Jean Marsh is bringing her character of Rose from 'Upstairs, Downstairs' back to Television, and she'll be brought forward in Time! Well, not that far forward....
'Upstairs, Downstairs' will be brought back to PBS in a co-production with the BBC. But this time the series will be set in 1936 to account for some of the passage of Time, as evidenced in the age of the characters. (But it's not enough. The series ended in 1975 with the dawn of the Great Depression after the stock market crash. Thirty-five years later? It should then be 1965 at the Bellamy household! I think that would have made for a much more interesting storyline with Rose and the Bellamys....)
Aside from Rose, I have no clue if any of the other original characters will be back - and if so, would they be recast. Several of the actors have passed away, including Gordon Jackson and Angela Baddeley. And especially with those two, they were so identified with their roles (Hudson and Mrs. Bridges, respectively) that it is inconceivable that anybody else could be playing the roles. (Eileen Atkins, who co-created the series, may be playing a role this time.) It's going to be set in the same house, which is fine. But if I had my druthers, I'd avoid the recasting problem by having 165 Eaton Place occupied by a new family.
One of my first tele-blogging buddies was Brent McKee, he of "I Am A Child Of Television" and to be found in the Great White North. (The link to that site can be found to the left, Playuhs.)
Recently he saw the 'Big Bang Theory' episode in which Sheldon faced off against Hwill Hwheaton (as Stewie Griffin would say) in a fantasy card war game similar to D&D or Warcraft (I'm assuming).
And that got Brent thinking, in a very Toobworldian way, what it might be like if Sheldon took a stab at playing poker.
You can check out his five card Wish-Craft here. It's a fun read!
In the episode "Act Of Kindness", 'Callan' attended a model soldier convention where he met Heathcote Land, an executive with an industrial corporation which sold tractors to Russian as one of its interests. They struck up a friendship as they rolled dice in their war games, but it didn't take long for Land to figure out that Callan was a government agent.Heathcote Land was a "white file" - it was Callan's mission to get him to either resign or back away from causing his rival in the corporation (Donovan Prescott) to resign. (The Russians had figured out that Prescott was a government operative and sent incriminating photos of him to Land.)
It's just a theory, but it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble (as Mushrat would say in those 'Deputy Dawg' cartoons) that another TV character was attending that war gaming convention in 1970 London.As shown in the "Congratulations" episode of 'New Tricks', Brian Lane was also an aficionado of war games and the model soldiers used to carry out those campaigns.
Currently Brian Lane is retired from the Metropolitan Police Force, but he still works for them as a member of UCOS - the Unsolved Crimes and Open Cases Squad. Back in 1970, however, he would have been a 24 year old policeman, perhaps a bobbie, more likely already a detective with that amazing memory of his. And probably with limited means for indulging in his hobby.
Still, it could be that one of the gentlemen seen in the background of that convention was actually young Brian Lane. (Being in the background, away from the camera, would help a lot since Alun Armstrong, even as a young man, might have been too distinctive to be just anybody in the crowd.)
My favorite candidate? This guy, dead center in the background: That's him again behind Heathcote Land, re-emerging from behind the flag. That profile certainly suggests the look of Brian Lane to me, to put it politley. And here he is again, walking away and passing by Callan's snitch, Lonely.It's a tenuous way to have TV characters cross paths, but look how tenuous some of the connections were between the characters of 'Lost' in their flashbacks. For instance, Jin breaks into a man's house and Hurley can be seen on the TV. But that's what we do here at Toobworld Central - we look for those unofficial, unconfirmed link pozz'bilities!
I snared these pics myself off the DVD, but if you're interested in seeing more detailed screen caps of the war games played by Callan and Land, may I suggest you visit the blog Wargaming Miscellany and search out the articles about 'Callan'. He has lots of great pics there not only from "Act Of Kindness" but also from the pilot episode, "A Magnum For Schneider", and the Callan movie, "The Wet Job".
From Wikipedia: William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, philanthropist, and chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people and the wealthiest overall as of 2009. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder with more than 8 percent of the common stock. He has also authored or co-authored several books. Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is admired by many, a number of industry insiders criticize his business tactics, which they consider anti-competitive, an opinion which has in some cases been upheld by the courts (see Criticism of Microsoft). In the later stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000.
Bill Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January 2000. He remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect. In June, 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time work and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie, chief software architect and Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer. Gates' last full-time day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008. He remains at Microsoft as non-executive chairman.
So this is it, what you might call, our "Final Destination". Yes. See what I did there. Waited all week to say that. Anyway, you're about to embark on an exclusive interview with Glen Morgan. I will do my best to keep this intro short and brief.
Before I can do that, I have to say thank you to: Glen Morgan, William Johnson, DiRT, Tiffany Devol, John Kenneth Muir, Josef Gunnarsson, Steven Trotter, Graham Smith and of course, my esteemed colleague Troy Foreman. Troy was not only vital to bringing this week together, but supplied the prizes as well.
And on that note - competition winner results are announced at the end of the podcast! Want to know if you've won a copy of Space: Above and Beyond, Final Destination 1-3 or X-Files Season 4? Listen to the podcast - if the exclusive interview with Glen Morgan wasn't enough.
You can also subscribe to the Millennium Group Sessions on ITunes by searching for the Millennium Group Sessions and selecting subscribe. The latest podcasts will then automatically download to our ITunes player.
Subscribe to our twitter feed, subscribe to Itunes or simply check back each day to this blog!
So thank you all for reading, listening and watching Morgan and Wong week - thank you for your kind feedback. Any further feedback send to info@backtofrankblack.com.
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Ant n' Dec are back with a brand new Saturday night show on ITV, which is rather regrettably a "big deal" in this day and age. I'm not against them as a light entertainment double-act, actually. I think they're good fun, down-to-earth, have good chemistry, and interact with people very naturally. As presenters, they're by far the best reason to watch I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, and they're perfect as hosts of Britain's Got Talent. But I've never managed to sit through more than 15-minutes of their popular Saturday Night Takeaway series because it's just so rambling and the advert breaks too regular for me. Anyway, now they're back with family gameshow Push The Button, which is obviously going to be dismissed as The Generation Game with a "stop the clock" element attached...
Two competing families take the roles of contestants, each given an initial prize fund of £100,000 to try and hang onto. Individual members of each family go head-to-head in various madcap games, during which their £100k fortune falls until they push the titular button. In this opener, we had a conveyor belt of strangely-shaped parcels that had to be pushed through identical holes in a wall (like that game toddlers play), a round where people had to count the teeth in a giant bobblehead of Simon Cowell (I'm serious), a competitive yodelling round (stay with me...), and a finale where the families had to assemble a tiered wedding cake.
It was hilarious fun for all the family... or so ITV hope everyone thinks. For me, there's just something distancing about watching adults fool around like children, and it's especially tiresome as a spectator. There needs to be a certain level of embarassment for me to enjoy watching strangers play silly games (see the aforementioned Generation Game, which was enjoyably cringe-making), and there wasn't much of that here. Still, a part of me's glad Push The Button has chosen to focus on regular people -- perhaps a sign, along with Total Wipeout, that the vogue for celebrity-based gameshows is coming to an end. Did you hear me, All-Star Family Fortunes? The downside is that it's tougher to spin a physical gameshow with "real" people into gold, and Push The Button didn't manage it, despite the valiant efforts of Ant n' Dec.
Also, I'm not sure if it's a good idea to select families that aren't exactly shy and retiring. For me, it's funnier to see mild-mannered people taken out of their comfort zones and asked to do ridiculous things for cash, whereas both families on Push The Button were outrageous extroverts who couldn't believe their luck to be on primetime TV. I'm sure they all had a great time (it looked like they did), but watching overzealous people try and assemble cakes doesn't strike me as a worthwhile way to spend an hour.
I have a new game! The idea behind this one is to hold a week-long poll to determine people's favourite TV/film characters that are similar in some way (occupation, name, archetype, actor, etc.) To get us started, it's a "Battle Of The TV Cheerleaders", as Heroes' Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere) goes up against Glee's Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron). One's an indestructible superhero, the other's a pregnant singer... but who's your favourite? Please cast your vote in the poll below:
This poll will close on Saturday 6 March. The results and a new Face-Off will be posted on Sunday 7 March. If you have a suggestion for a face-off, please e-mail me, and you'll be credited if I use your idea.Read more...
I say I don't write about pilots, and here I go again....
It's being reported that Dermot Mulroney has been cast as Jim Rockford in a new version of 'The Rockford Files'.
Bad idea.
And the remake of 'Hawaii Five-0' is a bad idea.
The remake of 'Battlestar Galactica' worked, but that was on a niche channel. There are higher expectations with the major networks. And remakes seldom work.
'Hawaii Five-0' should have been all about a new generation of Five-0 cops, working in the (acknowleded) traditions of the original Steve McGarrett. But there's no way this new crew -even with Grace Park and Daniel Dae Kim on board - will survive comparison to the originals.
The same with Jim Rockford. What were they thinking? How can they expect to erase people's memories of James Garner in the role?
A nephew? That could have worked. Or somebody with a whole different name in the same situations. Sure, put him in a trailer on the beach with his phone in the fridge. Just don't say he's the Rockfish.
At any rate, both shows will have to be relegated to the TV dimension of remakes if their situations remain the same.....
We'll see what happens. I may turn out to be wrong.....
As I said earlier this week, I don't usually cover pilots until they've actually got the green light to go to series. But this one feels like a given, considering its pedigree.
Jim Belushi is slated to star in a legal drama called 'Defenders' that may be picked up by CBS. The reason I think it may go to series is because Carol Mendelsohn is one of the executive producers. She performs the same duties for 'CSI'.
So I can see CBS picking up the show - about two defense attorneys in Las Vegas (Belushi's role would be modeled on Mickey Sherman) - and then asking for a crossover tie-in to 'CSI' so that 'Defenders' can ride the coat-tails to bigger ratings.
I've finished the third season for 'Callan', and now that I'm hooked I just realized that Netflix put my request for season four into the "Saved" column. Hopefully they'll pick up a copy soon!
In the meantime, it's onward to another tribute - "Five Red Herrings", a 'Lord Peter Wimsey' mystery in salute to the late Ian Carmichael. (I was watching 'Callan' in memory of Edward Woodward.)
Now I've only seen the first two parts of "Five Red Herrings" and have only nine episodes of 'Callan' under my belt, but already I feel like making a theory of relateeveety that would connect the two shows!
Lonely is the low-life snitch that does odd jobs for Callan in the course of his assignments - surveillance, breaking and entering, passing messages, that sort of thing. As far as I can tell, we never do learn what his real name is or anything about his background, other than how many times he's been nicked for his petty crimes. But as for his parentage, other members of his family? I'm not so sure it ever comes up. And even if it does, it shouldn't cause a problem with this familial link, as this doesn't have to be a claim as closely connected as father and son. (Although it could be if Lonely's lineage remains vague.)
In "The Five Red Herrings", Lord Peter Wimsey has crossed over the border into Scotland for a bit of a vacation, to do some fishing. And he's found himself in a hamlet that is teeming with temperamental artists, one of whom is found quite dead.
One of these artists is Matthew Gowan, a rather hirsute Highlander..... As 'Callan' took place in the late 1960's into the early 1970's, and the 'Lord Peter Wimsey' mysteries are set in the late 1920's and the 1930's, Gowan is at least a generation older than Lonely. The case could be made for Gowan to be Lonely's father: during time spent in London when visiting his club (the Mahlstick Piccadilly), he could have fathered a bastard child. Although if Lonely is the same age as the actor who played him, he would have been born in the mid-1920's. Therefore it couldn't have happened during the case of "The Five Red Herrings" as that took place in 1932. (Betty the maid went to the cinema and saw "Mata Hari" starring Greta Garbo and Ramon Novarro, which came out in America in December, 1931.)
But it just as easily could be that the relation is not that close, and yet still the resemblance between them could be that perfect. It's the Toobworld way with tele-genetics; the best example is Corporal Randolph Agarn of 'F Troop' and all of his distantly related cousins who bore an amazing likeness to him.
So Matthew Gowan could be Lonely's uncle, or an older second cousin, some such relation. And that would theoretically link 'Callan' to 'Lord Peter Wimsey'.
[It may not be apparent what with all of that hair, but Russell Hunter, who played Lonely, also played Gowan.]
We began Black History Month with a famous American black woman, and we're going out the same way.....
ELLA FITZGERALD
AS SEEN IN: "Pirates Of Silicon Valley"
AS PLAYED BY: Cardella Di Milo
From Wikipedia: Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996), also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz vocalist. With a vocal range spanning three octaves, she was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing. She is widely considered one of the supreme interpreters of the Great American Songbook. Over a recording career that lasted 59 years, she was the winner of 13 Grammy Awards and was awarded the National Medal of Art by Ronald Reagan and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W. Bush.
Freddy Krueger is the boogieman of my youth. He's one of the few horror characters that totally captured my imagination as a kid growing up in the late-'80s/early-'90s. Even without seeing any of the original Nightmare On Elm Street series at the time, he absolutely freaked me out simply as a concept and visual. Friends regaled me with accounts of Freddy's movie misdemeanours that truly chilled my blood, while I remember being spooked whenever I saw Robert Englund's melted face on a poster in the window of my local video shop advertising Dream Child. I finally saw Wes Craven's original Nightmare On Elm Street as a 14-year-old... and couldn't help but giggle at the often poor special-effects, particularly the "bendy arms" in the alleyway scene and the infamously atrocious "mannequin-through-a-letterbox" final sting.
However, despite that disappointment (which in a many ways was a relief), Freddy's effect on me has been so great that, to this day, I still haven't seen Nightmare On Elm Street 4, 5 or 6. I was even a little anxious when I sat down to watch Freddy Vs Jason, if I'm honest! Hmm, I've just realized how this sounds very wussy of me, but you really don't appreciate how frightened I was of Freddy Krueger as an 8-year-old. I have a vivid memory of catching a trailer for, I think, Nightmare On Elm Street 3 late one night while in my bedroom... and being unable to sleep. There was a time when someone loaned me the novelization of Dream Warriors and I daren't even read it, only occasionally plucking up the courage to sneak a peek at the centre pages of photos, before snapping the cover shut.
Now, inevitably after 16 years, it's remake time. Wes Craven, like John Carpenter, is alive to see his early work being reimagined by a music video director making his feature film debut, naturally. Of course, there are some things that work in this new Nightmare's favour: (1) Jackie Earle Haley is a fantastic replacement for Robert Englund, no doubt; (2) on paper, I like the casting of Katie Cassidy and Thomas Dekker as a few of the "teenagers" and the presence of Clancy Brown; (3) modern filming techniques can do a far better job with the necessary dream-like visuals; and (4) I totally agree with the intention to restore Freddy as a pure monster and (mostly) lose his funny one-liners.
The second theatrical trailer was released last week (embedded above), and my response to it was mainly positive. The opening diner dream sequence is very well-executed (love the jump scare), Haley's voice is absolutely skincrawling ("why are you screaming... I haven't even cut you yet"), there are the inevitable callbacks/references to the original film, and it has a general pulsing vibe I liked. The test screenings have apparently met with mixed reactions, mostly because the film's not as hardcore as you'd expect from the franchise that became an '80s benchmark of nasty mainstream horror, but I'm keen to read a professional critique of the movie.
I may even get around to watching this remake, when I get over my Freddy phobia...
Released: 30 April 2010 (US), 7 May 2010 (UK)Read more...
WRITERS: Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof DIRECTOR: Jack Bender GUEST STARS: Dylan Minnette, Veronica Hamel, Mark Pellegrino, Hiroyuki Sanada & Dayo Ade
[SPOILERS] The fifth episode offered another heady array of answers, in the shape of strong nods and important discoveries made by the characters. While this should be a good thing, the problem rests with the manner in which answers are being made known. In seasons past, the characters were either oblivious to the bigger picture mystery (which we, the audience, could see coming together), or struggling to make sense of what's going on and making incremental headway. It was compelling, fun and fascinating to watch. But so far this season we've had characters being led around by the mystical ghost of Jacob (Mark Pellegrino), who's one of those deities that won't explain things outright, but will instead show people pieces of the puzzle and hope they'll come to understand. Thing is, I preferred it when Lost didn't have supernatural characters like Jacob, or his "enemy", to lean on and things were being revealed in a more natural way...
X-Timeline '04: Jack & David
This week, the divergent timeline focused on Jack (Matthew Fox), whom we come to learn is a father of a young teenage boy called David (Dylan Minnette) in this reality. Naturally, in keeping with Lost's theme of characters having "daddy issues", David only sees his father once a month and their relationship is oddly distant. It turned out that David was keeping a secret from his father; the fact he's secretly continued his childhood interest in music and has thus become a very talented pianist. David never told his father about this because he feared being a disappointment, but Jack eventually had a breakthrough with his son when he made is clear he'll always be proud of his boy, no matter what. So, it seems that Jack's avoided being a "bad father" in this reality, which I assume is significant because the flashsideways we've seen so far have involved characters helping each other (Kate with Claire's pregnancy, Hurley with Locke's job), or otherwise succeeding in ways they never did in the original timeline.
The Island '07: Jin, Claire & Justin
The most dramatically "pure" subplot involved catching up with Claire (Emilie de Ravin), who over the course of three years has evolved into a rifle-wielding survivalist and scourge of the Others. Here, she frees her old friend Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) from a man-trap he accidentally got his leg stuck in, and takes him back to her wooden hut to recoveer, along with an Other called Justin (Dayo Ade) to interrogate over the whereabouts of her baby. It seems that Claire blames the Others for the loss of Aaron (having assumedly forgotten the circumstances of how she abandoned him in the jungle and wandered off in season 3), and Jin slowly begins to realize just how crazy Claire's become. The baby substitute made from an animal carcass in a cradle was a good tipoff.
The Island '07: Jack, Hurley & The Lighthouse
A large piece of mythology was thrown on our laps in this final storyline, where Hurley (Jorge Garcia) was instructed by Jacob to take Jake and leave The Temple via a secret tunnel to ensure that someone finds their way to the Island by signalling them using an ancient lighthouse. At the top of the lighthouse, Jack and Hurley discovered a firebowl in the centre or a wheel marked with names and numbers, apparently denoting people who've been summoned to the Island in the past. Hurley's under instructions to turn the wheel to the heading of 108 to signal a new visitor, but when Jack notices that positioning the wheel at his own number projects an image of his childhood home in the lighthouse's mirrors, he took umbrage at the notion of someone having snooped on his life and smashes the mirrors to pieces. Later, we come to learn from Jacob that even that setback was part of his plan, as a way to push Jack into discovering his role on the Island.
In Summation
I definitely enjoyed "Lighthouse", but I'm still getting a peculiar feeling that the way answers are being revealed just isn't very satisfying. I hope the writers find a way to take the onus off Jacob as a "guiding force" and have the characters regain a more proactive role in their lives again. Hurley even made light of the fact they were essentially walking through the jungle on a mission neither of them quite understood, and I'm just not as engaged when that's the case. I'd rather they have a definite goal to achieve, or act on their own beliefs and theories, but I get the impression we're still at an early stage where pieces are being aligned (Jacob on damage control duties, the fake-Locke "recruting" people.) Speaking of whom, I wonder if Jin be recruited alongside Sawyer and Claire?
Still, I enjoyed spotting episode's nods to Alice In Wonderland (it's David's favourite book, a stone rabbit hid a door key), its allusions to Virginia Woolfe's "To The Lighthouse" (which dealt with the problems of perception, amongst other things), and it was fun to revisit the caves from season 1 (where Hurley, as audience proxy, issued a popular fan-theory to explain the "Adam & Eve" skeletons inside, that we can certainly now denounce as incorrect.) And for all my complaints at the minutae, it's always inherently exciting when you discover new buildings in Lost and the interior of the Lighthouse certainly helped develop our understand of how Jacob (or his followers) are able to summon people to the Island. All we need to know now is why, and how long this process has been going on for.
Questions, Questions, Questions!
-- Why does Claire consider Fake-Locke her "friend"?
-- Why is Claire so against Kate?
-- So, did Jacob want someone to be called to the Island, or not?
-- What is Jack's purpose on the Island?
-- Who built the Lighthouse, when, and did Jacob use it to summon candidates?
-- Why doesn't X-Jack remember details from his life such as his appendectomy?
-- Who is David's mother? Another familiar character -- perhaps Juliet?
There's a surfeit of new TV shows on the way that I'm keen to see (some brand new, others returning) in March/April. In fact, owing to this massive increase in shows, I'll probably have to adjust my review output again, or wait for the British debut of a few favourites. If you're interested, here's what I have my eye on, in chronological order of premiere:
The Pacific (14 March, HBO) I'll definitely be tackling this Band Of Brothers "sequel", which I'm sure will be spectacular. Sky Movies are showing it in the UK, which I don't have, so I'll instead be following at US-pace.
Justified (16 March, FX) A brand new series, so I'll assess the pilot and perhaps a few episodes if I'm impressed, before deciding whether or not to continue reviewing it. This stars Timothy Olyphant as a tough Sheriff, based on a character written by author Elmore Leonard, so it sounds right up my alley.
FlashForward (18 March, ABC) I think I'll stick with it, mainly because I'm intrigued to see what a creative rethink has achieved while it's been on extended hiatus. I'll definitely be reviewing at the UK-pace if Five are again days behind ABC's schedule. But, expect to see this show fall to the wayside if it continues to run so hot and cold.
Breaking Bad (21 March, AMC) I will undoubtedly be reviewing this show's third season at US-pace, in the usual manner and depth.
Nurse Jackie (22 March, SHOWTIME) I've recently finished season 1 on BBC HD, and grew to quite like it. It certainly got better as it went along and I'd adjusted to the style, but I don't think I'm that interested to continue at US-pace. Similarly to Mad Men, I can wait for the BBC.
V (30 March, ABC) Sure, I'll continue watching and reviewing to see if the new creative direction improves on the first four episodes (which weren't awful, just underwhelming.)
Fringe (1 April, FOX) I'll be continuing my regular season 2 reviews, which have been a bit shorter this year (reflecting a hum of boredom that's set in for me.) If Sky air episodes a few days after Fox, expect me to follow at UK-pace.
Stargate Universe (2 April, SYFY) Nope, sorry, I don't intend to start reviewing this show, having already bailed at episode 6. Howeber, this would be a great show to offer up to another "guest reviewer" (a la Desperate Housewives and Skins), so if you're interested let me know.
Doctor Who (3 April, BBC1) What do you think? Yes, I'll be posting weekend reviews when Matt Smith finally makes his debut at the Time Lord. It would be insane not to. Tennant who?
Treme (11 April, HBO) A group of jazz musicians try to rebuild their lives post-Hurricane Katrina, from the creator of The Wire. I'm sure it'll be quality stuff, but that premise doesn't grab me in the slightest. I think I'll watch and (maybe) review the pilot, then see how I feel. I don't expect to be adding this as a regular thing, though.
Glee (13 April, FOX) While I've enjoyed watching season 1 on E4 these past few months, I'm not that impressed to continue "volume 2" at US-pace. If E4 aren't too far behind Fox, I'll certainly keep watching at UK-pace. If not, well, I'll wait for E4 to resume the show later.Read more...
Day 6 has arrived, sneaking up on Day 5, shrouded in the black of night before revealing its glory and bludgeoning Day 5 in a gristly dawn spectacle. Welcome to Morgan & Wong Week Weekend!
Today we move away from Millennium one more time to look at another slice of Morgan & Wong legacy: Final Destination.
This rather quirky horror carried a rather quirky premise: what if you managed to avoid the point when you were meant to die? What if Death was rather miffed by this discourteous lack of time-keeping in regards to copping it, and looked for the nearest opportunity to re-adjust his records. By this I mean - what crafty ways can Death come and kill those pesky people who haven't died? You get the picture.
So to commemorate the first - and often argued to be the best - of the Final Destination movies, written and conceived by Morgan and Wong, here's a little video montage to the events of the first film!
So what can be said about Final Destination?
It was written by Morgan and Wong, with James Wong directing and Glen Morgan working as a film producer. It came out in March 2000 and started Devon "Idle Hands" Sawa, Ali "Resident Evil: Extinction" Larter, Seann "Gross-Out Teen Movie" William Scott and of course, Kristen "Millennium/Space:Above and Beyond" Cloke. Soundtrack was by the great Shirley "Batman: The Animated Series" Walker.
The film opens with Alex Browning's High School trip to Paris. Prior to the flight, he dreams of his aircraft's destruction, and as they prepare to take off, he finds life is imitating his dream too closely.. Acting on his fears, he gets himself, a few friends and his teacher thrown off the flight before it takes off. They soon realise his dream has saved their lives and cheated death... but death is a sore loser, and one by one the flight survivors are knocked off by the most feared force of nature...
It has to be said, I'm not a horror fan. Anyone who has listened to our Horror Special for the Millennium Group Sessions perhaps will remember me bleating on about the fact. However, Final Destination I take exception to - yes, I rather like it. It's silly, nasty and fun - in a horrifyingly inescapable death-stalking way. I always felt Final Destination championed what I see as the quint-essential asset to any good horror film: life is bloody unfair. Yes, Horror works best when its victims are those who don't deserve it in anyway whatsoever.
When I first heard of Final Destination I figured it was a group of kids who intentionally look to cheat death via premonition , but it isn't - it's one poor sod who reacts to a dream and others who are forced along with his actions. No one goes out to cheat death really. Alex is perhaps the only one you could point a finger at when he realises, but only in a natural human urge to survive. The rest don't believe him until they see the event for themselves. These aren't stupid kids who have wandered into a haunted house, or decided to dabble with arcane magic they shouldn't, or have released a horror onto the world through some stupid curiosity. These guys are just off to Paris. Their death is pure bad luck - and in tandem, so is their survival. That's a very neat mirror for a horror film.
So Final Destination is made more horrific by the fact these poor bastards didn't really cheat death, and the one who set the ball in motion only did so by some freaky dream. You'd feel that Death would perhaps feel a little sympathy for these guys, and if it did, it certainly kept its sympathy under wraps as some of the deaths - surprise surprise - are not pleasant (though some to be fair, are actually quite quick - perhaps Death had a pang of empathy and felt obliged to give that particular victim a high speed train to the head. Not much time to feel anything there...)
It's a unique concept - one you'd expect from the likes of Morgan and Wong - throwing a little revitalisation to the horror genre. Of course, the state of the franchise now is more questionable - as Millennium fan/horror writer John Kenneth Muir points out in a recent review.
The below is an excerpt of that review - a slice which I think is both fascinating and very relevant to the original film.
"Watching a death scene unfold in the original Final Destination (2000) is like watching God play Ideal Toy's classic board game, Mouse Trap. With people.
And heavy machinery.
I admire this approach because, in some odd way, I believe it actually reflects the shape of life (and death). Case in point, and I've told this story before: In 1989, I was driving to Richmond from New Jersey with my parents. We made a last minute decision to take the family van and not our smaller sedan. About half-way to Richmond, we became positioned on 1-95 behind a car carrying a surfboard on its roof. In short order, the surfboard became unloosed from the top of the car, and -- like a guided missile -- flew backwards into our van's grill. It bounced off and did minimal damage. But had we been driving in the sedan, the surfboard would have smashed right through our windshield and probably decapitated everyone in the car. I've never forgotten this incident (which is probably why I've brought it up on the blog more than once.)
I remember the feeling of inevitability -- the impression of my life in slow-motion -- like it was yesterday. I remember seeing the board's restraints break; I remember seeing the surfboard shake and shimmy on the roof-top of the car ahead. I remember the wind lifting it up like a plane on ascent. And I remember the surfboard gliding right at us and thinking, finally, "This is it...I'm gonna die." And what a weird, unexpected way to go...
The Final Destination (in 3-D no less) is perfectly positioned to thrive on that very brand of feeling: on the inevitability of death; on the relief at miraculously evading it; on the thought "There but for the Grace of God go I."
This is from John's fantastic blog, Reflections on Film and Television. The FULL article on the latest in the Final Destination franchise - and comments the article received - can be found here. Please support his work!
COMPETITION!
Do you want to own the first three movies on DVD? Final Destination 1, 2 AND 3 on REGION1 DVD? Films that's cast and crew include Millennium wonders such as Morgan and Wong, Kristen Cloke and of course Keegan Connor Tracey? You know the drill! Name and address on an email labelled "Final Destination" and sent to info@backtofrankblack.com - we'll pick the winner later tomorrow!
Tomorrow will be the final day of Morgan and Wong Week, and to finish off the seven days we have a feature length podcast with Glen Morgan himself.
This is quite an event as Glen's not spoken about Millennium in many, many years. So this is one to look forward to!
Read more...
There's fun to be had in this new comedy gameshow, where three celebrities are quizzed on the week's news after being denied access to the media, but it's a pity so little of it derives from the actual game in question. The Bubble has yet to make good on the promise of its high-concept, basically. Rather than try to guess the correct news report/press clipping, the game the celebs are really playing can be more accurately described as "deduce which of the following is most likely to have been faked by a television comedy show", while the majority of this episode's highlights was unrelated to the central game: a few anecdotes (such as host David Mitchell's rant about keeping a particularly hardy tropical fish), footage from Taiwanese news of a CGI reenactement of Gordon Brown punching his staff, and the pre-show events inside "The Bubble" itself -- where contestants Jon Richardson and Ed Byrne related the pain of being locked away with feminist author Germaine Greer, to play XBOX and argue over Scrabble.
It's a worry when the best element of a satirical gameshow appears to be the preparation behind-the-scenes. It's kind of like discovering that rehearsal footage of a West End musical is far more entertaining than the show being performed each night. Right now, there doesn't seem to be much belief that The Bubble's game is compelling or funny enough to entertain, so Mitchell and his guests often wander off-topic. The actual show itself only really buzzes to life during the climactic "true or false?" round, mainly because Mitchell has no option but to be focused and its quickfire nature elicits some pace. So, after two episodes, I'm laughing... just not at the right bits.
But what was your verdict on The Bubble's second episode?
It's only been in the last year that I learned about the Wilhelm Scream. Not that I had never heard it before, but that it had an established history... and a name.
For those out there who still may not know what the Wilhelm Scream is, it's a sound bite of a man's death scream that apparently originated in the movie "Distant Drums". Legend has it that it was provided by Sheb Woolley and it's named after the character Private Wilhelm in the movie "The Charge At Feather River", which was the second movie to use it.
Although sound editors have been using it for fifty years, the Wilhelm Scream had a major resurgence when Ben Burtt added it into the original "Star Wars" movie (when Luke shoots the stormtrooper across the chasm in the Death Star). A lot of times it's tossed into the sound mix as an in-joke.
Here is a video clip of some of its uses over the years:
The most recent use of the Wilhelm Scream - to my knowledge at any rate - was in the new series "Human Target". Chance tossed one of the bad guys out of an aerial tram:
Thanks to Wikipedia, here's a list of TV shows which have utilized the Wilhelm Scream*:
Battlestar Galactica
Young Indiana Jones
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Angel
Lost
Chuck
Primeval
The Middleman
CSI: NY
The Day of the Triffids
Human Target
Masters of Horror
('Community' was in that list as well, but it was used in a fictional movie, "Kickpuncher".)
I've rearranged that list so that it's in some sort of historical order. (But since 'Masters Of Horror' was an anthology series, I have no idea when the episode concerned took place.)
Why the timeline? Because I think it comes into play as a theoretical link between all of those shows and the most famous sci-fi TV series of all time, 'Star Trek'
I'm proposing that we hear the exact same death scream in all of those examples because it was emanating from the same source - not the victims, but from an entity that was possessing each of them before their deaths. The Wilhelm Scream is the sound it makes as it leaves the body at the moment of death. And it's off to find a new host to begin anew.
Can you see where I'm going with this?
I think it's Redjac, from the 'Star Trek' episode "Wolf In The Fold". From Memory Alpha: Redjac (also known as Jack the Ripper, Beratis and Kesla) was a non-humanoid life-form that existed for centuries by journeying from planet to planet and feeding on the pain and fear he caused by committing serial murders. It was similar to a parasitic organism, and required a humanoid host to inhabit in order to commit crimes. It's already an established Toobworld theory that Redjac left the body of the original Jack the Ripper before the Vorlons abducted him, as revealed in an episode of 'Babylon 5'.
Here's the established timeline for Redjac:
1888- 1891: 17 women in London, Great Britain
1932: Seven women in Shanghai, China
1974: Five women in the city of Kiev, USSR
2105: Eight women in the Martian colonies
2156: 10 murders in Heliopolis on Alpha Eridani II
In 2266 (as "Beratis") on Rigel IV
In 2267 (in the form of Hengist) on Argelius II**
But these were only the monster's greatest hits. In between the those long stretches of Time, Redjac had plenty of time to possess other victims.
Redjac claimed to have existed since the Dawn of Time, so if the remake of 'Battlestar Galactica' can exist in Earth Prime-Time, then somehow Redjac escaped their home star system in somebody's body in that ragtag fleet of spaceships. But eventually that person (or the next body inhabited by Redjac) was chucked out of the airlock in the episode "Revelations". Either it made it back into the Galactica to possess someone else, or else it waited until its path crossed with another humanoid traversing the stars.
Perhaps the Master in his TARDIS? He'd make for a perfect host for the entity.
And then Redjac abandoned him once the Master arrived on Earth at some point before its manifestation in Sebastian's body to become Jack the Ripper....
When it re-inhabited the body of Mr. Hengist, the Enterprise crew beamed it off the ship with the widest dispersion possible. According to Mr. Spock, "its consciousness may continue for some time, consisting of billions of separate bits of energy, floating forever in space, powerless." But Kirk was convinced that it would eventually die.
(Tie-in novels and comic books have brought Redjac back, but those don't play any role in the TV Universe.) SHOWS CITED: 'Star Trek' 'Doctor Who' 'Babylon 5' The "Wilhelm Scream Shows" listed above.
BCnU!
*We didn't hear the Wilhelm Scream as Redjac left its final host, Mr. Hengist. But that could be attributed to it inhabiting a body that was already dead. As for when it left the body of Jaris, who remained alive? Well.... Hey, in space nobody can hear you scream, right?
Of course, you could hear the scream in 'Battlestar Galactica'.....
Ahem.
**The Wilhelm Scream also appeared in these shows but as they were either cartoons or some sort of reality shows, they weren't considered for this theory.
THE TOONIVERSE
Out of Jimmy's Head
The Life and Times of Juniper Lee
Back at the Barnyard
Family Guy
American Dad
Ed Edd n Eddy
Class of 3000
Star Wars: Clone Wars
The Batman
Squirrel Boy
Chowder
George of the Jungle
Drawn Together
The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack
Macross
The Venture Brothers
Zeke and Luther
The Simpsons
The Cleveland Show
OTHER
Mythbusters
The Girls Next Door
1000 Ways to Die
American Idol
QI
Embedding of the video is forbidden at YouTube, but you can see "Wolf In The Fold" there in its entirety.
I caught a 1961 episode of 'Bonanza' Thursday, which had as the guest stars Dean Jones, Rusty Lane, Norman Alden, Edward Faulkner, Janet Lake, and Stafford Repp (the future Chief O'Hara on 'Batman'). It was called "The Friendship", but with a bit of tweaking and the right romantic music, it should have had quotations marks directly around the word "Friendship", because this episode would make a great springboard for slash-fic.
I'm assuming most of my readers know what slash-fic is. From the Urban Dictionary: "Slash Fiction is the portrayal of a perceived homosexual relationship between two lead characters in a popular continuity."
In this case, the couple would be Little Joe Cartwright, one of the main characters of 'Bonanza' and Danny Kidd, played by guest star Dean Jones. 23 year old Danny had been in the Yuma Territorial Prison since he was thirteen. One day he was able to save Little Joe's life and the youngest Cartwright repaid the debt by getting Danny released with an amnesty as his responsibility.
From that point on, if edited correctly, one could get a very romantic, very gay, music video out of it.
Some of the dialogue could be mixed into the loop as well.....
Danny: What do you think you can do for me? Little Joe: You just try me.
Little Joe: Danny and I are going to get along real fine. Danny: I don't like anybody coming up behind me, quiet-like.
Little Joe: We're having a party up at the house for Old Man Carter....
You gonna be there? Danny: You askin'? Little Joe: Yeah, I'm askin'. Danny: I'll be there.
Danny: I'm not too good at socializing with girls. Teller: Looks like they taught that boy lots of things in prison. Little Joe: Come on, I'll get you some punch...... Adam: I'm for bed. How about you guys?
Danny: You want it real bad, dontchu? Bob: That's what I'm here for, little friend. Ann: I bet you never held a girl in your arms... or kissed. Danny: No, Miss Carter. I've never kissed a girl.
Hoss: You're always set on going off half-cocked, ain't ya, little brother?
I'm not a fanficcer myself, certainly not a slash-ficcer. (At least not since I was a teenager and wrote up a story where the crew of the Enterprise got it on with the Robinsons on board the Jupiter 2!) I'm just an enabler; if someone wants to take this idea and run with it, be my guest.
Jean Marsh is bringing her character of Rose from 'Upstairs, Downstairs' back to Television, and she'll be brought forward in Time!
Well, not that far forward....
That's him again behind Heathcote Land, re-emerging from behind the flag. That profile certainly suggests the look of Brian Lane to me, to put it politley. 
And here he is again, walking away and passing by Callan's snitch, Lonely.
[with Steve Jobs]
And even if it does, it shouldn't cause a problem with this familial link, as this doesn't have to be a claim as closely connected as father and son. (Although it could be if Lonely's lineage remains vague.)
As 'Callan' took place in the late 1960's into the early 1970's, and the 'Lord Peter Wimsey' mysteries are set in the late 1920's and the 1930's, Gowan is at least a generation older than Lonely. The case could be made for Gowan to be Lonely's father: during time spent in London when visiting his club (the Mahlstick Piccadilly), he could have fathered a bastard child. Although if Lonely is the same age as the actor who played him, he would have been born in the mid-1920's. Therefore it couldn't have happened during the case of "The Five Red Herrings" as that took place in 1932. (Betty the maid went to the cinema and saw "Mata Hari" starring Greta Garbo and Ramon Novarro, which came out in America in December, 1931.)
From Memory Alpha:
It's already an established Toobworld theory that Redjac left the body of the original Jack the Ripper before the Vorlons abducted him, as revealed in an episode of 'Babylon 5'.
But these were only the monster's greatest hits. In between the those long stretches of Time, Redjac had plenty of time to possess other victims.
SHOWS CITED:
Danny:
Little Joe:
Teller:
Little Joe:
Adam:
Ann:
