Saul Tigh, and Galen Tyrol. The survivor count shown in the title sequence is 39,698.

Plot

While Lee Adama (Jamie Bamber) and a newly returned Kara Thrace (Katie Sackhoff) head to Galactica, the advancing Cylons destroy one ship and damage others, killing at least 600. After discovering their true identities, Cylons Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan), Tory Foster (Rekha Sharma), Samuel Anders (Michael Trucco), and Galen Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) continue their jobs. Tigh is ordered to send every Viper to defend the fleet, but has a vision where he assassinates Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos) before carrying it out. New Viper pilot Anders is sent out, worried that a hidden Cylon program would make him turn against the fleet. His guns are unresponsive while targeting a Raider, which turns around to face him. Anders’ iris glows red which causes the Raiders to retreat to their basestar and jump away, much to the surprise of the fleet.

Gaius Baltar (James Callis) is taken to a monotheistic cult which has erected a shrine to him. One of the members, Jeanne (Keegan Connor Tracy), believes he can save her dying son. Though reluctant at first, Baltar prays and asks “the one true god” to take his life instead, as he caused the genocide of the twelve colonies and the child is innocent. The next day he is escorted to a bathroom to shave. Charlie Connor (Ryan Robbins), whose son was killed on New Caprica, plans to kill him. Instead of begging for his life, Baltar begs Connor to kill him. His escort breaks free and brutally attacks the captors. After the two return to the cult, Baltar is astonished to find that the boy has been miraculously cured.

Starbuck returns with a seemingly brand new Viper. She doesn’t recall being killed and believes that she was only gone for six hours. President Roslin (Mary McDonnell) believes that Starbuck is a Cylon, despite her having being cleared by the Cylon detector. Starbuck claims to know the location of Earth and insists that following the clue from the Eye of Jupiter is a mistake. Every time the fleet performs an FTL jump, her “feeling” of Earth’s location fades after experiencing short headache. Her attempts to convince Roslin fail. After another jump and headache, desperate to stop Roslin before her feeling fades forever, she subdues the Marines guarding Adama’s quarters, and holds Roslin at gunpoint.

Production

Even though “He That Believeth in Me” is the continuation of the season three finale, “Crossroads, Part 2″, the episode is often referred to as the third episode in the fourth season, since the producers widely regard Razor as the first two episodes in production. In the battle sequence for the teaser of the episode, Ronald D. Moore wanted to keep “the ring ship” (later known in the series as the Zephyr) from being destroyed, as he gotten fond of the ship, and always wanted to have the interior of the ship in some sequences, so the ship was only damaged in the episode instead.

Moore called the battle sequence “remarkable”, even though the series had already included several space battles. Moore felt that they were not going to top the previous ones, but the visual effects team were able to pull it off as “the best battle sequence we’ve ever done.” A scene cut from the teaser’s battle sequence showed Samuel Anders aiming his Viper’s guns at Diana Seelix’s ship after discovering his Cylon nature. Another Anders scene that was cut focused on cutting the cast off his leg, due to the absence of his leg injury sustained from “The Son Also Rises”. With Baltar’s storyline, the writers refer to the rooms used by his cult as “Baltar’s lair”. Also, as the writers were aware that Baltar himself was visually similar to Jesus, Moore points out that he is not Jesus, though he admitted that the visual similarities help to “drive some things home”.

Aaron Douglas, who portrays Galen Tyrol, attempted an ad lib on one of his scenes. On that particular scene, Tyrol told the Viper pilots in the hanger, “lets go nuggets! your momma’s aren’t going to save ya today.” In one take, Douglas replaced this with “drop your dicks and grab your sticks!” According to Douglas, “five seconds later Harvey [Frand] (producer) says from video village, ‘you can’t say dicks on TV’. We had to do it again. [...] It’s great to be back but it’s sad to see it go.”

In the scene where Saul Tigh has the vision where he shoots William Adama in the eye, and his reaction was not done by one continuous take around Tigh, but was edited in a way that would only become noticeable if one looks at the scene closely. After the scene was completed, Moore kept considering cutting the scene despite loving that scene, but eventually decided not to.

Reception

In the United States, the episode did a 1.3 household rating and a 2.0 share, with a 1.1 household rating and 3.0 share in the 18-to-49 year-old target demographic. The episode had 2.138 million viewers, making it the third most-watched primetime cable program on Friday, April 4, 2008, the fourth most-watched program in the 18-to-49 year-old demographic, and the most-watched show in the coveted 25-to-54 year-old demographic. The episode was the show’s best performance in the 18-to-49 year-old demographic since “Resurrection Ship, Part 2″ aired in the United States on January 13, 2006. It was the show’s best performance in the 25-to-54 year-old demographic since “Occupation” aired in the United States on October 6, 2006 (the series’ Season 3 premiere). Forty-three percent of the episode’s 18-to-49 viewership in the U.S. was female.

When viewers watching the show on DVRs over the seven days following the episode’s initial airing were included, the episode’s ratings rose to a 1.9 household rating, with 1.8 million viewers aged 18-49, 1.9 millions viewers aged 25-54, and 2.6 million total viewers. This was the series’ best performance in all three key demographic categories since the season two premiere in July 2005. This also made “He That Believeth in Me” the most-watched cable program for the day in both the 18-to-49-year-old and 25-to-54-year-old demographic categories. In 2008, the visual effects team for the episode won and received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects.

The SyFy Portal received the episode positively, praising the return of Starbuck, as well as the space battle in the beginning, but criticised the episode that it was generally for the “existing viewer”.IGN rated the episode an “impressive” rating of 8 out of a possible 10, stating “Galactica is back, about frakking time” and that the episode “quickly reminds us why we love this show, the world it exists in, and the people that populate it.” IGN also praised the episode for Starbuck’s return, as well as James Callis’ portrayal of the several sides of Gaius Baltar.

Tags: april 2008, bradley thompsondavid weddle, episode nbsp, michael rymer, rekha sharmaryan robbinskeegan connor tracylara gilchristleela savasta, season nbsp
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Six of One (Battlestar Galactica)

Friday, June 26th, 2009

“Six of One” is the fourth episode of the fourth season of the reimagined science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica. The episode first aired on SCI FI and Space in the United States and Canada respectively on April 11, 2008, and aired on Sky1 in the United Kingdom on April 15, along with “He That Believeth in Me”. The episode’s name appears to be a play off the idiom “six of one, half a dozen of the other” meaning two presented choices are equal and it does not matter which is chosen. The episode was nominated for an Emmy Award.

The episode begins directly after the cliffhanger of the previous episode, where Kara Thrace holds Laura Roslin at gunpoint to stop her from going to what she thinks is the wrong way to Earth. Meanwhile, some of the Humanoid Cylon models wish to lobotomise the Raiders to make them destroy the fleet, regardless if the final five are among the fleet. However, the other Cylon models, particularly Natalie (a Six model) wish to stop them by any means necessary. The survivor count shown in the title sequence is 39,676.

Plot

Kara Thrace holds President Laura Roslin at gunpoint and reminds her that she once followed orders from Roslin to find Earth. Now that Starbuck thinks she knows where Earth is, Roslin rejects it. Feeling betrayed, Starbuck tells Roslin to take the gun and shoot her if she can’t trust her. Roslin does pick up the gun and just as security arrives she fires and misses. Starbuck is quickly taken to the brig but urges everyone to change course. She fears that she will lose her directions to Earth forever if they make one more jump. Admiral Adama confronts her, telling her she has lost all hope of anyone helping her. After Starbuck accuses Adama of ignoring her on purpose, Adama furiously slams her to the deck then leaves in disgust. Later, the fleet makes another jump, and Starbuck loses her direction of Earth.

The Cylon models prepare to lobotomize the Raiders to forget about the Final Five as their identities are forbidden by their programming. They vote but it ends in a draw (Numbers One, Four and Five votes for, and Numbers Two, Six and Eight voting against). Boomer is the only Eight model to vote for the lobotomizing. To prevent this from happening, one of the Six models (known as Natalie) removes the higher brain inhibitors from the Centurions which gives them free will. They proceed to kill all of the One, Four and Five models in the room.

Lee Adama leaves Galactica to start his new political career, but not before telling Starbuck that he believes her. The four Cylons, Colonel Tigh, Tory Foster, Samuel Anders, and Galen Tyrol meet in secret to discuss who they think is the fifth Cylon. Since they believe Gaius Baltar may know, Tory visits him. At first, Baltar believes she is spying on him. After having a vision of his virtual self, he and Tory talk, and later sleep together. Afterward Tory says that she could be a Cylon, but Baltar tells her not to be afraid and that he has learned from his time among them that Cylons have feelings. He says that humans may have created the Cylons, but it was the one true God that gave them souls. Adama and Roslin discuss what to do with Starbuck. Though Roslin has objections, Adama eventually decides to let Starbuck go. In the end, she is taken to a hanger, where to her surprise, she is given a ship, the Demetrius and a team including Helo, Athena, Anders and Gaeta to find Earth.

Production

According to Rekha Sharma during the 2009 Comic Con in New York, the writers originally did not create a backstory for her character, Tory Foster besides her job, but after talking with Ronald D. Moore, Sharma collaborated in creating the backstory. Michael Angeli was responsible for the crying after the sex scene, where Angeli was apparently inspired by hearing someone he knew in a similar situation.

Reception

Total viewership for Six of One dropped 16 percent from the season premiere, falling to 1.8 million viewers from 2.1 million the week before, according to the Nielsen ratings. The show received a 1.1 household rating and 2 percent share. In the critical 18-to-49-year-old demographic, viewership fell by even more—19 percent—to just 900,000 viewers (a 0.9 household rating and 3 percent share). It was estimated that fewer than 500,000 additional viewers watch the show on DVRs, because the Nielsen rating estimates for DVR watching (calculated over the seven days following the episode’s initial airing) do not count shows with fewer than 500,000 viewers.

Regardless, The SciFi Network selected “Six of One” as its’ official 2008 Emmy Awards submission for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series and the episode was nominated in the category. “Six of One” was also chosen as the official entry screening for Katee Sackoff (who plays Kara/Starbuck) as best supporting actress in a dramatic series. The SyFy Portal received the episode well. The scenes involving the Centaurions, Starbuck’s scenes in the brig, and the departure of Lee Adama’s from the military were raised, but the apparent lack of action and the scene with the two Baltars were somewhat criticised.IGN gave the episode a “great” rating of 8.8 out of 10. The episode was praised for its return of Brother Cavil, stating “the veteran TV actor is always a welcome presence, and does a great job as the rather cynical Cylon.” Other positive points also include the introduction of the Cylon rebellion and the conversation between Adama and Roslin.

Tags: anthony hemingway, april 2008, episode nbsp, matthew bennettcallum keith rennierekha sharmarick worthydean stockwellbodie olmos, michael angeli, season nbsp
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Night Out

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

“Night Out” is the eleventh episode of the fourth season of the American comedy television series The Office, and the show’s sixty-second episode overall. The episode was written by Mindy Kaling and directed by Ken Whittingham. It first aired in the United States on April 24, 2008 on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). “Night Out” was viewed by a measured audience of over 7.5 million people, bringing in the lowest number of estimated viewers that The Office received among 12 episodes. “Night Out” received mixed reviews from critics.

In the episode, Michael and Dwight travel to New York City to party with Ryan. Ryan starts acting erratically, and it is revealed that he is under the influence of drugs. Meanwhile, the remaining employees are going to be forced to work on a Saturday. Jim proposes that they work late on Friday, so they do not have to come in the next day. Once Jim and his co-workers finish working, they find that they are locked in, and everyone quickly places the blame on Jim.

Plot

The episode begins with Ryan Howard (B. J. Novak) arriving at the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company and noticeably friendlier than on his previous visits. Ryan shows the staff at the branch the new Dunder Mifflin website, “Dunder Mifflin Infinity 2.0″, the previous version of which was shut down because sexual predators had invaded the social networking component of the site. As Ryan leaves, he tells Michael Scott (Steve Carell) of the women he meets in clubs in New York City. Michael and Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) subsequently decide to go to New York, locate Ryan, attend parties with him, and try to meet women while doing so.

In New York, Michael and Dwight locate Ryan after discovering which club Ryan frequents; the latter appears to be under the influence of drugs (stimulants) but Michael and Dwight do not notice. Later, Michael, Dwight, Ryan, and Ryan’s colleague, Troy Undercook (Noel Petok) wait outside another club, but fail to get in because they do not have dates. Dwight comes to the rescue when he manages to pair each of them with members of a women’s basketball team, who are also waiting in line. Inside the club, Ryan’s dancing becomes erratic and aggressive, and he accidentally hits a girl, prompting her friends to attack Ryan. Dwight and Michael escort him out of the club, and after Troy advises them not to take Ryan to a hospital, he runs off. Michael and Dwight bring Ryan back to his apartment, where he tells them that he thinks “his friend Troy” has a drug problem, and asks what he should do about it. Michael, oblivious to the fact that Ryan is obviously referring to his own drug addiction, gives him hypothetical advice involving a wiretap and snitching on a drug dealer.

Jim, Pam and Toby locked in the building

Back in Scranton, the rest of the employees are going to be forced to work on a Saturday to record their own sales as the website’s sales, which is, according to Ryan, “a temporary procedure to increase the legitimacy of the website”. With no one eager to participate, Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) decides to ask everyone to stay in the office overtime instead of coming in for the Saturday. They all agree to the plan, and after working until 9:00 pm, they are shocked to find the parking lot gates locked. Jim had forgotten to tell the security guard that they were staying overtime. They are unable to return to the office because Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) locked the door from the inside, and Dwight, miles away in New York, has both the spare and master keys. Sitting in the lobby area waiting for the security guard to arrive, the employees exchange jokes and during a moment of levity, Toby Flenderson (Paul Lieberstein) affectionately places his hand on Pam’s knee. After an awkward silence, Toby proclaims that he is moving to Costa Rica; he then hops the parking lot fence and runs away. Jim repeatedly calls Hank the security guard (Hugh Dane), but he fails to show up. At the end of the episode, the cleaning staff arrives and lets the group out.

Production

“Night Out” was the seventh episode of the series directed by Ken Whittingham. It was written by Mindy Kaling, who also acts in the show as customer-service representative Kelly Kapoor. The episode was the eighth of the series to be written by Kaling. “Night Out” was the third new episode of The Office to be broadcast since the episode “The Deposition” on November 15, 2007, due to the effects of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Filming of The Office immediately halted on that date, because many members of the cast including Carell, Novak, Kaling, and Lieberstein are members of the WGA and refused to cross WGA picket lines. If not for the writers’ strike, this episode would have most likely been filmed in November 2007.

Most of “Night Out” was shot during the night. The scene that has Toby putting his hand on Pam’s knee was shot at 2:30 am on a Friday. The scene was shot about eight times because according to Kaling, “everyone kept breaking because Toby was so vulnerable and awkward.” Kate Flannery did her stunts in the scene where Pam throws a football and hits Customer and Supplier Relations worker Meredith Palmer (Flannery) in the face. Flannery had a stunt double on the set, but she was never needed for the scene. Kate recalls that she “didn’t get a scratch in all 14 takes that we shot.” Lieberstein on the other hand used a stunt double for the scene in which Toby climbs over the fence. Although Lieberstein offered to do the stunt himself, executive producer and show runner Greg Daniels decided against it.

When casting “Tall Girl #1″ (the woman who would kiss with Dwight), the show was looking for a girl 6′1” or taller. Actress Cassie Fliegel, who is 5′11”, auditioned for the part anyway. After getting a callback, Fliegel went to a gym to work out, attempting to gain muscle to look more like a basketball player. On the day of the callbacks, Fliegel remembers being next to a girl who was 6′8”. Despite her size, Fliegel, a former basketball player herself, was cast for the part. Initially, she did not know that her character was going to make out with Dwight. Fliegel recalls that when she first heard about kissing Dwight she “was like, I don’t think so,”. However, after finding out that she had her own trailer, Fliegel warmed up to the idea. The music in the club was chosen by Novak, Kaling’s boyfriend Benjamin Nugent, and Daniel Chun. When filming Ryan dancing in the club, the girl that Ryan hit was actually a stunt woman. Pads had been placed on the floor so Novak could fall down safely. The German lullaby that Dwight sang to Ryan was script supervisor Veda Semarne’s idea. Semarne’s Austrian grandmother sang the same song to her when she was a child.

Reception

“Night Out” received 4.0/10 in the ages 18–49 demographic in the Nielsen Ratings. This means that four percent of all households with an 18 to 49 year old living in it watched the episode, and ten percent had their televisions tuned to the channel at any point. The episode was watched by 7.56 million viewers. “Night Out” did not do as well as “Chair Model” did the week before, losing 20 percent of the previous episode’s viewers. Some attribute the loss of viewers to a lack of Grey’s Anatomy and a repeat of CSI the previous week. With 7.69 million, “Night Out” had fewer viewers than any other episode of The Office from the fourth season, except for “Job Fair”, which garnered only 7.16 million viewers.

Reviews for “Night Out” were mixed. M. Giant of TelevisionWithoutPity.com rated the episode with an “A-”. A writer for GiveMeMyRemote.com said that “Dwight Schrute was on his game last night”, and that he was “big fan of last night’s episode.” Zap2It’s Rick Porter thought that although it wasn’t “as sublime in its Needy Michael-ness as last week’s (episode)” and “in some ways, though, it was maybe even a little sadder”, “Night Out” was “still pretty darn funny”. Porter went on to praise the acting work of both B.J. Novak and Paul Lieberstein, as well as the writing of Mindy Kaling.TV Squad’s Jay Black said that Michael summed up “Night Out” perfectly when he said “Best. Night. Ever.” Black went on to praise both of the storylines, and the ability of the show to achieve success both in as well as out of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton building. Similar to Black’s statements, Gretchen Hansen of Entertainment Weekly stated that “‘Best. Night. Ever.’ Oh, so true, Michael.” She also stated that “I guess I knew it was going to be a good episode of The Office when I had two pages of scribbled notes before the first commercial break.” Hansen went on to praise both the acting and the writing of the episode as points that contributed to the success of the episode. Rachel Cericola, of TV Fodder, praised the writing of the episode by Mindy Kaling. She also praised the storyline of the episode that didn’t involve Michael and Dwight, saying “The second plotline was its usual funny filler. However, it was Toby’s revelation that made it all worthwhile.”

Travis Fickett of IGN said that the episode was “still satisfying, even when it’s not one of the show’s funnier episodes”, but “it’s a bit of a shame this episode wasn’t a home run, because having Dwight and Michael hit the clubs is a funny idea.” Fickett went on to praise the episode’s awkward moment between Toby and Pam, when Toby placed his hand on Pam’s leg, and Toby’s subsequent escape by hopping the fence. Fickett stated that, for Toby’s growing love of Pam, and growing jealousy of Jim, “this is pretty great pay off”. Claire Zulkey, a writer for the Los Angeles Times, was not as pleased with the episode. Zulkey wrote “that when it’s at its zaniest, The Office is at its worst”, and the episode was “just too silly to be funny”. Zulkey did say that “it was hilarious to see him (Toby) let his hand more-than-linger on her knee and then abruptly flee the premises by jumping over the fence and running home.” In a poll done by Office fansite OfficeTally.com, viewers ranked “Night Out” as the thirteenth most popular episode out of the fourteen episodes of season four.

Tags: 04015, april 2008, cassie fliegel, episode nbsp, hugh dane, ken whittingham, mindy kaling, noel potek, season nbsp
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The Fires of Pompeii

Monday, June 15th, 2009

“The Fires of Pompeii” is the second episode of the fourth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 12 April 2008.

The episode takes place during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. In the episode, the Doctor is faced with a moral dilemma: whether to save any of the population of Pompeii. The Doctor’s activities in Pompeii are impeded by the rock-like Pyrovile, and their allies, the Sybilline Sisterhood, who are using the volcano to convert the humans to Pyroviles.

The episode was filmed in Rome’s Cinecittà studios, and was the first time the Doctor Who production team took cast abroad for filming since its revival. The production of the episode was impeded by a fire near the sets several weeks before filming and problems crossing into Europe.

Critics’ opinion regarding the episode were mixed. The premise of the episode—the moral dilemma the Doctor faces—and Donna’s insistence that he save a family from Pompeii were universally praised. However, the episode’s writing was criticised, in particular, the characterisation of the supporting cast: the dialogue was described as “one-dimensional” and Peter Capaldi and Phil Davis’s dialogue as “whimpering and scowling”.

Plot

Synopsis

The Doctor (David Tennant) and Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) arrive in what the Doctor believes to be first century Rome. After an earthquake, he realises he has materialised in Pompeii on 23 August 79, one day before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. When he returns to the TARDIS’ location, he is told it was sold to a Lucius Caecilius Iucundus (Peter Capaldi), a marble sculptor.

The episode’s antagonists are the Pyrovile, giant rock-like creatures resembling golems whose home planet was “lost”. They operate secretly; the Sybilline Sisterhood act as their proxies. They use the Sisterhood, which incorporates a high priestess (Victoria Wicks) and her acolytes, Spurrina (Sasha Behar), and Thalina (Lorraine Burroughs), to make prophecies while converting them to stone. The Sisterhood is inducting Caecilius’ daughter Evelina (Francesca Fowler) and is allied to the local augur Lucius (Phil Davis). The Doctor is disturbed by their knowledge of his and Donna’s personal lives, and by Lucius’ latest commission, a marble circuit board.

The Doctor breaks into Lucius’ home and discovers that he is creating an energy converter. He is accosted by Lucius, who sends a Pyrovile to kill the Doctor. The confusion allows the Sisterhood to kidnap Donna briefly; the Doctor follows them and frees Donna. They escape into the Sisterhood’s hypocaust system and travel into the centre of Mount Vesuvius.

Mount Vesuvius is being used by the Pyrovile to convert the human race to Pyroviles, in an effort to conquer Earth. The Doctor realises the volcano will not erupt if the energy converter is running, and with Donna’s encouragement, subsequently switches it off, triggering the eruption of Vesuvius, considering Pompeii’s destruction and the death of its population the lesser of two evils. The Doctor attempts to leave, but Donna convinces him to save Caecilius and his family, whom he then takes on board the TARDIS. The family, The Doctor, and Donna then watch Pompeii’s destruction from a vantage point. The Doctor assures the family that Pompeii is never forgotten before leaving with Donna. As he watches the destruction, Caecilius comments that it is the wrath of Vulcan and coins the word “volcano” to describe it.

The last scene takes place six months later in Rome. Caecilius’ family are shown to be successful: Caecilius is running a profiting business, Evelina has a social life in comparison to her seclusion in Pompeii, and his son Quintus (Francois Pandolfo) is training to become a doctor. Before Quintus leaves, he pays tribute to the family’s household gods, whose statues are in the form of the Doctor, Donna and the TARDIS.

Continuity

The Doctor refers to the eruption as “volcano day”, a phrase used to refer to the eruption by Jack Harkness and the Ninth Doctor in “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances”. The Shadow Proclamation, an intergalactic code invoked in “Rose”, “The Christmas Invasion”, “Fear Her” and “Partners in Crime” is used by the Doctor when speaking to the Pyrovile. The Medusa Cascade, first mentioned by the Master in “Last of the Time Lords”, is referenced; executive producer Russell T Davies stated that the Cascade would “come back to haunt us”. Both the Shadow Proclamation and the Medusa Cascade make appearances later in the series. The Doctor also alludes to the events of the 1965 serial The Romans, admitting a little responsibility for the Great Fire of Rome, which was depicted at the end of that story; writer James Moran deliberately included the reference as a “fun continuity thing”. The sale of the TARDIS as modern art was also included as a reference to Moran’s favourite serial, City of Death, which includes a scene in which the TARDIS is appraised in a similar fashion.

The Seventh Doctor and Melanie Bush also visited Pompeii in the Big Finish Productions audio drama The Fires of Vulcan, where the Doctor was briefly convinced that he was going to lose the TARDIS due to a police box having been discovered at Pompeii during an excavation in 1978, a discovery that was later witnessed by the Fifth Doctor.

Production

Writing

How does [the Doctor] decide who lives, who dies, when to intervene, and when not to? If you do save them, where do you stop? Do you remake the universe according to what you think is right and wrong?

—James Moran

Executive producer Russell T Davies originally planned to include a serial set in Pompeii in the first new series of Doctor Who, after seeing the documentary Pompeii: The Last Day. That episode’s position was given to “Boom Town” and the idea was shelved for three years.

The episode was written by James Moran, who previously wrote the film Severance and the Torchwood episode “Sleeper”; Moran was requested to write the episode as a consequence of the latter. Moran had difficulty writing the episode, and had to rewrite the Doctor’s opening line over twenty times. The Pyrovile were also edited during writing: they were previously called Pyrovillaxians and Pyrovellians.

Moran worked closely with Davies because of the constraints imposed by filming. Davies encouraged Moran to insert linguistic jokes similar to those in the comic book series Asterix, such as Lucius Petrus Dextrus (”Lucius Stone Right Arm”), TK Maxximus, and Spartacus; the use of the phrase “I’m Spartacus!” refers to the 1960 film. Moran based the ancillary characters of Metalla (Tracey Childs) and Quintus from Caecilius’s family in the Cambridge Latin Course; the character of Evelina was the only member of the family created by Moran. The line “You must excuse my friend, she’s from Barcelona” was a reference to an apologetic catchphrase from Fawlty Towers, attributed by the production team to Sybil Fawlty.

The episode was heavily based on a moral question posed to the Doctor by Donna: whether to warn the population of Pompeii, or to recuse from the situation. Moran also had to deal with the intensity and sensitivity required when writing about the eruption. Davies and Moran both appreciated Catherine Tate’s performance, and cited Donna’s ability to humanise the Doctor and help him deal with “lose-lose situations” as the reason the Doctor travels with companions.

Filming

The episode was filmed at the Cinecittà studios in Rome in September 2007. The filming reused some of the sets from the show Rome. Other locations suggested were in Malta and Wales, but the size of the project, the biggest since the show’s revival, resulted in production taking place in Italy. This was the first time the majority of the episode was filmed abroad and the first time the cast had filmed abroad since 1996; the television movie was filmed in Vancouver and pick-up shots had previously been made in New York City for “Daleks in Manhattan”. Cinecittà had accepted the BBC’s request in order to promote the studios, despite the show’s small budget.

Filming an episode abroad had been suggested in 2004, but the episode was the first such occasion. Planning began in April 2007, before Moran had written the script, and continued until the production team travelled to Italy. Several weeks before filming started, a fire disrupted the production. Moving to Rome caused problems for the production team: the equipment truck was delayed for several hours at the Swiss border; the special effects team were delayed for twenty-four hours at Customs in Calais. The production team only had 48 hours to film on location. The aftermath of the eruption was filmed on the same night as the location shots. To create the falling ash, the special effects team used a large mass of cork, with a “constant supply of debris raining down”.

Broadcast and reception

Tate perfectly portrayed Donna’s anguish as she forlornly appealed for people not to run to the beaches and certain death. For me, that short scene was the emotional highpoint of a series of heart-rending scenes, each with Donna at their heart.

—Scott Matthewman, The Stage

Overnight figures estimated the episode was watched by 8.1 million viewers, with a peak of 8.5 million viewers. The consolidated figure was 9.04 million. The episode was the second most watched programme on 12 April; Britain’s Got Talent was viewed by 9.44 million people. The episode was the tenth most-watched programme of the week and received an Appreciation Index score of 87 (considered Excellent).

The episode received several mixed and positive reviews. Ian Hyland, writing for News of the World, said that Tate “was almost bearable this week”. He also complimented the “TK Maxximus” joke. He was ambivalent to Donna’s reaction to the Doctor leaving Caecilius’s family to die: he criticised her acting, comparing her to The Catherine Tate Show character Joannie “Nan” Taylor, but said “top again if that was intentional”. He closed saying “this week was a hundred times better than that lame opening episode. Scarier aliens, stronger guest stars and a proper adult-friendly storyline involving sisterhoods and soothsayers.”

Scott Matthewman of The Stage said that Donna’s insistence to change the past “formed the emotional backbone of this episode, producing some truly heartbreaking performances”. He liked the joke about the TARDIS’s translating the Doctor’s and Donna’s Latin phrases to Celtic, saying it was “subtly played throughout the episode [...] in a way that builds the joke without trampling it into the ground”. His favourite part was Donna’s attempts to divert the population of Pompeii away from the beach; the scene was “the emotional highpoint of a series of heart rendering scenes”. However, he criticised Moran’s writing, specifically, Quintus’s and Metalla’s dialogue, saying the former “remained pretty much one-dimensional throughout”. Alan Stanley Blair of SyFy Portal also gave a positive review. He was highly appreciative of Tate, saying “[she] moved even further away from her “Runaway” character that initially joined the show.” The phrase “TK Maxximus” and the Doctor’s use of a water pistol to subdue the Pyrovile was complimented, as was the special effects used to animate the Pyrovile. However, he disapproved of the use of Cockney colloquialisms in the episode, most notably the Stallholder (Phil Cornwell) saying “lovely jubbly”.

Ben Rawson-Jones of Digital Spy gave the episode three stars out of five. His opening said “Fantastic effects and a well developed moral dilemma bolster ‘The Fires Of Pompeii’, although the episode fails to erupt.” Rawson-Jones felt that Moran’s script took “too long to actively engage the viewer and tap into the compelling premise of the time travellers arriving in the doomed city shortly before ‘volcano day’.” and that “the subplots are unsatisfyingly muddled for the majority of the narrative.” He also complained about the characterisation of the supporting cast, saying that “Peter Capaldi and Phil Davis [deserved] better”. However, he said the moral dilemma the Doctor faced was “compelling” and the Doctor’s use of the water pistol “adds a pleasing sense of fun to counterbalance the impending stench of death and harks nicely back to the Tom Baker era of the show.” Overall, he appreciated the premise of the episode, but thought the episode “deserved better writing”.

Tags: april 2008, brian minchin, catherine tate donna noble, colin teague, david tennant tenth doctor, james moran, minutes, phil collinson, planet of the ood, russell t daviesjulie gardner, series
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Planet of the Ood

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

“Planet of the Ood” is the third episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 19 April 2008. It features the return of the Ood, who appeared in the second series episodes “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit”.

The episode takes place in the year 4126 on the Ood-Sphere, the titular planet of the episode. The Doctor (David Tennant) and his companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) investigate Ood Operations, a company who are selling the Ood as a servant race, to discover the reason the Ood are happy to serve. When they find a group of unprocessed Ood, they become horrified at the alterations performed and resolve to free the Ood. The episode was well-received for its central theme of slavery.

Plot

Synopsis

The Doctor uses the TARDIS to land at a random point in time and space. On leaving the TARDIS, he and Donna find an injured Ood, a species the Doctor previously encountered in “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit”. Just before dying, the Ood’s eyes turn red and it makes a lunge for the Doctor, startling him with its ferocity. The Doctor muses that they were being influenced by the Devil on their previous encounter, and concludes that on this occasion they must be being influenced by a different and closer being. The Doctor and Donna find an industrial complex controlled by Ood Operations, who have been selling the Ood as a servant race since 3914.. They have even been making certain upgrades to their translation sphere. These include standard voice and a more seductive female voice. One even has been adapted with comical expressions such as “D’oh” from Homer Simpson of The Simpsons. The Doctor locates their position: the Ood-Sphere in 4126 close to the Sense-Sphere of the Sensorites.

The “Red Eye” phenomenon is affecting other Ood on the planet: several people have been killed in the weeks prior to the narrative. During the outbreak, the Ood state that “the circle must be broken”. Ood Operations noted an increase in the phenomenon, and considered it to be similar to foot-and-mouth disease; CEO Klineman Halpen (Tim McInnerny) tells the Doctor the method of killing is identical.

Throughout the episode, Donna becomes sympathetic to the Ood and is horrified by their status as slaves. The Doctor also takes an interest in the Ood, noting that no species could naturally evolve to serve. He also feels he had overlooked them on their previous encounter. He and Donna travel through the complex and find a batch of uncultivated Ood. Instead of a translation sphere, they hold a “hind brain” that gives them individuality, and once removed, they become subservient; the Doctor castigates Halpen for lobotomising them.

The Doctor and Donna are captured by Ood Operations’ security force. Shortly after, the Ood begin a mass revolution, and the complex is evacuated. The Doctor follows Halpen to a locked warehouse. The warehouse contains a large brain, which completes the Ood’s collective consciousness. The brain’s control of the Ood is limited by a circle of pylons emitting a forcefield. Halpen plans to kill the brain, and by extension, all of the Ood, but is stopped by a joint effort between the Doctor, Donna, Dr Ryder (Adrian Rawlins), and Halpen’s personal Ood, Ood Sigma (Paul Kasey); Ryder, an activist for “Friends of the Ood”, had slowly infiltrated the company over the course of ten years before he was able to gain access to the controls for the pylons and change them to their minimum setting, while Ood Sigma used Halpen’s hair-loss medication to slowly convert Halpen into an Ood.

The Doctor shuts down the circle, freeing the Ood and allowing them to all rejoin in a telepathic collective. Before leaving, Ood Sigma promises to include the “Doctor-Donna” in the Ood’s song; stating that “the Wind, the Ice and the Snow” shall remember and honour their names forever, but comments that the Doctor’s song may soon end.

Continuity

The red eye phenomenon is present in all three Ood episodes, as an effect of being possessed; in “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit” they were under the Beast’s control. In “Planet of the Ood”, the Doctor gives a time frame for all three episodes: the 42nd century, during the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire; the fourth incarnation of which was mentioned in “The Long Game” and “Bad Wolf”. A diagram of human expansion is described as showing “three galaxies”. The Ood-Sphere is in the same solar system as the Sense-Sphere, the location for the 1964 serial The Sensorites; the Sensorites and Ood are visually and mentally similar. The reference to “Doctor-Donna” is clarified by the Doctor in “Journey’s End”; also, reference is made to the disappearance of the bees, which is explained in “The Stolen Earth”. The Doctor is told again “his song is ending” in “Planet of the Dead”.

Production

We wanted to know more about the Ood’s background. This time around, they’re centre stage. The story is about them. Why they are the way they are. What makes them tick.

—Keith Temple

The episode was written by Keith Temple and directed by Graeme Harper. Executive producer Russell T Davies had envisioned the Ood’s return because their previous appearance, the 2006 two-part story “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit”, had been overshadowed by the appearance of the Devil. Davies subsequently provided Temple with a brief for the episode which included the term “ice planet” and the storyline of a business selling the Ood as a commodity. Temple’s drafts of the episode were described as “too dark” and “too old Doctor Who“; Temple stated on the episode’s commentary that his early draft was “a six-part [serial] in 45 minutes”.

Temple and Davies thought that the episode was not a “fun reappearance” of an old monster; instead, they felt that there was “an actual story to tell”. Temple emphasised in his script that the Doctor overlooked the Ood under the shadow of the Devil, and the character had to see his shortcomings. Temple’s script also emphasised the Ood’s slavery; both Temple and lead actor David Tennant commented that the existence of a species born to serve was complicated, the latter stating complications with Richard Dawkins’ “selfish gene” theory. Donna’s role in the episode was to further humanise the Doctor, and her opinion of the Ood changing from her initial disgust at their appearance to empathy for them was important to the episode and her character development.Susie Liggat cited the writing as part of Doctor Who’s importance—she thought the story about “liberating oppressed people” could be applied domestically or globally.

The episode’s antagonist, Klineman Halpen, is portrayed by Tim McInnerny. Davies considered his character—”a middle manager who’s out of his depth”—a perfect villain. Temple described him as “narcissistic”, “preening” and “ruthless … without sentiment”. McInnerny said “It’s always nice to play a bastard… I’m glad Halpen’s a three-dimensional bastard! That makes him interesting!”. Temple epitomised Halpen in a scene where he kills an operative for the activist group “Friends of the Ood”; Davies and Tennant felt that his “disgusting” and “gothic … Edgar Allan Poe” fate would be undeserved otherwise.

Filming for the episode took place in August 2007. The opening and closing outdoor scenes were filmed in Trefil Quarry in the Brecon Beacons, the external scenes of the complex in a cement factory, and scenes in the “battery farm” were filmed in a hangar at RAF Saint Athan.CGI was used sparingly in production; the snow was paper snow adhered by water, and the Ood heads contained complex animatronics. McInnerny wore a prosthetic mask with two layers for his transformation scene though the production team’s best boy provided motion capture for the computer-generated profile of the appendages coming out of his mouth when this needed to be refilmed and McInnerny was unavailable.

Reception

Planet of the Ood was the most watched programme in its timeslot, with 7.5 million viewers. The episode was the second most-watched programme of the day, beaten by Britain’s Got Talent, and was the twelfth most watched programme of the week. The episode’s Appreciation Index was 87 (considered Excellent).

Scott Matthewman, writing for The Stage, gave a mixed review of the episode. He thought that “pretty much the only surprise in the way the humans who made up the Ood Corporation were presented came as PR girl Solana (Ayesha Dharker) escaped with the Doctor and Donna, only to betray their position by calling for the guards,” and “the revelation that Ryder (Adrian Rawlins) has been working to infiltrate the Corporation is thrown away… as quickly as it is revealed.” However, he thought Donna was becoming “fast … one of the strongest and most well-rounded companions in the series’ history”, and “there were some nice interpretations of the Ood’s natural development”. Caitlin Moran of The Times thought the episode was “really really good … – one that will have you staring at your screen and asking, once again, ‘How can something so good be happening so early on a Saturday night, in my own front room?’”. She enjoyed the scene where the Doctor and Donna talk about slaves in contemporary culture, saying that Tate “really, really isn’t that bad when she says ["We don't have slaves."]“. Ben Rawson-Jones of Digital Spy gave the episode five stars out of five. Rawson-Jones opened his review by saying “Doctor Who can occasionally transcend the properties of a mere family television show to reach out and give viewers a poignant, beautiful epiphany and greater sense of the world they inhabit.”, citing Donna’s reaction on seeing the uncultivated Ood as the moving part of the episode. He thought the episode as a whole “exemplifies just how powerful and emotive Doctor Who can be when writing, direction and performance are all harmonious and complete their own Ood-like circle”, and was appreciative of the acting. The episode’s only flaw was when Donna said “Why do you say ‘Miss’? Do I look single?”, but was otherwise “an extremely impressive, contemplative examination of the abhorrent nature of humanity”.

However, James Delingpole in The Spectator, while describing the show as ‘witty, pacy, well acted’, criticised the politics of the episode as an example of executive producer Russell T Davies’ influence: ‘Why can his superbrain not grasp the point that what may seem like a slave-wage to a bienpensant TV scriptwriter is yet a king’s ransom for a South-East Asian textile worker, who only has his job because of the comparative advantage his nation has in cheap labour? This is A-level economics we’re talking here, not Tardis science.the odd were going to be in series 3 42′

Tags: april 2008, catherine tate donna noble, david tennant tenth doctor, graeme harper, keith temple, lindsey alford, minutes, russell t daviesjulie gardnerphil collinson, series, susie liggat, the sontaran stratagem
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Chair Model

Monday, June 8th, 2009

“Chair Model” is the tenth episode of the fourth season of the American comedy television series The Office, and the show’s sixty-first episode overall. Written by B. J. Novak, and directed by Jeffrey Blitz, the episode first aired in the United States on April 17, 2008 on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).

In the episode, Michael finds himself lonely and wanting a relationship after breaking up with Jan. While looking through a catalog, he falls in love with a chair model. Meanwhile, Kevin and Andy fight to reclaim lost parking spaces, and Jim tells Pam that he’s going to propose.

Plot

While browsing an office chair catalog, Michael Scott (Steve Carell) becomes enamored with one of the female chair models. As a result, he decides to resume dating with the help of the office employees, even going so far as to threatening them by firing them if they don’t help. No one in the office wants to set up any of their friends with Michael, but Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) takes pity and sets him up on a blind date with her landlady (Brooke Dillman). Unfortunately, the date doesn’t go well. After Michael learns that the chair model had died in a car crash some time ago and admits his own blind date was a failure, Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) convinces him that he needs closure on this person he loved who is gone. The two end up in a cemetery at the grave of the chair model where Michael “grieves”.

With Michael busy, Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner) and Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) work to reclaim parking spaces that they have lost due to construction. They arrange a meeting with the bosses of the office park, and are given the parking spots back. The spaces are retrieved, Kevin feels happy to have won one, as his fiancee Stacy broke off their engagement and it’s been a hard time for him.

Jim pretending to propose to Pam

While flirting, Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) reveals he is ready to propose to Pam, even going as far as telling her that he is not going to do it at work (”because that would be lame”) and when he does it, it will “kick her ass”, and Pam isn’t sure if he’s joking. Alone with the camera, Jim reveals that he wasn’t joking and shows an engagement ring that he bought “the week after [they] started dating.” At the end of the show, while walking back to his car, he stops and gets down on one knee. When Pam stops and looks he says he has a question to ask her. After a second or so of hesitation, he asks her if she will wait while he ties his shoes. She laughs and they continue walking hand in hand. At the end of the episode, Michael and Dwight are seen singing “American Pie” and dancing in the same cemetery at night, presumably having never left.

Production

“Chair Model” was the third episode of the series directed by Jeffrey Blitz. Blitz had previously directed “The Convict” and “The Negotiation”. The episode was written by B. J. Novak, who plays temporary worker turned corporate manager Ryan Howard. Novak was originally going to name the episode “Michael Dating”, but the title could have potentially been a spoiler. For a while, “Parking” was going to be the title, but even that was decided against because that refers to the subplot. Eventually, someone suggested “Chair Model” and that has kept as the name. Originally, Novak wrote Jim putting Dwight through a “phony management training”, but NBC pointed out that it felt like the writers had done it before even though they hadn’t. As a group, the writers tried to think of a new idea for the plot, they considered having Pam move in with Jim, but they thought that first the two should be engaged.

There was an auditioning process for both the chair model and the young blond woman the Michael sees in the coffee shop. According to writer B. J. Novak, the chair model was supposed to be “pretty” and “perhaps even prettier than your average model”, but more of just an “average single girl”, because the episode is more about Michael wanting to start dating again than the model herself. In the scene with the “Five Families”, one of the actors, Paul Faust was the only first-time actor. Faust is the cousin of writer Paul Lieberstein, and had been on a tour of the set and talked to many of the writers. He made a good impression and so the character of “Cool Guy Paul” was based on him. The day before they were scheduled to shoot, the show still hadn’t cast anyone for the role, so they called Paul in New York City and had him read the lines into a camera and e-mail to them. In less than an hour, Faust had landed the part and was flying out to Los Angeles.

Although B. J. Novak wrote the majority of the episode, Jennifer Celotta and Paul Lieberstein were actually the ones that came up with the graveyard scene in the end. The original song for Michael to sing was going to be a parody of “Candle in the Wind” by Elton John. Elton John however, refused to give The Office permission to use the song, because 30 Rock had requested permission for a parody of Candle in the Wind that offended Elton John, and he didn’t want to have his song parodied again. So then, the writers wrote parodies of “Legs” by ZZ Top and “Ruby Tuesday” by The Rolling Stones, but eventually “American Pie” by Don McLean cleared, so the writers went with that.

Reception

“Chair Model” received 5.8/9 in the ages 18–49 demographic in the Nielsen Ratings. This means that 5.8 percent of all households with an 18 to 49 year old living in it watched the episode, and nine percent had their televisions tuned to the channel at any point. The episode was watched by 9.86 million viewers.

“Chair Model” was generally well-received by critics. BuddyTV Senior Writer Oscar Dahl wrote that “The Office is sharp as ever” and Jim saying he was going to propose was “a big time moment in the Jim/Pam story”. Dahl also praised the parking lot storyline, saying “what started as merely a joke (Kevin was dumped), became a feel-good moment.”IGN’s Travis Fickett said that Michael falling in love with the chair model was “a hysterical turn and highlights just how deluded Michael – and Dwight – can be”. Fickett was critical of the “parking” storyline, saying that it was “a bit over the top and runs a bit thin”, but he did think that the scene at the end with Kevin was “a sweet and genuine moment”. Aubry D’Arminio of Entertainment Weekly stated that, in relation to the previous episode “Dinner Party”, “Last night’s show took another approach. Don’t get me wrong. It was a blinder — but a totally different animal, so to speak.” D’Arminio went on to praise the dual plots of the episode.

Tags: 04014, april 2008, b j novak, brooke dillman, episode nbsp, jeffrey blitz, robert r shafer, season nbsp
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No More Mr. Nice Guy (House)

Monday, June 8th, 2009

“No More Mr. Nice Guy” is the thirteenth episode of the fourth season of House, and the eighty-third episode overall. It was the first House episode filmed after the resolution of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. It aired in the United States on April 28, 2008.

The episode revolves around Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) noticing a man named Jeff (Paul Rae) in the Emergency Room (ER), who he thinks is “too nice”. House thinks that Jeff’s inability to get mad is a major symptom of an underlying condition, and decides to find out what is wrong with him. Meanwhile, Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps), thinks the other diagnostic team members don’t respect him, while Amber Volakis (Anne Dudek) and House try to create a deal in which they can both spend time with Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard).

“No More Mr. Nice Guy” was watched by approximately 14 million viewers, making it the night’s second most watched program, behind Dancing with the Stars. The episode gained mixed reviews from critics. Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times stated that the episode was “The worst House episode ever”, while Gina Dinunno of TV Guide commented that she thought the episode was “pretty good”.

Plot

The local nurses’ union for the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital is on strike. Jeff, the husband of Deb (Chad Morgan), one of the nurses, collapses while walking the picket line. At the emergency room, House suspects Jeff’s extreme niceness and inability to get angry is a major symptom of an underlying condition. After various tests, the team suspects his niceness is a personality change resulting from syphilis. Kutner (Kal Penn) asks the couple if either of them had an affair, which could lead to syphilis. Deb denies it, stating that it is just the way her husband behaves and that it is impossible for her to not love him.

At the same time, House is annoyed because he is not able to spend enough time with his friend, James Wilson. He attempts to negotiate with Amber, Wilson’s girlfriend, about conditions under which they can both have Wilson’s company. They are at a standstill, thus House seeks Lisa Cuddy’s (Lisa Edelstein) resolution. However, she will only lay out the conditions if House does his team’s performance reviews (knowing that he hates doing paperwork). House relents and Cuddy sets the rules, although House has Foreman do the team reviews instead.

To further interest the case, House manipulates the team, Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), and Chase (Jesse Spencer), by swapping his own blood sample, leading them to believe he too has syphilis, perhaps the cause for his misanthropic, curmudgeon personality and unfriendliness. He then pretends to get a nicer personality, but gets less able as a doctor as he pretends to take the penicillin they prescribe him, and everyone falls for House’s trick (which he has confided to Wilson). Meanwhile, Foreman believes he isn’t getting the respect he deserves from Kutner, Taub (Peter Jacobson) and Thirteen (Olivia Wilde), when he tries to do their performance reviews, which he believes is due to House frequently humiliating him. House replies that if he did not humiliate and taunt Foreman, he would not be strong and able enough to handle the rest of the team.

After House violates one of the conditions set by Cuddy, Amber informs the team of House’s ruse of faking syphilis. This discovery leads Kutner to suspect that Jeff’s actual, positive syphilis result might really be the result of a parasite called Chagas’ disease, which he contracted while working in the jungles of Costa Rica years ago. The diagnosis is confirmed: the parasite embedded itself in Jeff’s brain during his stay in the country, thus causing the shift in his personality and giving him the inability to be angry. At the end of the episode the only evident change is that the patient says he now does not like ketchup, although he does wonder aloud to his wife, “I wonder what else I don’t like,” which appears to make her anxious.

With the case solved, House hands in the reviews to Cuddy, who discovers they are all the same. As punishment for this, as well as breaking the rules she set between him and Amber, she has the two of them cleaning up bedridden patients together, with a smiling Wilson overlooking their labor.

Production

“No More Mr. Nice Guy” was the fourth House episode written by David Hoselton and the first he wrote along with David Shore. It was the second House episode directed by Deran Sarafian. When “Don’t Ever Change” aired on February 5, 2008, it was the final episode to air before mid-season break due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. On March 25, 2008, Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune reported that House would be returning April 29, 2008. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, House creator David Shore commented that, although the characters of Cameron and Chase are not on screen as much as they used to be, they take on a different, and greater, weight with the “stuff” they are doing. “No More Mr. Nice Guy” was the first House episode to air after the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. The nurses’ strike in the episode was a reference to the WGA strike. In the episode Jason Lewis made a small uncredited appearance as Dr. Brock Sterling, a fictional doctor in House’s favorite soap opera Prescription Passion. Lewis appeared as Evan Greer, the fictional actor who portrays Dr. Sterling, in the next episode.

Reception

With 14.51 million viewers watching the show, “No More Mr. Nice Guy” was the second-most watched program of the night, ranking behind Dancing with the Stars. The episode gained a 13 share in the ratings. Out of all programs broadcast by FOX Broadcasting Company between April 28 and May 4, House was the third most watched, behind American Idol (Tuesday and Wednesday). Mara Greengrass of Firefox News’ favorite aspect of “No More Mr. Nice Guy” was that Kutner was allowed to have the epiphany instead of House. Jay Black of TV Squad noted that the first image in the episode after the two-and-a-half month writer’s strike-induced break was a picket line. Barbara Barnett of Blog Critics Magazine stated that the episode was “a lot of fun, but slightly disappointing”.

Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times stated that “if this had been the premiere of a new show called House, I would not be tuning in for the second episode”. She also stated that Wilson’s character had turned into “a snickering man-child”. James Chamberlin of IGN stated that the scenes in which Amber and House were working out terms for sharing Wilson were “hysterical”, and graded the episode with a 8.5 (out of 10). Gina Dinunno of TV Guide thought the episode was pretty good, and the only thing she was not very fond of was that she felt that the characters of Robert Chase and Allison Cameron seemed “forced into the script”. Jessica Paff, from Zap2it, reported that she was pleased that the love triangle between House, Amber and Wilson went on, despite House’s blessing in the previous episode. Sara Morrison of Television Without Pity said she liked the jokes referring to “Thirteen” being bisexual. She graded the episode with an A+.Kal Penn submitted the episode on his behalf for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor – Drama Series, but the episode was not ultimately nominated.

Tags: april 2008, chagas disease, david hoseltondavid shore, deran sarafian, don t ever change, hou, living the dream, paul rae as jeffchad morgan as deb
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The Ties That Bind (Battlestar Galactica)

Friday, June 5th, 2009

“The Ties That Bind” is the fifth episode in the fourth season of the reimagined science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica. The episode originally aired on SCI FI and Space in the United States and Canada respectively on April 18, 2008, and on Sky1 in the United Kingdom on April 22. The episode’s title is a reference to a Christian hymn, Blessed Be the Tie that Binds.

The episode mainly focuses on the four of the final five Cylons, particularly Galen Tyrol, as his relationship with his wife, Cally becomes even more strained. Meanwhile, Kara Thrace and her team on the Demetrius starts their search for Earth. The episode also deals with the significant six Cylons after three of the models decide to force the other three not to lobotomize the Raiders, which leads the two factions to a civil war. The survivor count shown in the title sequence is 39,676.

Plot

A Brother Cavil model resurrects from the dead after one of the Sixes (Natalie) starts a rebellion to unbox the Three models to learn the identity of the final five. Surprisingly, Cavil agrees to this. They decide to send a fleet of basestars and a resurrection ship to the location where the Threes were boxed. However, when they get there, the resurrection ship does not follow. Instead, Cavil’s baseships circle the rebels and proceeds to wipe them out. Meanwhile on the Demetrius, Kara Thrace and her crew have been searching for Earth by Starbuck’s vision for 22 days, without any success. The patience of the crew start to wear thin.

In the ragtag fleet, Lee Adama becomes the Caprican delegate for the Quorum of Twelve, though the media’s real attention is on the missing Demetrius, and its “classified military assignment”. Lee is then paid a visit by Tom Zarek, who tells him that Roslin and Adama have continued to suppress information and believes the Demetrius affair will create more tension if Roslin doesn’t come clean about its mission. He ends saying that he hopes, as a Quorum member, Lee will not ignore the truth, which he doesn’t as he brings up another issue; Executive Order 112, which deals with the method by which the President establishes a tribunal and he believes it gives the President too much power. Roslin responds that she intended to discuss the order at the next Quorum meeting.

On Galactica, Crew Chief Galen Tyrol and Cally’s relationship becomes even more strained. Cally soon attempts to spy on him, believing he is having an affair. She catches him talking to Tory Foster at Joe’s bar. Afterwards, she finds a piece of paper, a note from Saul Tigh. She follows Tyrol again, where she eavesdrop on the meeting between Tyrol, Tory and Tigh. To her horror, she soon finds out that they are Cylons. She rushes to her quarters, grabs Nicky, her son and attempts to commit murder-suicide by having her and her child vent into space in a launch tube. Tory follows and attempts to talk Cally into not doing it, since they had no idea they were Cylons until the Ionian Nebula, and that they are not evil. Eventually, Tory takes the baby and knocks Cally out. After she regains conscioussness, she sees Tory holding the baby in another room, presses the launch button, venting Cally into space. Later, Admiral Adama gives Galen the bad news that Cally is dead.

Production

Cultural references

The weapons locker where the final four members secretly meet is marked “1701D”, referencing the registry number of the Star Trek: The Next Generation era Starship Enterprise.

When Six’s fleet is ambushed by Cavil’s, the Orion constellation (as seen from Earth) can be seen in the background stars (approximately at 28:22 minutes into the episode). Whether this was intentional and signifies something is unknown. Towards the end of the show, you again see the Orion constellation through the porthole right before Cally inserted the key to activate the Viper launch tube.

Reception

Total viewership for The Ties That Bind mostly held steady from the previous week’s new episode, Six of One. The episode garnered 1.741 million viewers for a 1.1 household rating and 2 percent share, down just 60,000 viewers from the week before. In the important 18-to-49-year-old demographic, viewership fell by 12 percent to just 800,000 viewers (a 0.8 household rating and 3 percent share of this demographic). One source estimated that fewer than 500,000 additional viewers watch the show on DVRs, because the Nielsen rating estimates for DVR watching (calculated over the seven days following the episode’s initial airing) do not count shows with fewer than 500,000 viewers.

Tags: april 2008, episode nbsp, michael nankin, michael taylor, richard hatchrekha sharmadonnelly rhodesdean stockwellnicki clynematthew bennett, season nbsp
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