Nerd heaven

Today's episode of Star Trek Continues, "Fairest of Them All" takes us back to the mirror universe, for a direct sequel to the original Star Trek episode "Mirror Mirror". We get to see what happened next after prime Kirk planted the seeds of change in mirror Spock's mind. It's a fun and meaningful story. Let's dig in and talk about it.

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven. 

I'm Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars.

And I am a nerd.

This is episode 97 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about the Star Trek Continues episode “Fairest of Them All”

The description on StartrekContinues.com reads

In the Mirror Universe, Spock faces a choice that determines the future of the Terran Empire.

The teleplay was written by James Kerwin and Vic Mignogna

Based on a story by Vic Mignogna

It was directed by James Kerwin

And it first aired on 15th of June 2014.

You’ll notice as we go along, that many episodes of Star Trek Continues are sequels, either direct, or subtle, to TOS episodes. This is the second one that is a direct sequel, in this case, to Mirror Mirror.

The mirror universe is an interesting thing. When you start to think about it, the idea breaks down quickly. The more the universes diverge, the less likely it would be to see the same people. For example, how astonishingly unlikely, in this universe, that Sarak still married Amanda, a Terran, and brought Spock into the world.

At its core, the mirror universe is silly. I’ve heard some argue that because of this, mirror universe episode should be campy. I strongly disagree with that. Mirror Mirror, while built on the somewhat silly premise, was serious drama. The only hint of campiness, to me, was mirror Kirk’s over-acting, but even that was done for dramatic effect. When DS9 started doing mirror universe episodes, it also took the premise seriously and made gritty drama about it. Sadly, as these episodes went on, they got progressively sillier, the last of them, in season 7, being a Ferengi comedy.

People point to Spock’s beard, claiming this is a campy idea, but I think that’s mainly just because it’s become such a meme. At the time, putting a goatee on Spock served a very practical purpose. Not only did it make him look more menacing, but it very quickly and effectively showed us, visually, that something was different. This wasn’t our Spock.

Even the trend of having other mirror universe Vulcans wear the same beard doesn’t feel like a campy move to me. We know that vulcans are creatures of tradition. They practically all have the same hairstyle, so it’s only reasonable to assume that having a goatee would be a cultural imperative for mirror Vulcans. Look at the real-world culture of the Amish, who all grow a beard after they marry.

So, yeah, my point is, I’m up for treating the mirror universe as fodder for serious drama. And this episode follows its predecessor in just that.

The episode begins with Kirk’s closing speech to Spock at the end of Mirror Mirror. It’s a great speech. He has some very compelling words for Spock. It was always a favourite part of that episode. And I love how at the end of it, Spock says “I shall consider it.”

And with that note of hopefulness, We follow Kirk and his crew back to the prime universe.

But in this episode, we instead stay in the mirror universe with Spock, to see what he does next.

And I have to say this is a brilliant move.

From the moment I first heard Intendant Kira tell the story of how Mirror Spock had dismantled the Terran Empire, turning it into a more reasonable and peace-loving organisation, and then its subsequent conquest by the alliance, I’ve been enthralled by the idea of seeing that play out.

During early DS9, Leonard Nimoy was still young enough to play this. I imagined a TV movie, set during the TOS movie era, where an older Spock had risen to emperor and was taking the dangerous steps of trying to change the culture. This episode of Star Trek Continues is the closest we’ll likely ever get to that. But this tells the very beginning of the story. Spock’s first steps into the light.

The return of mirror Kirk is bad news for the Halkans. Our Kirk did everything he could to try to spare them, but now that this universe’s Kirk has returned, his first order of business is to destroy their city.

Rather than just destroying one city with the phasers, Kirk decides to use a full spread of photon torpedoes. The radiation of which is likely to make the entire species extinct.

Spock argues for leniency and diplomacy. Prime Kirk’s words are already having an effect on him.

But mirror Kirk isn’t interested. He does, however, have his first hint that his prime counterpart has sowed seeds of revolution in Spock’s mind.

This episode takes a page out of Enterprise’s book and creates specific mirror-universe opening titles, much as “In a Mirror Darkly” did. It was awesome in Enterprise, and it’s awesome here.

Note also that this is the first episode that doesn’t have Larry Nemechek as McCoy. We have a new actor - Chuck Huber.

I wondered what the reason for the cast change might have been. I found a Facebook post by Star Trek Continues, stating that Nemecek filled in for Chuck Huber in the first two episodes. This suggests that Larry was never intended to be the long-term actor in this role, but maybe Chuck Huber wasn’t available for the first two? I don’t know.

It’s also the first appearance, in Star Trek Continues, of Smith, a character we last saw as a yeoman in “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” In that episode, Kirk kept calling her Jones. It seems mirror Kirk is still making that mistake all these years later.

The original series had a pretty male-dominated cast. Continues adds in a few more female characters to be regulars and semi-regulars. We already know it’s added McKenna, as a brand new character, but I like how they went back to the well and used this old character. This episode won’t be the last we’ll see of her.

You’ll notice Spock is the clear protagonist of this episode. We get a personal log from Spock, rather than a captain’s log from Kirk.

There’s a really interesting dynamic going on between these two, even now. Kirk confronts Spock for questioning his orders. Spock again tries to point out the logic of his alternate approach. When Kirk asks Uhura to make his report back to the empire, he makes it very clear that he personally destroyed the Halkens, and he asks Uhura to include Spock’s objections. On the surface, this may seem like he’s respecting Spock’s opinion, but of course this is the opposite. Kirk is letting his superiors know that Spock made a very controversial suggestion. A suggestion that could get him in a lot of trouble. A suggestion that might make them question giving him a command of his own. This is a subtle power play against Spock, and I’m sure Spock is aware of it.

New twist, something planted in the planet by the Halkens means that the torpedo barrage is setting off a chain reaction that could destroy all of that precious dilithium the empire wants to strip mine out of the planet.

All of a sudden, Spock is looking like the more reasonable person, and Kirk’s overkill is going to cost them a lot. And that message has already been sent to the Empire.

Very interesting.

Kirk does his best to turn things around again, by insisting that Spock should have detected that the dilithium was rigged to explode. But it sounds a little hollow.

Uhura sounds a very valid warning. Kirk’s enemies don’t stick around very long.

Spock already knows about the device in Kirk’s quarters, and that’s just where Kirk is headed.

If Spock isn’t careful, he may disintegrate.

So two Andorian ships arrive, and we know from Discovery that the mirror Andorians were part of a rebellion with the Tellarites and Vulcans, but this was written before discovery.

The Andorians say they witnessed the destruction of the Halkens and no longer recognise the authority of the Terran Empire.

I think you can make this work. While many Andorians were rebels, years earlier at the time of Discovery, I’m not sure all of them were. Some were probably willing subjects of the empire. I mean, Spock himself is first officer of a Terran ship, and he’s Vulcan, who were also part of the rebellion, (which features Spock’s own father).

But the more important thing here is that Kirk’s prediction is already coming true. Other races are rebelling against the empire. It doesn’t line up exactly because it implies there hasn’t been any rebellion up until now.

And we hear the computer voice, which in the mirror universe, is Male. Excitingly, the voice is Michael Dorn, who, of course, played Worf. That’s a nice touch.

When Kirk orders Spock to attack the Andorian ships, he openly refuses to obey. 

Naturally, Kirk assumes Spock is making some kind of play, because that’s how things work in the Mirror Universe, but he also recognises that his Prime universe counterpart has had some influence on Spock, and maybe on Moreau as well.

He turns on the tantalus field, and spies Spock speaking of mutiny with Uhura. But when he pushes the button to kill Spock, it fritzes out and dies. It’s not working.

I think Kirk suspects Moreau of doing something to the device at first, but stops short of having her taken away by security.

Spock’s next target is Scotty. He tries to recruit him, appealing to the peace he witnessed in the prime universe. Scotty saw that peace as weakness, but is he just parroting the party line? His biggest concern is not a fundamental disagreement with Spock, but fear of committing mutiny, which is a very dangerous game in the mirror universe.

I don’t think Spock was successful in recruiting Uhura, but she’s wishing she wasn’t on the ship. If I have one criticism of this episode, it’s that, other than Kirk, none of the crew are really mirror-universe enough. I’m not seeing the angry bloodthirsty callousness that I’m expecting, I’m mainly seeing fear. But then, fear would be a natural state for most people living in a world like that.

We actually get our first real glimpse of this with McCoy. He’s injecting a security officer with something. He casually remarks “I’ve never used this much before.” Then grins and says “I wonder what will happen.”

I think doctors provide the best opportunity for highlighting the difference between mirror and prime characters. Because Doctors have such strong ethics in our world, and a doctor without ethics is terrifying.

This idea is so powerful that the showrunners of Star Trek Discovery’s first season said they would never show a mirror universe version of Culber, because it would be so dark it would tarnish the memory of that character. Of course, that didn’t stop them showing a version of Georgaeu who would eat the meat of sentient lifeforms.

Now that Kirk knows where Spock is, the only thing keeping him alive is the malfunction in the tantalus field.

Checkov is wise to join Spock’s side when given the chance.

Spock’s use of the stun setting on his phaser is a powerful statement that really gets Checkov thinking. “Murder is the way of the empire. The captain’s way.”

Kirk put Checkov in the front lines as cannon fodder to die. He has much better hope for a future with Spock than with Kirk, even if he doesn’t share Spock’s values.

Of course, I am surprised that a mirror universe phaser would even have a stun setting, but perhaps it could be useful occasionally. After all, you can’t torture someone who is dead.,

Spock gives a rousing speech over the comm system. He’s getting through to Uhura. You can see it on her face.

Moreau joins Spock in Auxiliary Control. She tells him their best hope is to get to Kirk’s quarters. The tantalus field is the key, just as Prime Kirk said it would be.

Kirk is starting to realise the seriousness of his situation. Crew are not reporting for duty. They’re starting to switch sides.

Smith is willing to serve Kirk, but his anger at her is eroding any goodwill she has for him.

He does something really stupid. He relieves her of her commission and tells her to report to the brig.

She was one of the few allies he had, and he’s just given her to Spock because she’s unable to do what would be reasonably accepted to be impossible in her situation.

Kirk realises his mistake when Sulu arrives and reports that Checkov has turned. He tells Smith to resume her post, but the damage is already done. She’s not going to respect Kirk anymore. The only thing that’s been holding her here is fear, and that fear will continue to erode as Spock gains more and more power.

We get confirmation that Moreau sabotaged the tantalus field. Now she offers it to Spock.

When Moreau says “Yes, she is the captain’s woman, but not this captain,” I believe she’s thinking about prime Kirk. He changed her way of thinking. He gave her a new hope. She’s doing this based on his example, and possibly even out of love for him.

But Spock isn’t willing to use it.

“No revolution can succeed using the same methods that failed in the previous one.”

Wise words.

There may come a day when Spock has to use this device to protect himself, but he’s not going to stoop to Kirk’s level. He’s not going to become the monster he’s trying to defeat.

The key is not using the device himself, but ensuring that Kirk can’t use it.

Moreau wants to be sent to the prime universe, something Spock can’t do. But together maybe they can recreate something of the prime universe here.

Kirk is learning. He’s realising that screaming and ranting is not going to get him anywhere.

So he’s trying a more reasonable approach. At least, an approach that seems reasonable.

He tells Spock that he sees the merit in his logic.

He’s lying, obviously, but he’s calmed down enough to be able to try this tactic.

Moreau cautions against this. It’s obviously a trap. Scotty knows this. Spock knows this.

But if there is any hope for the empire to change, he must give Kirk the opportunity to change as well.

So he walks into what is almost certainly a trap. Because he has to give Kirk a chance.

It’s interesting. I can see his logic.

Scotty and Moraeu are right. This is a foolish step that can likely achieve nothing. But this is exactly what Spock has been preaching. Sit down and talk rather than fight. To refuse would be to go against the essence of the message he’s preaching.

And I think Kirk knows this.

I couldn’t help but notice the camera shot panning up from the chessboard to Spock and then seeing Kirk  enter. Very symbolic of the chess game Kirk and Spock are currently engaged in. A game in which they are currently locked in a stalemate.

Kirk brings up the valid point that there are many other ships out there loyal to the empire. Even if Spock wins control of the Enterprise, he’ll still have a very difficult fight ahead of him. A fight against the odds.

When Kirk tries to shoot Spock, we learn that Scotty has put an energy dampening forcefield on the entire deck. Spock has given Kirk his chance, but also given him a chance to prove he cannot be trusted.

The dilithium on the planet is overloading. They have to warp away to avoid being destroyed.

Spock is offering the crew an alternative. Kirk shows what he really thinks of them. “They’re pawns. They don’t need alternatives. Pawns need a king. He sees no intrinsic human value in any of them. And this is why Kirk will lose.

This happens sooner than expected when we realise that Spock had activated the intercom. The entire crew heard Kirk ranting about them.

Uhura and Smith already have knives at Sulu’s throat.

Security arrive in the rec lounge to take Kirk into custody.

Spock demonstrates compassion by giving Kirk and his followers a shuttle, sparing their lives. Part way through this scene I got a little excited when I realised they’d built a shuttle for this show. You see, I get so caught up in this that sometimes I just think I’m watching TOS. And then I realise, oh yeah, this is a fan show. Fans had to build that life-size shuttle. I’m sure the hanger deck itself is CG, but it looks as it should.

Apparently there were some Halken survivors. I’m surprised by that. I thought Kirk slaughtered them all.

I think the Halkens would be glad to know, survivors or not, that their sacrifice had helped to secure the end of the empire, and the beginning of peace. At least, until the Klingons and Cardassians form the Alliance, but that’s a whole other story.

So Spock orders a speed of warp 2 with no heading, prompting Checkov to ask for the heading.

Spock replies “forward.”

This reminded me of Kirk’s “first star to the right” quote from Peter Pan at the end of Star Trek 6. And I get it. It’s poetic. That’s nice and all. But…..what exactly is Checkov supposed to do with that? Spock is there waiting for the ship to move. Checkov pushes some buttons. Is he just making up his own course? Maybe plotting for the nearest Maccas fly-through? These moments kind of bother me.

So, the Enterprise flies off into the sunset, having taken the very first step into a better future.

I really enjoyed this one. It was a great script, exploring how Spock took Kirk’s advice and made changes in the mirror universe.

It’s the kind of episode I’m not sure they could have done in “real” Star Trek. It doesn’t actually move the story forward in our world at all. But it’s a perfect story for a fan series to explore. Not so much a ‘what-if’ story, but certainly a side quest, but a very meaningful one.

Next time, we’ll be talking about an episode that I don’t really remember - The White Iris.

Looking forward to it.

Don’t forget to check out my original science fiction at AdamDavidCollings.com/books

In the meantime, have a great two weeks, live long and prosper

Make it so.

Lolani is the first of the really focussed "issue" episodes of Star Trek Continues. It examines the theme of slavery, but even moreso, the theme of apathy in the face of evils such as slavery. It's a hard-hitting drama that really makes you stop and think. Join me as I delve into this latest episode of Star Trek Continues to see what it's all about.

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven. 

I'm Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars.

And I am a nerd.

This is episode 96 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about the Star Trek Continues episode “Lolani”

The description on StartrekContinues.com reads

A survivor from a distressed Tellarite vessel pulls Captain Kirk and his crew into a moral quandary over her sovereignty.

The teleplay was written by Paul Bianchi

With story by Huston Huddleston and Vic Mignogna

It was directed by Chris White

And it first aired on the 8th of January 2014

And you’ll notice that’s a good 7 months since the last episode came out. That’s the reality of a fan-made web series. This is a show of professional quality, but it’s being made by amateurs. It’s not their full-time job. They get the work done in the time span that they can. But it meant that each new episode was an event, like a new mini movie coming out. Of course, now, you can binge the entire series, which is great.

First of all, I’d like to say how happy it made me to see this show portraying Kirk as a bookworm. Which of course, he is. I found that the Kelvin universe movies kind of misunderstood Kirk’s character, especially his younger self. They portrayed him as this hard-partying bad boy. And I know it was already a new timeline, and the absence of his father explains the differences, but that’s not the Kirk we knew in the original series. Young Kirk in the prime timeline was a nerd. He had a reputation at the academy for carrying books wherever he went.

Anyway, Cool to see him so disappointed to have to leave his book behind when the Enterprise picks up a distress call from an unidentified ship.

And cool to see Sulu’s viewer rising out of his console. Nice touch.

The ship is Tellarite in design. And this is where we meet Ensign Tongaroa.

My first thought when I heard him speak was “Ugh. American’s can’t do Australian accents.” But I was very quickly corrected when the character says he’s from New Zealand.

But he didn’t really sound Kiwi to my ears either. Admittedly, I’m not from New Zealand, but we do hear the Kiwi accent, and it has a lot of similarities with the Australian accent. Some definite differences too. Certain vowel sounds come out very differently.

Anyway, I looked up the actor, Daniel Ogan. Turns out, he is indeed from New Zealand.

And not only that, as a child, he played Boba Fett in Star Wars Episode 2: Attack the Clones. Which is really cool.

Interestingly, in Star Wars, he sounded much more like what I would think of as a Kiwi accent.

So I don’t know if his accent has changed over time as he’s gotten older, or if I’m just talking rubbish and don’t have a good ear for these things.

Anyway, it’s really cool to have him in the show, and it’s always fun to see a fellow Australasian in Star Trek. (and if you’re not aware, Australasian is a blanket term that includes both Australia and New Zealand).

There’s only one life form aboard, life signs are erratic and life support on the ship is failing. Despite this, Spock is not convinced it would be a good idea to beam the survivor on board. He doesn’t really give a reason, other than this being an unknown lifeform.

So what’s the alternative, Spock? Just let the person die?

Kirk orders security to the transporter room, which is a reasonable precaution.

As Kirk and Spock enter the transporter room, they both say, in unison, “Mr. Scott, you have the bridge.”

Kirk remarks at this being strange.

And I agree. No explanation is given. Kirk is in command of the bridge at present, so why would Spock get involved? 

They’re expecting a Tellarite, but instead, they find a scantily dressed Orion woman, an Orion slave girl, threatening the transporter chief with a knife.

But she quickly runs into the corridor and ends up cowering near a Jefferies tube, holding the knife.

She looks genuinely afraid.

And we meet Chief of Security Drake. We never got to know who the chief of security was in TOS. That position didn’t really exist in Star Trek lore until TNG.

Anyway, the situation is resolved when Spock is able to incapacitate her with a nerve pinch.

She seems a little calmer when they visit her in sickbay later. According to records, she was recently purchased by a Tellarite. She’s got some cuts and bruises, and the Tellarite crew are all dead. The obvious conclusion is that she killed them, no doubt due to the way they were treating her.

Obviously, this episode is going to really delve into the issue of slavery. This is the first of the issue episodes on Star Trek Continues. Last episode had some thematic stuff, but this one is very much exploring an issue. We’ll see there’ll be a lot of these in the series, which is a very Star Trek thing.

The Tellarites were founding members of the Federation. That means we have Federation citizens engaged in the purchase and exploitation of a slave. And that’s pretty horrifying. But as we’ll see in coming episodes of Star Trek Continues, the Tellarites are a rather problematic member race. Which I think is really interesting. We tend to think of the Federation as this big club where everyone has the same values. But the reality of holding together so many disparate species would be somewhat less utopian. There would be internal struggles. It would be a constant effort to keep this thing together. I don’t think that goes against Roddenberry’s utopian vision, but it’s a much more DS9 kind of take on it.

I like it.

There is an elephant in the room when looking at the idea of Orion Slave girls. And that is Enterprise. Enterprise season 4 did an interesting episode that explored Orion Culture more so than had ever been done before. They were practically an untouched species, which is interesting, given that date all the way back to TOS.

The big revelation of that episode was that it was the men, not the women, who were really the slaves, due to the women having a pheromone they can use to control the men.

Now I interpreted this a little less literally than it seems the writers of this episode did. The way I saw it was that, yes, technically the women are bought and sold as slaves, but with their powers, they manipulate and control the men, behind the scenes, from a position that appeared subservient.

And that idea, I think, is not at odds with anything else portrayed in Star Trek about them.

This episode addresses the issue with Spock explaining that around 70 years ago, Orion women held dominion over men but there was a revolt and civil war. The men gained control. Rather than ending the slave trade, they made it worse.

This dialog is clearly meant to be a way of reconciling this episode, and the rest of Star Trek, with Enterprise. But I’m not convinced it actually works. It implied that the women enslaved the men in a more literal way than I think the Enterprise episode intended to suggest. And I’m not sure any reconciling really needed to be done.

But either way, it’s a fascinating concept. Think about it. A civil war between the two sexes. Procreation of the species would be very difficult under such circumstances. And in fact, the only way that the species could have survived takes my mind to a place that I don’t really want to think about.

At this point in time, Women are kept uneducated and subservient to keep them from rising up again, and as punishment for the past.

The age-old problem of trying to make a right with two wrongs.

The slave doesn’t speak until Dr. Makenna arrives. She reveals her name is Lolani. She didn’t know whether the crew of the Enterprise were friend or foe, so she kept silent, and listened. Not a bad way to go. Listening less and speaking more is usually wise.

To add extra tragedy, she was born off-world, but forced back to Orion and into slavery when her parents died.

So she has known freedom and then been forced into slavery. I can only speculate, but I suspect that may be even more painful because you’ll know what you’re missing.

Lolani is played by Fiona Vroom.

Fun bit of trivia, Fiona Vroom appeared in Star Trek Beyond as an Orion crew member. So ….. Was that the Kelvin timeline version of Lolani? My headcanon would like to say it is. Beyond came out 2 years after this episode, so I can’t help but wonder if her cameo was a deliberate reference to this episode. I believe JJ Abrams was interested and enthusiastic about Star Trek fan productions, and even spoke in defence of the controversial Star Trek Axanar during their lawsuit with Paramount.

Who can say, but in my headcanon, in the Kelvin timeline, Lolani had a better life and entered Starfleet. I guess her parents didn’t die in that timeline.

Kirk feels like he has rescued Lolani, but Commodore Gray has some bad news for him. According to Orion law, Lolani reverts to being the property of the one who sold her, once her owner dies. The Orions are not members of the Federation (they’d never qualify while they support Slavery). The owner has been notified and is already on his way.

This kind of thing is a very real problem in our world.

Different nations have different rules.

If we want them to respect our laws, we have to likewise respect theirs. Even if we disagree with them.

But what if one of their laws is something as immoral as slavery?

What it comes down to, as the commodore admits, they can’t afford an inter-stellar incident over one person.

Mackenna and Lolani talk as they walk through the corridor. There’s a lot of echo in the dialog in this scene. A rare moment when the ameteur nature of this show peeks out from behind the curtain, perhaps. There was also something about the acting at the start of this scene that didn’t quite work for me somehow.

Mackenna explains that while there are some generalised differences between males and females, people in the Federation are treated as individuals. They are not defined by their gender. There are a whole bunch of different things that make up a person.

We get a very 60s TV moment when they arrived on the bridge all the male crewmembers stare with googly eyes.

Now, the sight of an attractive woman wearing very little clothing IS distracting. I can’t deny that. That’s just biology.

But when you’re at work, you don’t ogle people like this. I’d have expected the crew of a Federation starship to show a little more professionalism than that.

I don’t think Scotty is flirting with her when he takes her to see his station. I think he’s being friendly, but also he sensed that Mackenna needed a moment to speak with Kirk privately.

Spock has found physical evidence that Lolani was involved in the death of the Tellarite, and likely is the killer.

Kirk is subtly encouraging Lolani to think about changes that could be made to her planet’s culture, for the better, by lending her a book.

When confronted with the evidence, Lolani tells an implausible story about how it all just happened while she was hiding with her eyes closed. When Kirk doesn’t buy it, she asks “if you were a slave, wouldn’t you just want to be free?”

And Kirk agrees. He hates the idea of a sentient being enslaved, but he says something that I think is very important. “The truth always matters.”

When she learns her previous owner is on his way to collect her, Lolani tries to use her sexuality to manipulate Kirk.

And given the circumstances, the bleak future that lies ahead of her, it’s hard to blame her.

She’ll do anything to escape that brutal mistreatment she knows is waiting for her.

Kirk tries not to succumb, because he’s not an idiot. He knows what is appropriate and what isn’t. He knows getting involved with Lolani in that way is a bad idea. But remember female Orions have those pheromones with which they can influence people.

It’s Uhura’s call on the intercom that helps Kirk snap himself out of it.

There’s a nice moment where they both apologise. Kirk promises to do whatever he can to help Lolani.

But she can’t just leave it at that.

Again, I don’t blame her for doing anything she can to escape her fate. And she continues to use the one tool she feels she has.

The transporter chief has less moral strength than Kirk. He’s trying to fly her away in a shuttle craft.

With evidence that proves two of the Tellarites were killed by Lolani, Spock says “she is no longer an unfortunate slave. She may be a murderer.”

Of course, it’s likely that she is both.

Notice that Spock says she MAY be a murderer. They know she killed two of those tellarites. But there may have been extenuating circumstances. She may have killed them out of self-defense, which is technically not murder.

With Lolani confined to quarters, Kirk asks McCoy if there is a medical defence against Orion pheromones. McCoy says there is a known inoculation and he can begin immediately.

If the issue is so well known that they already have an inoculation on file and ready to go, I have to wonder why it’s taken this long before anyone has thought about it.

In fact, I wonder why it isn’t included in the standard set of vaccinations for Starfleet personnel. In the real world, military officers are inoculated against all sorts of things as a matter of course. You can’t afford your soldiers getting sick from preventable diseases when they’re busy in the line of duty. I imagine Starfleet would be the same. We know there are a lot of dangerous alien diseases out there. It would be quite logical to inoculate starfleet officers against Orion pheromones as a matter of course. The risk of one of your people being mind-controlled seems a reasonable reason to do so.

It’s possible Lolani may have blocked out much of what happened on the Tellarite ship, and genuinely doesn’t remember. So Spock is going to mind meld with her. The fact she’s willing to trust him and consents to the procedure suggests she’s not deliberately hiding anything.

She killed the tellarites in self-defense, while they were trying to rape her.

Kirk and Spock are in a difficult position. They know Lolani is right. It’s wrong to send her back to be beaten, and worse.

She could be a voice in the Federation for her people, but not if they send her back in chains.

In the conference room, MacKenna plead’s Lolani’s case to the senior crew.

She makes a good point.

“Starfleet aren’t here. Perhaps if they were, they’d see things differently.”

In a lot of ways, this ties into a classic Star Trek theme. The needs of the many vs the needs of the few - or the one. Starfleet is willing to turn a blind eye to one woman’s slavery because to do otherwise would risk an inter-stellar incident - perhaps war.

When the owner, Zaminhon, arrives, Kirk’s plan is dinner. Pull out all the stops for him.

All Kirk can hope is that they can somehow change this man’s mind.

He’s a very intimidating-looking bloke. The actor has an amazing deep voice. I don’t know if there’s some artificial enhancement going on, or if it’s all natural. But it really suits the big Orion.

I laughed at Scotty’s line. “He seems nice. For a slave trader.”

The transporter chief, Kenway, fabricates a story about orders to get into Lolani’s quarters to see her. He still seems very smitten. Despite his inoculation, he seems to still be suffering effects from his previous exposure to her pheromones.

That said, he seems to genuinely want to help her, not because she’s attractive, but because it’s right. Lolani has some good things to say. Kenway feels that he’s nobody. That he can’t make a difference. Lolani says that everybody is somebody. That’s the message that needs to reach people on her planet. And she mentions a quote that is apparently falsely attributed to a guy named Edmund Burke. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

And that is what’s happening here.

In the end, Kenway just says sorry and leaves. What can he do?

It must be very difficult for the crew to laugh and chat with this slave driver. Especially McKenna.

Zaminhon confirms that the male Orions do have a natural scent, but it’s been kept from developing the same potency as the female pheromones.

Whatever Kirk’s plan, in trying to charm Zaminhon is shattered when Scotty casually says “Lolani says you’re a brutal monster.”

Zaminhon just laughs it off and says he treats his slaves well.

Kirk’s plan starts to come out as he plays along, pretending to be as comfortable with slavery, even offering McKenna to him for a price. Zaminhon surprisingly sees and even defends McKenna’s value as a person. She is civilised and capable. Slavery is not for her.

An interesting admission from him.

Then Kirk drives in the knife. What about Lolani? She is every bit as capable. She has a thirst for knowledge. But even without that, as a woman, she has a fundamental right to be free.

Of course it doesn’t work. As Zaminhon points out, “We’re not going to change each other’s minds over a fine dinner.” Which is quite true.

Still, Kirk had to try. That’s who he is. That’s the Starfleet way. You talk. You reason.

With the crew out of ideas, it’s Spock who has to verbalise it. “Then it might be time to say goodbye.”

The guard at Lolani’s door is terrible at his job. You don’t just abandon your post to check with the captain because a visiting alien tells you he’ll take it from here. He has orders, and until they are countermanded from up in the chain of command, those orders stand. By walking away he leaves the door unguarded so Zaminhon can enter Lolani’s quarters.

Zaminhon doesn’t even wait to get off the Enterprise before starting the physical abuse. Honestly, I don’t think he cares. Starfleet have to abide by Orion law in this case and he knows it.

Of course, that doesn’t stop Kirk from intervening when he enters to tell Lolani the bad news.

The re-used TOS music fits so well into the scene. It’s a lot more than just a copy-and-paste job.

Kirk has one last-ditch idea. And it’s something of an ethical dilemma. He offers to buy Lolani from Zaminhon. It’s a trope you often see in fiction. The hero buys the slave for the sole purpose of setting her free.

On the one hand, it’s a good thing as it’s an effective way of freeing a slave. On the other hand, it means taking part in the morally reprehensible practice. It is morally justified to engage in slave trade in order to free a slave? Probably.

Zaminhon is not impressed. He refuses to sell, out of spite, for Kirk’s hypocrisy. There is no price he’d accept to sell Lolani to him. He won’t let Kirk win this one.

Commodore Gray is not impressed. She likens his intervening when Zaminhon hit Lolani to striking a foreign politician.

She reiterates the Federation’s position. They will noit risk war over one slave.

And I do understand their point. How many will die, be tortured and abused if this leads to war? I’m not saying they’re right, but I certainly understand their position.

Gray says it’s the job of the diplomats to fight this issue of slavery. Kirk is ordered to return Zaminhon to his ship with Lolani. I can’t see that these diplomats are going to be very effective in their efforts, unfortunately. Orions have practised slavery since they discovered fire. And they’re now an interstellar civilisation.

Zaminhon leads Lolani to the transporter pad, back in her skimpy slave outfit and chains.

Kenway is on duty so he has to be the one to push the button. He doesn’t take it well.  The look on the actor's face sells it beautifully.

This is where Kirk realises Kenway’s feelings, whatever they are, are real. Not something you can inoculate against.

He knows this because he’s feeling it too. Not a sexual attraction, but a desire for justice. It’s going around and around in his head. He was determined to help Lolani. And he failed.

That’s when he announces to the crew that he is about to commit a direct violation of his orders. He’ll take full responsibility.

This is a very Kirk action. Even Picard has been known to do something like this.

As the Enterprise closes on Zaminhon’s ship, ready to beam Lolani aboard, the ship explodes. Everyone is devastated.

Evidently, Lolani sabotaged the ship, preferring to due than to live as a slave.

If Kirk had been just a few minutes sooner he could have saved her.

But then, what would have happened to Kirk?

I suspect it would have ended his career. This isn’t Admiral Kirk of the movie era, who can get away with anything. This is young Captain Kirk, still in his first 5 year mission.

Lolani left a video message for Kirk.

She believes her death will mean nothing, but Zaminhon’s death may light a fire in the hearts of the people on her world - young girls desperate to be free, and maybe some men, who don’t want to be a part of enslaving them.

Kenway asks Kirk for a leave of absence from Starfleet. He has been deeply touched by Lolani’s words. Her message. He wants to take up her cause. Kirk gives him Lolani’s recording.

Will he make a difference? I don’t know. But a good man is about to stop doing nothing.

This was actually a really powerful message show, perhaps one of the best that Star Trek has ever done, which is saying a lot for a fan-made production.

I really like this ending. It’s not a happy ending, but it’s a fitting one. And it gives hope. Even meaning to Lolani’s life and death.

I think when you get down to it, the real message of this story is about apathy. I mean, you’d be hard-pressed to find a human being in this world today that believes slavery is a good and acceptable thing. But how does that belief affect our actions?

Slavery does still exist in some form in our world today. Not like it used to be, not like the Orions suffer, but it does exist.

I don’t know enough about it.

I find myself feeling challenged to learn more. To see what might be able to be done.

How about you?

I hope you’ve enjoyed my thoughts on Lolani.

Next time we’ll be looking at another amazing episode. A direct sequel to the original series episode Mirror Mirror.

Until then, have a great 2 weeks

Live long and prosper.

Make it so.

Star Trek Continues is a fan-made Star Trek series of professional quality. We begin a new series talking about this incredible show with the pilot episode "Pilgrim of Eternity" Star Trek Continues does exactly what the name suggests, it continues TOS giving us a mythical 4th season, filling in the gap between Star Trek and Star Trek The Motion Picture. In "Pilgrim of Eternity" Michael Forest returns in the role of Apollo, the god-like alien that first appeared in the TOS episode "Who Mourns for Adonais".

Watch the episode I'm discussing at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G-ziTBAkbQ&t=423s

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven. 

I'm Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars.

And I am a nerd.

This is episode 95 of the podcast.

Today, we begin a new series, looking at the first episode of Star Trek Continues. “Pilgrim of Eternity.”

And if you’d like to check out my original science fiction, head over to AdamDavidCollings.com/books

The description on StartrekContinues.com reads

Apollo returns to wreak havoc on Kirk and the Enterprise in the first episode of the new series.

The teleplay was written by Steve Frett and Jack Travino

With story by Vic Mignogna and Jack Marshall

It was directed by Vic Mignogna

And it first aired on the 26th of May 2013.

So with so much new Star Trek, with so much other classic sci-fi on TV, why cover a fan-made series?

The first answer to that is that right now, every bloke and his dog is talking about Discovery, Picard, Strange New Worlds. I’ve found it very difficult to stand out amongst so many podcasters and youTubers who are so much better than I am? I can’t break into that. 

But there aren’t so many who have done an in-depth series of podcasts on Star Trek continues, in the way that I do. It’s a beloved show, but I feel like there’s more room to place myself in that niche.

The second, and more important answer, is that I love the show and want to watch it again and share my thoughts.

If you haven’t seen Star Trek Continues before, you can watch all 11 episodes for free. They’re all on youTube, and you can also download them to play locally from StarTrekContinues.com

There are a number of fan-made Star Trek shows. They all seemed to emerge after the cancellation of Enterprise. After 18 years of non-stop new Star Trek on TV, we were suddenly in this void where there wasn’t any Star Trek. It was weird.

So the fans stepped up and made their own Star Trek. It was a time of great creativity and expression. So many people worked hard to share their love of the franchise. And keep it alive.

There was a lot of good stuff, but I think Star Trek Continues stands out as one of the best, if not the best. It’s won a ton of awards, and has been praised by Rod Roddenberry, son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. He considers the show canon and says his father would probably agree.

It all got started when Vic Mignogna directed an episode of Star Trek Farragut. He went into partnership and took part ownership of their sets, and set up some studio space where it could all live. Then he went about making his own show, assembling some very talented people around him.

So let’s talk about this first episode, which of course, is a sequel to the original series episode Who Mourns for Adonais.

Quite a few of Star Trek Continues stories were follow-ups to TOS episodes.

We begin in an unexpected place. A cowboy is holding Kirk at gunpoint. An old-fashioned revolver. He threatens to shoot Kirk.

And for a brief moment, I’m wondering, am I watching the right episode? Star Trek has certainly done wild west planets before. But this is the one with Apollo, right?

It’s a common story-telling technique to start right in the middle of a tense moment like this. They call it in media res. And it’s effective.

Things are cleared up quickly when we hear Scotty’s voice say “Freeze program.”

Turns out, this is a holodeck. A very early experimental prototype of a holodeck.

But wasn’t the holodeck first invented just before Encounter at Farpoint, you may ask?

Certainly the crew of the Enterprise seemed amazed by its newness.

Well, I think this works. 

Voyager made it clear that as a child, Janeway played the holoprogram, Flotter. That was clearly before Farpoint.

And Star Trek The Animated Series featured something very much like a holodeck.

Most people dismissed the animated series as not canon back in the old days. I’ve even heard somewhere that Gene Roddenberry did not consider it canon.

But people seem to be much more accepting of it these days. And it has been referenced multiple times in TNG, Picard, Lower Decks, maybe Discovery too.

On top of all that, this is not a proven technology. It’s certainly not something that is in everyone’s homes.

So I think we can accept that holographic entertainment has been around for some time, but in more primitive forms. The holodeck on the Enterprise D took things to a whole new level, and was soon enhanced even more by the Bynars.

In any case, I think it’s pretty cool to think that Scotty may have been one of the early minds responsible for what would eventually become the holodeck.

It’s also nice to see Kirk enjoying some play time off duty.

The over-working hero is a bit of a tired trope at this point. And it’s certainly not a healthy thing to emulate in real life.

The Enterprise is investigating a series of space-based power stations that have been drained of power and gone offline. Kirk heads to the bridge.

The casting of this show was phenomenal.

The first two characters we see are Kirk played by series creator Vic Mignogna and Scotty played by Chris Doohan, the son of James Doohan, who played Scotty in the original series.

Having Chris Doohan resume his father’s role is a big asset to this show. And it’s not just about name recognition. He does a great job of it, and that voice is eerily familiar.

Vic also does a fantastic job of Kirk. Of all the actors, other than Shatner, who have played Kirk, I think Vic is the one that convinces me the most, that he’s the same guy. I’m very curious to see how Paul Wesley goes playing the role in season 2 of Strange New Worlds.

While many fan productions used a lot of ameteur actors, Star Trek Continues fills its sets with professional, or at least, experienced, actors. And it shows. That’s no slight against any of the other fan-produced shows. But this one has some very good performers.

So we pick up with Kirk as he enters the bridge. And you have to admire this set. You’d swear you were back on the set of the original series. It looks phenomenal.

Spock is in the captain’s chair, played by Todd Haberkorn. Now I have to admit, I have a bit of a harder time accepting this guy as Spock. And it’s nothing to do with the actor’s performance. He does a great job. He does everything right. But Spock is a particularly hard character to pull off, just because Leonard Nimoy had such a unique presence to him. The look.The voice. Nobody else can truly be Spock in the way that Nimoy did. Todd Haberkorn, Zachery Quinto and Ethan Peck have all done remarkable jobs at it, but none of them have managed to make me fully believe they are truly the same person as was portrayed by Nimoy. But at some point, you just have to suspect your disbelief and accept this is the same person.

While the characters speculate on what has happened to the power station, a strange object appears. Like a big spikey rock surrounded by green glowing energy. Is it a ship? A probe?

While on the bridge, we see Sulu, portrayed by Grant Imahara, of Mythbusters fame, who has sadly passed away since the conclusion of this show, Checkov, portrayed by Wyatt Lenhard, and Uhura, portrayed by Kim Stinger. They all do a good job of portraying these characters in a realistic way, based on roles’ previous occupants.

And then McCoy walks in, portrayed by Larry Nemecek. He’ll be replaced later by another actor. But Larry Nemecek is a big name in Star Trek fandom. He’s written a lot of Star Trek reference books. He’s appeared in a number of fan productions, and a small role in the final episode of Enterprise. And he was a creative consultant on Star Trek Continues through it’s run. McCoy is another character that’s really hard to recast. I think the only actor who’s ever come close to truly convincing me is Karl Urban. Again, nothing against Larry’s performance here, but DeForest Kelly had such a presence, with his face and his voice. It’s hard to replicate.

The object starts draining the Enterprise’s power. Kirk has no choice but to destroy it with a photon torpedo. There are two lifeforms in the centre of thing. Kirk doesn’t want o kill them, but in the end, it’s a case of self-preservation. 

The torpedo has done the job, but sadly,there are no lifeforms. McCoy expresses what we’re all feeling in this moment. He knows it had to be done, but it’s hard to see the taking of any life, even if it’s to save our own.

That’s when a appears in a flash of bright light. Apollo, with a woman in his arms. And he’s a lot older than when we saw him last, but played by Michael Forest, the same actor that played the role all the way back in the 60s.

And that’s when we cut to credits.

The opening credits for Star Trek Continues are very reminiscent of the TOS credits. But featuring some much more impressive visuals of space phenomenon, thanks to around 50 years of advancement in visual effects technology.

And this is probably a good time to talk about music.

One of the big things that strikes you immediately with this show, other than the sets and costuming, is the music. How faithful to the original series it sounds. That really over the top bombastic kind of music that had in the 60s. It sounds very Star Trek.

And a lot of it is.

They used a lot of original music recorded for TOS in this show. But they did some very clever editing. To make the music effectively fit the scenes, Vic would chop it up, move bits around, extend or contract it. And even compose and play his own original music to edit in seamlessly. All in all giving a very authentic TOS sound to the show, but still unique and custom made for Star Trek Continues. The music feels like it belongs. It’s really clever what they did.

In some later episodes, they move up to a whole other level in terms of music, but we’ll get to that.

So it turns out, the old woman with Apollo is Athena. Another of the Greek gods. We didn’t see her on Pollux, back in the original story, but I guess he’d re-connected with her since then.

She’s dying. It’s a very heartfelt scene as they bid a final farewell to each other.

She vanishes, leaving nothing behind but a brooch, which Uhurua picks up. Even Apollo doesn't know where she’s gone. She’s just … gone.

McCoy and Scotty’s reactions to Apollo are quite telling. The ever compassionate doctor, McCoy wants to get him to sickbay, not that he knows what he can do for an ageing Greek god.

Scotty is hesitant about Kirk allowing this creature on the ship. Scotty’s met him before. Scotty has seen what Apollo was capable of. McCoy was there too, but Scotty was very close to the young woman that Apollo had under his thumb.

A quick external shot shows that something has gotten itself onto the hull of the Enterprise. Something from that artefact they destroyed, which presumably, is where Apollo and Athena came from.

That stuff is gonna cause a lot of problems. They’re not going anywhere until it’s removed. Sulu thinks they can go out and dissolve it with hand phasers.

Kirk feels somewhat responsible for whatever has happened to Apollo. It was Kirk who rendered him powerless two years ago. He and Spock can’t speculate on how he has aged so much in this short amount of time.

And this is when we hear the computer voice for the first time, played by none other than Marina Sirtis of Deanna Troi fame. She doesn’t try to mimic MAjel Barett’s voice, which I think would have been a mistake. Her voice is a welcome familiar one to any Star Trek fan and I think it works nicely for the computer voice. It’s also fitting given that Sirtis played Barett’s on-screen daughter on The Next Generation.

They’ll continue to make improvements and tweaks to the digital model of the Enterprise, but it already looks really good. Very recognisable as the ship from the original series.

The sickbay set looks good. Just as you’d expect it.

All the sets on this show are absolutely spot on.

In addition to recasting all the old favourites, Star Trek continues introduced a number of new characters. We meet one in this scene. Doctor Ellse McKennah, the newly assigned ship’s counsellor, played by Michele Specht, who was in a relationship with Vic at the time, but they are no longer together.

I really like McKennah. The character is a fantastic addition to the TOS cast, and she’s played wonderfully by Specht.

The thing about bringing in a new character like this is that the show can give her a complete character arc, from beginning to end. And she definitely has that.

Back in the days of the original series, an episode like this might very well introduce a character like McKennah. She’s be a part of the plot of that episode, but you’d likely never see her again after that. It was the nature of episodic TV back in the 60s. But Star Trek continues does the exact opposite, making her a regular and giving her arguably more character development than any of the characters had in TOS.

McCoy has found something interesting. The extra organ he had, which humans don’t, it’s barely detectable. That could explain a lot.

Apollo gives us a little exposition. His people created a place called The Realm which would give them the energy to live out their retirement for eternity. An alternative to the energy they previous received from being worshipped. But it didn’t work. Instead of giving them energy, it sapped them of it. Their sanctuary became a prison.

It seems that’s where he disappeared off to when he left Pollux IV. Perhaps the artefact was the physical manifestation of the realm in our universe. When they sensed the Enterprise approaching, Athena sacrificed the last of her energy to help them both escape the realm. That’s why she died on arrival.

So this explains the power station and the rapid ageing.

Kirk is concerted that Apollo will once again desire their worship, to keep himself alive. But that is something they cannot give.

But he no longer seeks it. 

He just wants them to take him to a planet where he can live among the locals, as one of them, and die with the sun on his face.

But Kirk sees a big risk in this. He may trick the local population into worshipping him, like he did in ancient Greece. This is something Kirk isn’t willing to risk. Even though Apollo swears he will won’t do it, Kirk says no to his request.

Of course, if he were to seek worship, it would only be to keep himself from dying. But then, that’s no different to what he did in the past. It’s an interesting situation.

Kirk wants McCoy to make sure Apollo is as powerless as he claims.

He has little time for welcoming McKennah aboard, and wants her to help McCoy.

Next we see Sulu and Simone phasering the stuff off the hull, live action performance integrated with an exterior view of the ship. While more modern shows like Enterprise had previous done similar shots, this is a first for TOS. We never would have seen anything like this back in the day.  Shooting in front of a blue screen was quite doable, but the shooting model of the Enterprise just wasn’t detailed enough to provide a backdrop.

The interesting thing here is that Simone is played by Jamie Bamber, who was Lee Adama on Ronald D Moore’s rebooted Battlestar Galactica, which I love. The amusing thing is that Lee’s callsign was, of course, Apollo. So that’s quite fitting.

The original series EVA suits look totally authentic. Just as ridiculous as they looked in TOS, but very faithful, which is a good thing. But it’s a shame that for all of his brief appearance, Bamber is behind the grate of that helmet, so you can barely tell it’s him. Something goes screwy with the phasers and YY is plunged out into space.

Sulu’s report to the Enterprise is not very effective. He says “emergency” and then lets it hang for several seconds. No explanation of what the emergency is. No indication of what he needs from then. Finally after what feels like an eternity, he requests an emergency beam out.”

This kind of thing has been common in Star Trek for a long time. It used to drive me crazy in TNG. The crew were so slow to react to things it was painful. They should all have died well before the show ended.

Anyway, this is our first look at Star Trek Continues’ transporter effect. It looks pretty authentic to what we saw in TOS.

McKennah goes to talk with Apollo. If anyone could use some counselling, it’s somebody with a terminal condition.

She mentions that Lieutenant Carolyn Palomys. The only mortal woman to ever spurn his love. Sadly, she’s no longer alive. After her experience with Apollo she left the Enterprise. She died helping colonists affected by a plague. So that’s a nice nod to her character. A noble sacrificial wasa a fitting way for her to go out.

Apollo explains that they never sought out another planet where they might find worshippers, because they were so heartbroken when humanity, who they loved deeply, rejected them. And this adds a lot more texture and depth to the relationship. Far from just being evil overlords, they had deep feelings. A real connection to the humans that worshipped them. And they felt a great sense of loss and grief when that relationship ended.

The problem that Sulu and Simone experienced seems to be related to the power drain. Scotty is quick to blame Apollo. I can understand why, given his past experience, but he’s being a little blinded by his emotions. His prejudice against Apollo. A likely cause is probably the very stuff they were cleaning off the hull. It was part of the realm artefact.

The next set we see is the briefing lounge. I’d tell you good it looks, how accurate to the original, but you’re probably getting bored of me saying that.

A lot of the conflict in this episode comes from Scotty blaming Apollo for everything that’s going on, and the others disagreeing. Even McCoy agrees with Spock, which evokes a few comical raised eyebrows.

I have to say, I think Scotty is being led a little too much by emotion and assumption right now. If he’d stop and think things through a bit more, he’d see that there are other possibilities. Others, that are more likely given the current evidence. But then, we’ve all been Scotty. Haven’t we?

I think a lot of Scotty’s perspective comes from the feelings he had for Carolyn. And while Apollo had nothing directly to do with her eventual death, he probably played a part in her leaving Starfleet. So in some way, Scotty may blame him.

Kirk wants the opinion of his senior officers, Spock, McCoy and Scotty.

Spock suiggests letting Apollo go, giving him “just enough rope” to hang himself.

Now, Scotty is providing a valuable and necessary alternative opinion to Spock and McCoy. Kirk doesn’t blame him for distrusting Apollo. But his outburst before he leaves the briefing room does cross a line, and certainly isn’t in character with who he usually is. Just further evidence that this is personal and emotional to him.

Kirk as ever, sits in the middle, trying to take the advice of both sides. Ultimately agreeing with Spock, but tempering his actions with some of Scotty’s caution.

It seems that everyone agrees that it is the realm itself that took the energy from  Simone and Sulu’s suits. The real question is whether Apollo is controlling it or not.

The prime directive will not allow Kirk to put a creature like Apollo on an unsuspecting world, whether he truly intends to set up church or not.

Apollo accuses the Federation of lacking the compassion they pride themselves on.

And this can sometimes be a valid criticism. Certainly in The Next Generation, the way the Enterprise D crew implemented the prime directive definitely lacked compassion, and was sometimes downright immoral, in my opinion.

Apollo is glad to know that he was remembered, showing footage of the Apollo mission. But as a mythological figure, not a deity.

The episode picks up on an important element of Uhura’s character. Her love of singing in the mess hall for her crewmates, and in a rather flirty seductive kind of way if I may say so. Kim Stinger can sing.

And again, the set looks perfectly authentic to me.

She has kept the brooch safe, knowing it was important to Apollo. When she tries to give it back, he tells her to keep it.

And then he praises her voice. At that moment, Uhura realises that Apollo was the greek god of music. How must that feel, to be complimented on someone who has a high level of ability or authority themselves in that field?

And while Apollo may not be a god in a true sense, he is an extremely long-lived being of immense knowledge and experience.

There are likely many things you could learn from sitting down with him. Imagine what you could learn about ancient earth history from somebody who was there!

And then he unexpectedly bursts into song. Moments like this rarely work for me.

Question - are the characters in the show able to hear the stringed instrument that is accompanying him, or is that just for the audience’s benefit?

When watching a music, my father-in-law will often joke, “where’s that music coming from?”

Watching a musical definitely requires an extra level of suspension of disbelief, but it works because of the genre. But having a moment like that in a show like this, that’s a whole other thing.

The crewmembers in the mess hall are quite taken by Apollo, for the reasons I just mentioned.

Unfortunately, Scotty has found that the corrosive debris from the realm has gotten into more of the Enterprise’s systems than just the hull. Not good news.

So McKenna comes to Kirk’s quarters to see if they can finally have that chat, but is shocked and taken aback to find he’s not wearing a shirt. This kind of moment is taken directly from the original series. I found it juvenile then, and I find it juvenile now. McKenna actually seems a little flustered throughout the entire scene after this awkward beginning.

McKenna and Kirk have something in common. A need to prove themselves. Kirk, as he was the youngest Starfleet officer to make captain at the age of 32, and McKenna, as Starfleet’s first on-board counsellor. It may seen kind of ludicrous that up until this point Starfleet haven’t had anyone on board to look after the mental health of the crew, but this show is based on the original series, and in the 1960s, menstrual health was thought of very differently than it is today.

Of course, there was Doctor Denher, in Where No one has Gone before, but perhaps she was just on board conducting scientific research, rather than taking patients from amongst the crew.

McKernna has a specific recommendation regarding Apollo. She believes in his sincerity. She believes he has changed, from what he once was. The recommendations that Kirk grant Apollo’s request is implicit but unspoken.

And Kirk takes that onboard. He always takes the opinions of his crew on board, but he needs more if he’s to risk Apollo become what he was in the past.

McKenna makes a decent point that within all of us, there is the potential to do good or bad. Apollo is no different in that regard.

And Apollo doesn’t really have the powers he once had. So is he any more dangerous than a human begin? Well, we’ve seen in the original series the damage a single human being can do on a primitive world. Apollo has been worshipped as a god, and that desire to be so again was still very strong in him recently.

But being weakened, and seeing his friends die, that’s the kind of thing that does change a person. He’s facing death himself.

McKenna seems to be quite emotionally involved in this situation. Perhaps more so than is professional.

When  Spock calls Kirk to come to the rec room, he follows a trope you often see on TV, especially in Star Trek. He won’t explain what’s going on, he simply says “you should see for yourself.”

Now I understand why a line like that works for a script. You don’t want to bog things down in exposition. You want the audience to see if for themselves.

But from an in-character point of view, I can see no reason why Spock should refuse to explain himself here. Is it that hard to say “Apollo is telling stories and the crew are entranced?” It seems a little insubordinate.

Could they not have Spock’s line “You need to come to the rec room, and then cut to the next scene? Maybe that would be an awkward transition.

Now I get that Kirk is concerned that the crew are enthralled by Apollo. He’s worried that Apollo is up to his old tricks, wanting to be admired by lowly humans, but in the end, all he’s doing is telling a story. He’s doing it dramatically, but how is that any different than Uhura singing and rubbing foreheads with the males in the audience? It’s a performance.

He’s not actually doing anything wrong.

But the way Kirk yells “Apollo!” and then “we need to have a word.”

It seems overkill for the situation. Not that Kirk shouldn’t have a word with him, but it’s a little overdramatic.

But it’s very Shatner.

It’s interesting. I’m finding that I’m not entirely sure how to judge this show. By 60s standards, or by today’s standards?

This is a modern show, but it’s being made with deliberate 60s aesthetic and sensibilities. The scene with MacKenna walking in on shirtless Kirk is another example of that.

I feel that as the show goes on, it will find a balance between modern writing and acting, but still maintain its place in the 60s inspired 23rd Century. I think it’s possible, that the makers of the show, on this first episode, are still finding their way themselves.

And that’s perfectly understandable.

The trouble is they do such a good job of it. Everything about this, the sets, the hairstyles, the music. Honestly, if I didn't know better, I’d easily be convinced that this was made around 50 years ago.

The professionalism behind this fan-made production is seen on every level. That’s why I’m podcasting about it, basically treating it no different than any other professional TV show.

Anyway, despite what I said earlier, Kirk is proven correct. They’re barely into their conversation before Apollo declares Kirk unworthy and sweeps him away with telekinetic powers. So … not so powerless after all.

It seems Apollo is unchanged. He still craves humanity’s worship. I’ll be honest. He had me fooled along with McKenna.

He says he wants what he’s always wanted. Humanity’s love.

Kirk counters that humanity never loved him. They feared him. No god should survive on fear.

The word worship means to give worth to something. To ascribe to another, that which it is worth. What it is rightly due.

On that level, in my opinion, Apollo fails to meet the standard of a god. He had demonstrated time and again that he is not worthy of what he craves.

It’s McKenna who shorts him with a phaser, to rescue Kirk. But she’s clearly torn up about it. Personally, I don’t think she’s spent enough time with Apollo to become near as emotionally caught up with him as she has. I think that’s a flaw in this episode. McKenna is being portrayed as extremely over-emotional. Again, this is how a 60s TV show might portray a female character. So... I’m not sure if the episode should be criticised or praised for this. It’s so confusing.

This is actually the last we’ll see of McKenna in this episode, as she’s led away, in her grief, by Uhura.

Spock has an interesting perspective on all this. He feels on some level, Apollo cannot control his actions. That lifeforms generally find it very difficult to change their ways, to change deeply embedded behaviours. And he’s right about that. Changing your ways is not easy. Even if you’re determined. You try, you fail. Hopefully, you try again.

It is often tragedies that make the difference.

But the, Apollo has been through a lot of tragedy in recent time.

Kirk is determined that Apollo’s therapy will not be at the expense of the crew of the Enterprise.

Apollo is voluntarily restrained.

He believed he could control the deepest ancient drives within himself by sheer force of his will. But he lost control. As Spock said.

And this all makes a lot of sense.

Often we can’t change the things about ourselves that we want to change just by force of will. We need to look outside of ourselves, to the support of friends, professional help, and yes, maybe even God.

Despite all of this, Kirk and Apollo now agree that Kirk can’t, and shouldn’t trust Apollo.

Kirk sees no alternative than to just leave Apollo restrained until he dies.

But Apollo has another idea.

That extra organ in his body, that humans don’t have. It allows him to channel the power, but it apparently serves another purpose. It’s what converts mortal worship into energy. 

This whole idea of converting something as intangible as worship into energy is a pretty high-concept idea, but it’s been done before. This is how the Ori in Stargate SG-1 get their power.

Apollo now knows he can’t control this organ. But he doesn’t want to let it control him. 

And then McCoy quotes Matthew 5:29. The idea is that if there is something in your body, or your life, that causes you to sin, get rid of it. This is exactly the wisdom Apollo is coming to. Better to not have that organ than to fight a losing battle against it.  Sometimes, the battle is best avoided.

He wants McCoy to surgically remove the organ.

McCoy is hesitant. He can remove an organ easy enough, but this is an alien. He doesn’t understand Apollo’s physiology. The risks are impossible to predict.

But Apollo is willing to accept those risks.

So, they go for it. And Scotty is having success getting rid of the gunk in the ship.

It’s looking like all their problems might just be solved.

Now that Apollo likely no longer has the will to seek worship, he wants to revisit the idea of re-settling him on a planet somewhere. And being Kirk, he wants input from his most trusted advisors.

McCoy and Spock are both convinced. But Scotty still warns caution. They only have Apollo’s word that removing the organ will make a difference. And that’s true. There’s still some emotion bubbling below the surface, but Scotty has got it more under control now. He’s a little more reasonable. And he admits, he’s not sure what the alternative is.

They still have no consensus. Kirk doesn’t need consensus, of course, but with a decision as important as this, he’d like it.

Scotty’s words have really made Kirk think.

If they don’t make a decision soon, Apollo will die on board the ship anyway. It seems his end is pretty close. Even if they take him to a planet now, he probably won’t have enough time to cause much trouble.

I’m pretty sure Star Trek Continues is the first fan-made show to reconstruct the Jefferies tube set. It’s pretty awesome, with the shot looking down the tube at him working. I love it.

Uhura gets zapped by her console. Apparently, she didn’t move away from the console quick enough after Scotty’s warning.

I can’t help but feel Scotty should have given the warning earlier.

And if the bio-bed readings are to be believed, Uhura is dead.

We know the show won’t leave her dead, but despite that, Larry and Vic sell the drama of the moment with their performances.

Apollo sees Uhura drop the brooch.  He uses what energy he has left to bring Uhura back to life.

Does that mean he lied about the organ? More likely, without the organ, he couldn’t convert any more worship to power, but he still had a little energy left in him. Energy he needed to recover from his surgery.

Turns out it’s not that simple. He has more energy now than before the surgery. McCoy can’t explain it.

They have an interesting theory. Apollo’s species can draw energy from sacrifice. They may have assumed that because worship empowered them, it was the only thing that did so. But without the organ that converts worship, his body now must pull energy from other sources.

Apollo has found another way. A better way.

The energy he draws from sacrifice is less than what he once enjoyed, so no more thunderbolts, as McCoy puts it, but if he restrains himself from all that, he should be able to prolong his life indefinitely.

A God sacrificing himself for humanity. That sounds familiar.

And even Scotty is convinced. It’s a nice emotional moment he he finally nods.

The episode wraps in a very TOS way, with Kirk summing up the moral and theme of the story, and then he and McCoy sharing a silly joke at Spock’s expense. I wasn’t a bit fan of those kinds of endings, but it’s very authentically TOS.

But then, when you’d expect the credits to roll, the camera lingers on the planet.

One Year Later.

We get a nice little epilogue scene as Apollo helps a local family, and we see his face is now younger.

This scene wasn’t necessary, but it was welcome. I really enjoyed it.

Another little tidbithere, Doug Drexler appeared in this episode as Paladin. I’m honestly not sure who that character was, but … he was in there. Drexler is a visual effects artist who was instrumental in the Berman era of Trek. He also did that beautiful opening credits footage for this show.

Also, I have to saw that Bones and Spock grew on me through this episode.

Tod Haberkorn has a very different face and voice to Nimoy, but it’s the performances of both of these guys that ultimately sold me that they were these characters.

As a modern production, mimicking something of an older style, this is nothing short of fine art. The  detail, the artistry, it’s all so well done.

But what would I think if I were to judge this episode as if it were the beginning of TOS season 4?

It’s not one of the great episodes of Star Trek. It probably wouldn’t be one of the classics, but it’s a better than average TOS story. It had some nice drama, some difficult decisions for the characters to wrestle with, and it gave a fitting ending to a guest character from a previous story.

All in all, I think Pilgrim of Eternity was something of a triumph, worthy of much praise, but it’s not the best of what Star Trek Continues has to offer. This show is only going to get better, according to my memory.

So let’s see what the show has in store for us in episode 2 - Lolani.

I’ll see you then.

In the meantime, have a great 2 weeks, live long and prosper.

Make it so.

We've come to the end of our analysis of the Dark Knight Trilogy with The Dark Knight Rises. Can this one live up to the awesomeness that the previous two movies were? Where does this movie work and where does it not? Let's dig in and talk about how this trilogy ends.

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven.

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars.

And I am a nerd.

This is episode 94 of the podcast.

Today we’re talking about the movie The Dark Knight Rises.

The description on IMDB reads

Eight years after the Joker's reign of anarchy, Batman, with the help of the enigmatic Catwoman, is forced from his exile to save Gotham City from the brutal guerrilla terrorist Bane.

The screenplay was written by Jonathan Nolan and Christpher Nolan

The story was by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer.

It was directed by Christopher Nolan

And it first released on the 16th of July 2012.

Once again, I hired this on DVD when it came out, and only saw it once. But I own the complete trilogy on Blu-ray now.

The movie starts with Commissioner Gordon praising Harvey Dent at his funeral. Doing just what Batman told him to do. As hard as that is for him. 

That ties us into the end of the previous movie. Then we’re straight to the new plot.

It’s a hostage situation.

Bane is introduced as a mercenary. A masked man.

It’s a terrifying interrogation, the way they’re threatening these people, but not actually killing them.

He wants to know, who is Bane? This guy is looking for him.

It turns out one of them IS Bane.

Now my first introduction to Bane was the game Batman Arkham Asylum. In that game, he’s this big monstrous creature powered by the venom serum. Basically DC’s answer to the Hulk.

When I heard Bane was going to be the primary villain of this movie I was surprised. How can a big mutated monster fit in with this serious realistic Batman? 

I was surprised to see when he appeared, that he was just some bloke, but he’s got this weird metal mask around his mouth.

No explanation is given for this odd facial decoration when he’s introduced.

But he does say that nobody cared about him until he put on the mask.

And I have to say, his voice doesn’t at all match what I would expect to hear coming out of someone who looks like this.

He’s got this happy-go-lucky English accent.

Sounds like it could be quite high-pitched but it’s distorted by the mask.

Without any explanation, this mask is just really distracting and odd.

Bane crashes the plane. He’s stealing blood from one of their bodies.

This is all a pretty impressive sequence to look at, but it’s very disorienting.

Who are all these people? What do they mean to each other?  None of it is clear.

Bane Leaves one of his own behind, so a body can be found in the wreckage. And the guy doesn’t even object. What hold does he have over them they’d so readily die for him? Spoiler alert - we’ll never find out.

Even after seeing the whole movie, looking back it still wasn’t entirely clear what this scene was all about? They abduct Doctor Pavel and fake his death. That’ll be important later. But what’s with the blood?

Back in Gotham, we learn about Harvey Dent day. A new public holiday. 

The city has undergone a historic turnaround. Gotham is without organised crime. For the first time in forever. A real difference has been made. It’s nice to know that Bruce was right. Gotham has been rehabilitated. He’s proven Ra’s Al Ghul wrong.

There’s some talking about repealing the dent act, which gave police the power to act, but no real details on what they meant.

And some talking about how Batman murdered Dent.

Gordon hates playing along with all of this. But what can he do?

When he says he has a speech, telling the truth about Dent, but now is not the time, I think he means the real truth. Maybe one day he can tell the real truth and clear Batman’s name. But not today. The peace is too fragile. Too new.

Things are not going well for Gordon. His wife and kids left him. The mayor wants to get rid of him. He was a war hero, but this is peacetime. I feel really sorry for him. The last movie destroyed his marriage. Between faking his own death - letting his wife think he’d died, and their son nearly dying, I can see how it ended. It really sucks.

So we’re seeing a very different world than that of the first two movies.

But let’s not assume it’s all gonna stay happy and nice. There’d be no movie then.

Batman might be on the run, but Bruce Wayne isn’t. He doesn’t have to be. Nobody knows Bruce is Batman. But Bruce is living as a recluse. His new beard speaks volumes. He needs a cane to walk. It’s not entirely clear why this is. But he’s not faking this. He really does have trouble walking.

The maid is stealing his mother’s pearls.

And the maid is, of course, not a maid, but a cat burglar. Selina Kyle.

And here’s yet another example of Hollywood star casting  I would never have thought of, but I like Anne Hathaway in this role. She does a decent job of it. I think at this point, she was still stepping out of the shadow cast by The Princess Diaries. Although she had already played Agent 99 in the remake of Get Smart, which I found surprisingly good.

Wayne Manor has been rebuilt. Bruce can now operate back in the original bat cave.

But it’s a lot more developed. 

Selina likes the pearls. She won’t sell them, but what she wanted was Bruce’s fingerprints. 

Alfred is worried about Bruce. He hung up the cape but he never began a new life. He’s not living. He’s just waiting.

But he’s still grieving the loss of Rachel.

Alfred tells his cafe story, which is important and will be paid off wonderfully later on. When Bruce was away, travelling the world, learning how to fight criminals, Alfred hoped he’d never come back. Why? Because he wanted Bruce to find his happy ending, and live a life free of the wounds of his childhood.

Alfred would go on holiday to Florence every year. He’d go to a particular cafe. Every time he’d fantasise that he’d look across and see Bruce with a wife, maybe a couple of kids. Neither would speak to each other, but they’d both know that he’d made it. That he was happy.

He never wanted Bruce to come back to Gotham. There was nothing here for him but pain and tragedy. Alfred wanted something more for him than that. And he still does.

Next, we meet an idealistic young cop named Blake. He’ll be a pretty important character in this movie, but it won’t be clear why for some time. He’s played by Joseph Gordon Levitt, who is most famous for the teenage-bodied alien in the sci-fi sitcom Third Rock from the sun. But he really sells his performance as an adult cop in a serious drama.

Selina meets a guy named Stryver. 

Selina got the prints for THIS guy.

Stryver is gonna kill Selina, but she’s well prepared. In a lot of ways, like Batman.

She puts on a good act to appear an innocent bystander to cops.

But Blake is on the case.

Thugs capture Gordon and bring him to Bane. There is a connection between Bane and Stryver.

Blake comes to see Bruce. In relation to Harvey’s murder. But starts telling him the story of Bane. 

He needs Batman’s help. Does Blake know Bruce is Batman?

Blake tells the story of his own tragic childhood. He’s an orphan too.

Bruce Wayne Billionaire orphan was a hero to those kids.

It was never really clear to me how or when Blake discovered that Bruce is Batman, but it also seems pretty clear that at this point, he DOES know. And he believes Batman was innocent of Harvey’s crimes.

I guess Bruce’s injuries are from his time as Batman. That would seem logical. But Batman didn’t seem this banged up at the end of Dark Knight.

Bruce meets with Gordon in a ski mask as Batman. Gordon says Batman needs to return. He is still needed. Bruce is not convinced Batman exists anymore.

Bruce finds Selina at a charity party.

This is a masquerade and Selina has chosen a black mask and cat ears. This is the closest to a cat costume we’ll get to see her in. It’s a realistic take that works in the context of this trilogy. Although she’ll kinda continue to wear it again later in the movie for some reason, which doesn’t seem to fit. Honestly, I’d probably have been okay if this was the only scene where we saw her wear it.

This party is also where we meet Miranda Tate, a bright young woman who has business dealings with Bruce, and is very interested in his clean energy reactor, which he’s never put into production.

Selina ended up a thief because she did what she had to. But once you start there,  they’ll never let you do what you want to. You get stuck in a life of crime. Does that excuse her actions? It certainly gives us a little more sympathy for her as a character. I suspect this is a common story in the real world. Nobody grows up thinking “I really wanna be a criminal”.

She says “There’s no fresh start in today’s world.” And it’s starting to look like a fresh start might just be something she’d be interested in, if it were possible.

In the meantime, she sees herself as a robin hood figure

Selina threatens a coming storm that may bring down the rich in Gotham. And then she steals Bruce’s sports car.

Wayne Enterprises not doing well financially. Bruce put all his money into the clean energy project, but won’t turn it on for some reason. But you can bet he does have a reason.

Miranda supports the project and doesn’t understand why he won’t follow through.

Lucious has some gadgets to show Bruce, even though he says he’s retired.

It’s some kind of aircraft.

Bruce is using a device to help him walk and even kick.

We learn a little about Bane. There’s a prison pit where prisoners are sent to suffer and die,  in another part of the world. Bane came from that prison. He was born and raised in hell on earth.

He was trained by Ra’s al Ghul. But excommunicated from the league of shadows. Apparently he was too extreme for Ra’s. And that’s gotta be a bad thing.

Alfred thinks Gotham needs Bruce, not Batman.

He’s not afraid Batman will fail. He’s afraid that he WANTS to fail. He’s a shadow of who he was. Physically and mentally.

So Bayne and his goons break into the stock exchange.

There’s no cash here. So what’s his plan?

It’s an online theft. They don’t stay long. And they leave with hostages

Bruce wears the batman suit for the first time in ages.

He arrives on the bike that was once part of the tumbler.

This is more dangerous for him than ever because the police think he is a murderer. They won’t hesitate to take him down.

This proves to be a real problem - because the cops are more interested in catching Batman than they are dealing with Bane and Co. Good for Bane.

Putting aside the question of whether the bike was originally part of the bridging vehicle, it continues to do some pretty cool stuff in this movie. The way the wheels rotate and allow quick direction changes is a lot of fun to watch.

But then all reality goes out the window when we see this movie’s version of the batwing, which is basically a full-on spaceship. I mean, I like it, but it doesn’t fit this series very well.

And they don’t even try to explain it.

The batmobile was introduced in a way that made sense in this world, in Batman Begins.

No attempt was made to do likewise with the Batwing in this movie. I found that pretty disappointing.

Selina is after a program that will clear her name. A clean slate. It erases your identity from every database on earth. It literally makes you disappear.

So her desire to escape her life of crime and have a fresh start is quite genuine.

But the guy claims it doesn’t exist.

Batman rescues Selina from Bane’s people.

Selina sold Bruce’s fingerprints to Daggart, who Stryver works for, for that program. She hasn’t been paid, so you can imagine how she’s feeling.

Alfred is really not keen on Bruce trying to be Batman again. He’s gonna get himself killed. He used to want a life beyond Batman, but with Rachael’s death, that’s not possible. He can’t move on.

And that’s when Alfred decides to finally tell Bruce about Rachael’s letter.

It’s a very powerful character scene. And this choice hurts both of them very deeply.

Alfred has just sacrificed his relationship with Bruce in an attempt to keep Bruce alive.

A painful representation of what love is all about.

Brilliant scene. Sadly, that means we won’t see any more of Alfred until near the end of the movie.

Now we find out what Bane and Daggart were up to. They’ve effectively bankrupted Bruce and acquired Wayne Industries. Bruce’s main concern is applied sciences, but Lucious has done a good job of keeping that off the books and safe. As he should have.

But they do have his energy project.

Bruce shows the reactor to Miranda.

The reason he never put the reactor into active use is because some Russians found a way to weaponise similar technology. In particular, Doctor Pavel from the plane at the beginning. The risk was too great for Bruce.

He’s putting Miranda in charge of the company, in charge of the reactor. “Keep it safe and hidden. If it becomes too dangerous, she’s to flood it.”

Bruce has been officially kicked out of his own company. His father’s legacy.

Bane kills Daggett and takes over, calling himself a necessary evil. That’s kind of how the League of Shadows see themselves, right?

Bruce wants to recruit Selina to help find Bane. He offers her the fresh start. Claims it does exist. Bruce acquired it to keep it out of the wrong hands.

He may be willing to let Selina use it, but he needs to trust her first.

When he tells her that they’re letting him keep the house, Selina makes a very interesting point. “You don’t even go broke like the rest of us.”

And that’s very interesting. When super rich people go broke, they tend to still have resources behind them. A former billionaire is not going to find himself living on the street begging for food, like a normal person might when they lose everything.

It’s all relative.

And I find that fascinating.

It reminds me of Alastair in the British comedy show As Time Goes By. When he said he was broke, what he really meant was he was down to his last million.

Bruce and Miranda get intimate. That seems to have come out of nowhere.

It turns out Batman couldn’t trust Selina. She’s done a deal with Bane, delivering Batman to him. Bane knows who Batman is as well. Selina overhears so she knows too

Now in some ways, Bane is a very similar character to Doomsday. 

Doomsday is good for one thing. Killing Superman. So if you’re gonna put Doomsday in your movie, you’d better be willing to have him Kill Superman.

In a similar way, Bane is famous for breaking Batman’s back. That’s his purpose. It doesn’t mean you can’t do other things with the character, of course, but Bane’s inclusion is something of a promise.

I’m not as familiar with this incident from the comics as I’d like to be. I am in the process of binging the important Batman comics from the 80s and 90s, but I’m not up to Knightfall yet.

Looking forward to it, though.

Bane says something I find fascinating.

“Peace has cost you strength. Victory has defeated you.”

By winning peace in this city, Batman has not kept up his training. His physical conditioning. That has made him weak. His great victory has become his defeat.

Bane claims to BE the league of shadows. Fulfilling Ra’s Al Ghul’s destiny.

“You merely adopted the dark, '' he says. “I was born in it, moulded by it. I didn’t see the sun until I was a man.”

Bane has found applied sciences. He has all of batman’s tech

And then he does it. 

He brake’s Batman's back. 

In a shot that looks very reminiscent of the comic.

I think Selina is already realising that she made a mistake. She’s on the run, not from the police, but from bane. When Blake says he can offer her protection, she just gives him this look, and Blake kinda shrugs, as if to say, okay, maybe we can’t protect you from someone like that.

Selina honestly tells him she’s not sure if Bruce is dead or alive.

He is alive, but barely. Bruce doesn’t fear death - he longs for it. Bane has taken Bruce to the prison where he grew up. Underground and dark. The tunnel is open. You can see the sky. But climbing is impossible. That impossible hope is what tortures people’s minds.

Bruce has to watch on a TV screen as Bane destroys Gotham.

Bane seems to be the only one to ever have escaped from this hole. He was born in there, and he escaped as a child.

And he’s found the reactor.

The board are coerced into turning it on for him.

Bane’s first move is to detonate explosives he's buried in concrete all over the city. The visuals of the football field slowly collapsing looked amazing.

There are some similarities between Bane’s plan and Ra’s al Ghul’s. Isolate the island in the middle of Gotham and then use some advanced technology to destroy people.

Most of the city’s cops are in the tunnels under the city.

Except for Blake.

At this point, most first-time viewers are probably surprised by how big a role Blake has in this movie, and wondering why he’s in here.

It seems Doctor Pavel is the only person in the world capable of disarming the reactor bomb. After confirming this, Bane murders Pavel in front of the entire stadium.

Now we see a little of The Joker’s theatricality come into play. This is going to be a game. One of the people in the crowd has the detonator. 

It’s not clear at this point, whether this is somebody working for Bane, or if the person doesn’t actually know they’re the one. Perhaps something innocuous they’ll do will set off the bomb. This could have been explained better.

I feel like the writing in this movie isn’t up to the same level as the previous two. Ra's al Ghul had a clear goal and motive. The Joker was completely insane, but even he had a clear motive and goal - as crazy as it was. But I can’t get a reading on Bane. He says he’s giving Gotham back to the people. What exactly does that mean? Gotham is finally at peace, better than it’s been in decades. What does he think he’s liberating them from?

But does he actually care? Of course not. He sees himself as carrying the torch of the League of Shadows. He wants to destroy Gotham. But why? Batman has succeeded in proving that Al Ghul’s extreme measures were not necessary. Gotham has been rehabilitated.

So ….. What’s it all about?

Interesting to see a bunch of tumblers, in their original cammo colours driving through the city streets.

Bane tells the city the truth about Harvey Dent, reading from the stolen speech Gordon planned to one day deliver.

He’s raging against the corruption of the Gotham police. Now in fairness, much of their current peace has been built on a lie. But the criminals locked in that prison are still criminals. Justice HAS been served.

So what is to be gained by letting chaos reign and releasing all those dangerous criminals back out into the street?

Maybe Bane wants to watch the city tear itself apart, but he can just set off the bomb.

It seems to me that Bane is his own brand of crazy, but a much less interesting version of crazy than we saw last time with The Joker.

The people of the city seem to be taking up Bane’s cause and rioting. I find that extraordinary. 

So Blake points out some of the criminals have been denied parole due to the Dent Act.

Well….that’s a potential moral issue. But it’s not a well-defined one. We just don’t have enough information to make a fully informed opinion. The justice system is supposed to punish the guilty, but also preserve certain rights and freedoms that they still have as human beings.

But this was an act of legislation. It was a law. We don’t understand the subtleties and details of that law, but the police had the legal right to keep those criminals locked up, regardless of whether Harvey Dent was a nice bloke or not.

Whether what the law allowed them to do was morally right is a completely different question.

And now for the people of Gotham to want to let all those dangerous criminals out to roam the streets, and string up the cops. I’m losing all sympathy for them.

The thing is, I’d be quite interested in a story that genuinely looked at the moral issues of a police force doing something a little dubious to protect the city from the special class of criminal we see in Gotham. Get some real interesting shades of grey going on so you have something to discuss.

Except I don’t think this movie does it at all well. It doesn’t delve in and explore any of that. It’s all brushed over so briefly that it becomes meaningless and there’s nothing to talk about.

We cut back to Bruce and we get a little more backstory about Bane. How he came to be born down there in that pit. I don’t know what country this is supposed to be, but you want to talk about corrupt justice systems mistreating the freedoms of its prisoners. This is where you look.

Apparently, young Bane was attacked by other prisoners during a plague. One of the prisoners was a doctor. He tried to fix Bane’s face, but his fumbling efforts left Bane in perpetual agony, and the mask on his face holds back the pain somehow.

Um……..okay.

So they’re trying to fix Bruce’s back.

A broken back doesn’t necessarily mean death. My wife suffered a broken vertebra in her back from a roller-skating injury as a teenager. It’s something she’s lived with all of her life. The muscles learn to adapt.

But Bruce is in a pretty bad way. He’s got vertebrae sticking out. It’s believable that Bruce could get back into physical shape again someday, but it’s gonna be a very long and slow recovery.

Bruce hallucinates that Ra’s Al Ghul is there with him. He surmises that Ra’s was the mercenary whose wife was thrown into the pit. Ra’s is Bane’s father.

This is reasonable speculation, but Ra’s isn’t really there alive to confirm it. This is all in Bruce’s head. So maybe Bruce is right, and maybe Bruce is wrong.

But we’re expected to believe that it’s true - at least that Ra’s al Ghul was the mercenary, and the child’s mother was his lover. But the only reason Batman, or the audience, knows this, is because Bruce learned it in a dream.

At this point I’m left wondering how long exactly is this siege taking? For Bruce to recover and build himself up to the physical strength to climb out of the pit, realistically, I’d think he’d need a year. He was in much worse shape than my wife, and she lost the better part of a school year to her injury.

But it feels like the stuff in Gotham is just taking place over a few hours, or maybe a few days.

Blake actually gives us a number. It’s been 3 months. 3 months those cops have been trapped underground. So much about this movie just isn’t ringing true. Wouldn’t the federal government have done something about this after all that time? An entire city under siege?

Lucious gives us some more bad news. The fuel cell in the reactor is deteriorating over time. In 23 days it’ll go off, regardless of whether the trigger man pushes the button.

If he could get his hands on the core he could put it back in the reactor and stabilise it.

After a few failed escape attempts, the prison doctor gives Bruce some psychological advice. Not being afraid of death doesn’t make you strong. It makes you weak. Fear of death is necessary. It’s what makes you go that extra mile and do what should be impossible. Because if you don’t you die.

So he advises Bruce to do the climb the way the child did. Without the rope.

I don’t know if this is good advice or not, but in a way it kind of makes sense. Bruce is not fully committing. Because somewhere deep down, he knows if he misses, the rope will save him. Without that safety net, he simply HAS to make the jump. So his body and mind will be more willing to do what is needed. It’s all mental.

Makes some form of sense.

But if he fails - he can’t try again.

It’s a gamble I wouldn’t make. But Bruce would.

It’s a genuinely triumphant moment when he climbs out to freedom.

We get another cameo from Doctor Crane, also known as the scarecrow. He’s trying people in Bane’s dodgy court.

When Gordon goes to recruit one of his cops to help, we learn a little more about the situation. The government has apparently done a deal with Bane. The details of which, we don’t know. Seems unlikely.

This is a weird setting. It’s almost post-apocalyptic.

The cop says Gordon doesn’t know whether the bomb will go off tomorrow, except … he does. Why doesn’t he tell him about the time decay?

So Wayne has arrived and recruited Selina to help him. He still sees something good in her. Is that naive? Maybe. But part of being a literary hero is looking for the good in people.

Gordon has been captured by the goons and is being forced out on the ice, even though he would prefer to be shot than play along with the charade.

Bruce lights his symbol in flames on the side of a building, because he knows the power of a symbol to give people hope is an important weapon in this fight. Batman can’t save the city alone. That will take good people to stand up.

Blake and Selina are gonna lead people out of the city to safety while Batman leads an army against Bane.

Selina is still ultimately selfish, but she wants Bruce to come with her. There’s an inkling of something between them, at least from her side. She makes the point that he doesn’t owe these people anything more. He’s given them everything.

And she may be right. Maybe they don’t even deserve him anymore. But true heroism gives what is undeserved.

And as he ominously points out, he hasn’t given them everything. Not yet.

It really does look like a war. The cops all lined up in their uniforms, facing off against the crowd of Bane’s thugs.

A big battle like this is a pretty epic way to finish off the trilogy, I’ll grant them that.

So big surprise, Miranda is the child of Ra’s al Ghul, not Bane. She’s working with him and she has the trigger. Bane was her protector.

I’m not sure this really works. 

Did she really know about the reactor before Bruce told her? Because Bane seemed to.

I dunno.

Also, this calls into question a lot of the backstory we thought we knew about Bane. So…has he actually been in that pit since childhood? Did he grow up there? Was the whole story about the doctor messing up his facial surgery so he needed the mask to keep the pain at bay true or not? We’re just left feeling a little bewildered.

Fortunately, Gordon has managed to block the detonator, so it doesn’t explode at once.

Selina has finally decided to have a change of heart and help Bruce.

Miranda has flooded the reactor so there’s no way to prevent the bomb from exploding anymore.

The only thing that can be done now is to fly it away from the city. A suicide mission.

Batman is quick to sign up for that with his batwing.

Now he really will have given everything.

Gordon wants to know Batman’s identity, not because he ever cared, but because people should know who gave his life for them.

Bruce subtly tells him who he is by relating an experience from his childhood.

When this movie was soon to come out, I remember saying to a workmate of mine that I suspected Batman would die in the third movie, sacrificing himself for others. My reasoning was that it had been confirmed the series would be a trilogy. This would be the end. And Batman dying just seemed a fitting end that would fit the tone of the series.

So I felt kind of gratified when I saw exactly that play out.

Of course, it’s not over yet.

It’s fitting that Bruce’s funeral is attended by Gordon, Lucious, Blake, and Alfred. The people who knew who he was.

I’m curious what kind of cover story they came up with for Bruce’s death. I don’t think Gordon revealed Batman’s identity publicly, because when asked about who saved the city, he simply says “The batman.” But with all the death and destruction, it shouldn’t be too hard for Gordon and Blake to explain it.

Poor Alfred. He’s so heartbroken. He blames himself. He feels he let down Thomas and Martha Wayne.

Blake has thrown in his badge. I think the inability to adapt of the officers that wouldn’t let him escape with the kids has hardened him to the rigid structure of the force.

I got pretty emotional at the reading of Bruce’s will. He’s left everything to Alfred, the man who raised him, who was as much a father to him as Thomas was.

And Wayne manor is to be used to care for the city’s orphans.

So we learn that Blake’s real name is Robin.

Bruce has left him information to find the batcave, in case he wants to continue Batman’s work.

So that’s why Blake’s story was so important to this movie. He is…this universe’s equivalent of Robin. In the comics, Robin was just a code name given to a number of people. Dick Grayson, Json Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and Damien Wayne.

In this version, Robin was the guy’s real name. It’s little more than a nod to the concept, but it kinda fits this interpretation.

And that brings us to that last scene.

We learn with Lucious that the Batwing’s autopilot was fixed after all.

So Bruce Might have survived.

Then we see Alfred taking a trip to that cafe. The one where he used to fantasise about seeing Bruce happy and okay. He looks up, and there he is. Bruce is sitting at a table with Selina. They nod to each other and Alfred leaves. All is okay now.

It seems that the clean slate program has given both Bruce and Selina a fresh start.

This is a powerful scene. It pays off the earlier scene so beautifully. It shows that Bruce and 

Selina have made a happy new life together, but most importantly, it provides reconciliation between Bruce and Alfred. Forgiveness. A promise that they are still family.

It’s a wonderful way to end the movie.

As for Bruce and Selina, I love that they end up together. There is always an aspect of attraction and tension between Batman and Catwoman. But this movie didn’t do enough to establish that. They kiss shortly before he dies, for no real reason. And that’s it.

I think It would have worked better if they’d established a little more between them earlier in the movie, maybe instead of with Miranda. The sex with Miranda did nothing other than to make her betrayal sting a little worse, but honestly, I don’t that was needed. Miranda’s betrayal would have been just as powerful whether they’d had sex together or not.

So … how can I sum up this movie?

I derive some enjoyment from watching it, and I’ll probably watch it again some day.

But in terms of quality, it’s not even in the same league as Batman Begins or The Dark Knight. This one has a reputation for not being as good, and I do think they dropped the ball.

I can’t help but wonder if it was rushed. It seemed like they needed a little more time to revise the script. I was going to say that a longer runtime might have helped it as well, but I was surprised to look up and learn that this movie was actually the longest in the trilogy.

I found myself really having to concentrate to fully get my head around this one. I had a similar experience with The Dark Knight, but that was because there was so much going on. But all those pieces fit together beautifully like a jigsaw puzzle. It was meticulously put together. There was a lot less going on with this one, but the pieces didn’t seem to fit together quite as well, and some of the pieces were missing.

So what do I like about it?

It’s got some really cool visuals. The effects and the camera work are beautiful to look at.

I liked Blake’s character.

I liked Batman’s sacrifice and his new secret life. That whole last scene is beautiful.

I liked Anne Hathaway’s portrayal of Selina Kyle, though as I said I felt they could have done more with her and Batman.

I liked that they tried to tie this in a lot to Batman Begins, to round off the trilogy and make it feel whole and complete. But I don’t think they really succeeded in doing that effectively.

And I like the whole Bane breaking Batman’s back thing, and I liked Bruce’s journey of getting himself back on his feet and out of that prison - although the timing doesn’t really work.

So that’s a decent list of positives.

This was as good as the average superhero movie, but a bit of a disappointment when compared to Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

Ultimately, though, this trilogy has held up really well for me. The awesomeness of the first two more than makes up for the shortcomings of the third. This trilogy changed the way Superhero movies were made. At least for a time. It showed that Superheroes really could be taken seriously as dramatic characters. And it laid the foundations for the Snyder universe that I love and adore so much.

I’ve enjoyed covering these movies. I hope you’ve enjoyed my thoughts on them.

Next time, we start a whole new adventure. We’re going to be covering all ten episodes of Star Trek Continues. It’s gonna be a lot of fun, so I hope you’ll join me for that.

Until then, have a great two weeks

Live long and prosper.

Make it so.

The Dark Knight has a reputation for being one of the great superhero movies, and it is completely deserved. Revisiting this movie for the first time after my initial viewing I was blown away by the writing. This is a masterpiece of thematic story-telling. With fantastic performances, especially from Heath Ledger as The Joker. So let's see what Batman is up to this time as we discuss The Dark Knight.

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven.

I’m Adam David Collings

The author of Jewel of The Stars.

And I am a nerd.

This is episode 93 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about the movie  The Dark Knight

The description on IMDB reads

When the menace known as the Joker wreaks havoc and chaos on the people of Gotham, Batman must accept one of the greatest psychological and physical tests of his ability to fight injustice.

The screenplay was written by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan (who are brothers)

With story by Christopher Nolan and David S Goyer

It was directed by Christopher Nolan

And it was first released on the 14th of July 2008

In 2008 I was raising a very young family. I had just bought my first house or was shortly about to. I wasn’t made of money. Consequently, instead of buying this movie on DVD as I did with Batman Begins, I hired it from the local video rental place because that was cheaper. And forget the cinema. I didn’t go to the cinema for years when my kids were little. So I’ve only ever seen this movie once.

I remember continuing to enjoy the serious tone, but it didn’t have that origin backstory element that I loved so much in the first movie.

So I was really interested to see how I’d react to a rewatch after all these years.

The movie has a very silent beginning. So much so I had to keep checking that the sound was working on my computer.

We know from the ending scene of Batman Begins that this movie would introduce The Joker as its villain. The Joker is well known as the most famous, most iconic Batman villain. And this in large part thanks to the Adam West TV show, I believe.

I think it was smart to use lesser-known villains in the first movie, like Falcone, Scarecrow, Ra's Al Ghul and Even Victor Zzazz. It expanded the world for those not familiar with the comics and gave Batman room to really shine as he came into his own.

But this was the time to introduce his famous arch-nemesis.

When we first see a criminal wearing a clown mask our natural inclination is to think, this has got to be the joker, or someone who works for him, right?

Turns out these guys are working for him, but it’s not a close association. He planned this heist, and he wants a cut.

He calls himself The Joker because he wears makeup to scare people, like war paint. We’ll come back to this.

It’s a shock when one robber is killed by another as soon as he’s finished his work on the security system. And it would seem to make sense at first. One less person to split the money with, and these are hardly moral people. Unless something goes wrong and you need that guy again, or if you get a bad reputation for killing your team members and nobody wants to join your crew for future endeavours.

Turns out, this is a mob bank. One of the workers has a shotgun. I have to admit, the idea of the mob owning a bank is a concept I’m struggling to get my head around.

Looks like none of these crooks really know the full plan. Half of them are instructed to kill the other half.

The mob guy makes a good point. If you work for someone like the joker, who orders his own people dead, he’ll only do the same to you.

Except the guy he’s talking to ends up being the joker.

In the end, he doesn’t have to share the money with anyone. But who’s gonna want to work with him?

So taking a more active role than it appeared.

He definitely has a flair for the dramatic in the way he kills people.

Using the school bus as a getaway vehicle to blend in with all the other school buses is clever, but it would require expert timing, and wouldn’t the back of his bus be banged up from crashing through the wall?

I was surprised to see someone wearing the scarecrow mask from the last movie.

It’s not surprising, however, that there would be a copycat batman or two. But this guy doesn’t compare to the real thing.

And It seems it’s actually Doctor Crane himself. Has he escaped from jail? And why would he now be playing vigilante? That’s a bit weird.

There’s a story-telling reason to do this. The idea is you show the villain who was such a threat last time as being ineffectual compared to the new villain, thus emphasising how powerful and threatening the new villain is.

Except, Doctor Crane was never much of a threat to Batman. Ra’s al Ghul was the main threat.

The big difference, of course, between Batman and these fakes, is competence. He’s got the skills, the experience, and the equipment. They don’t.

Bruce has obviously affected some upgrades to the tumbler. It has some auto-drive features, which are not so unbelievable in 2022, but were still science fiction 2008.

Batman doesn’t always come when Gordon turns on the signal, because he’s busy. But Gordon likes to do it anyway, to remind people that Batman is out there.

That one scene when Alfred brings breakfast into an empty bedroom speaks volumes without a line of dialogue. Of course, the next scene has the dialogue which is almost redundant. Bruce has set himself up with a temporary batcave under a Wayne Enterprises facility while the mansion is being rebuilt. It’s a massive empty area with white ceiling. It looks somewhat unreal.

Alfred warns Bruce that he needs to know his limits. Bruce says Batman doesn’t have any, and Alfred points out that Bruce does. What’s going to happen on the day when he realises them.

And that’s a clear ominous warning about a coming theme in this movie.

And while Bruce likes to think that Batman has no limits, he clearly does, because even as a symbol, he’s portrayed by a human being. Batman is built on the flaws of that human.

We meet the exciting new DA. Harvey Dent.

And for those who haven’t picked up on it, we see him making decisions by flipping a coin.

Rachel is not only working for Dent, she is apparently dating him.

She gave Bruce a little sliver of hope that maybe they could be together someday when Gotham no longer needs Batman, but at the same time, it doesn’t seem that she’s willing to wait for him. I’m not saying that she should, but by dating someone else it makes her offer kinda hollow. 

So now we have to talk about Katie Holmes. Because Rachel has mysteriously changed her face like a timelord.

Katie Holmes didn’t return for this movie. And we don’t know exactly why. We probably never will. We know that Christopher Nolan wanted her to return and was reportedly a bit upset that she didn’t. She was quite busy at the time and has said publicly that it was a decision that was right for her at that moment but would love to work with Nolan again someday.

I was disappointed when I learned that the character had been recast. I quite liked Katie Holmes in Batman Begins. The role went to Maggie Gyllenhaal.

And I have to say, having just re-watched this movie, she did a fantastic job.

It can’t be easy to come in and portray a character previously played by someone else, especially if you’re supposed to be in the same continuity as the previous. But Maggie made me believe.

And while I really liked Holmes in Batman Begins, I think I can say that Maggie Gyllenhaal gave a better performance in The Dark Night. She plays Rachel as a little older, a little wiser. And I really enjoyed what she did.

The new head of Falcone’s crime organisation, Maroni, who’s played by Eric Roberts, an actor I quite like, has apparently got a fall guy to admit to being in charge, much to the amusement of everyone in the audience. I’m sure that’s not what they’re called in a court case, but you know what I’m talking about.

This guy has smuggled a gun right into the courtroom, even up to the witness stand, which is a little hard to swallow, but at least this movie gives an explanation. It’s made of carbon fibre, which I’m guessing doesn’t set off metal detectors? Last movie, both Bruce and one of Falcone’s men got guns into the courtroom and that was never explained.

Dent comes across as very cocky, but also very capable.

He disarms the witness without a single hint of anxiety.

Gordon and Batman are trying to cripple the mob by depriving them of their money. They plan to raid the mob banks before the Joker and rob them. The Joker is a side-problem at present. 

Bruce is falling asleep in board meetings because he’s out all night being Batman, but that doesn’t mean he’s neglecting the company. He’s keeping a tight eye on things, more so than appears. I like that.  This is his father’s legacy, after all.

The rivalry between Bruce and Harvey over Rachel is kind of embarrassing to observe. I guess I can’t blame him. Bruce and Rachel are not together, but not by Bruce’s choice. Often in Superhero stories, you’ll have the hero tell his love interest that they can’t be together but then get all moody and belligerent when the woman pursues something with someone else. I believe Smallville did this once or twice. But you can’t have it both ways.

Anyway, nothing quite so angsty is going on here. Bruce would have Rachel in a second if she’d have him, and Harvey is in the way of that.

This is a point we’ll connect back to later when we talk about character goals.

As far as we know, Harvey has no beef with Bruce, but when another guy puffs out his chest at you in a passive-aggressive kinda way, you’re gonna puff back. That’s just how it works, right.

So there’s this mutual ribbing that’s going on during the conversation.

I mean, it was quite rude of Bruce to intrude on their date the way he does. But he doesn’t really care.

They begin debating the merits of Batman. Ironically, Harvey is in defence, and Bruce against.

I like how Bruce’s date isn’t just portrayed as a bimbo. She has considered opinions and she’s the one who brings up the topic.

Rachel points out the example of Cesar, who was appointed by the people to defend them but then never gave up his power.

Could the same end up being true of Batman?

Harvey’s answer is important. This is his thematic sentence.

“You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

Let’s see how this particular theory plays out with our main characters throughout the story.

But Harvey thinks Batman doesn’t want to do this forever. He’s looking for someone to take up his mantle. Maybe even somebody like him.

And he’d be shocked to learn just how right he is about this.

Bruce is sold. He wants to throw his financial support behind Dent.

But he has his own ulterior motives. 

What if Harvey Dent is the hero that can solve Gotham’s problems in a more ‘by the book’ kind of way? What if he could take over the mantle from Batman?

That would then leave Bruce free to pursue a relationship with Rachel - one she claims she’d be interested in once Batman is a thing of the past.

Ultimately, Batman is thinking more about his own personal wants and needs here than about what’s best for the city.

It’s hard to blame him. He’s an imperfect person who does have wants of his own. But we’ll have to see what he ultimately puts priority on when the time comes. That will determine what kind of man he is.

So surprise, Lau, the guy that Wayne Enterprises was thinking of doing business with, the guy that Bruce decided not to work with, is involved with the Gotham Mob. The Joker has stolen a few million dollars from them. But Maroni isn’t convinced that the Joker is the real problem. The cops are the bigger issue. They’re trying to seize the rest of their cash.

Lau hides the money for them so when Gordon gets in there, there’s nothing to find.

And that’s when the Joker barges into their little meeting.

This scene is the first introduction we really get to Heath Ledger’s Joker.

His first act is to kill one of the mob guys who tries to throw him out, using a pencil.

Now, this whole pencil in the eye stunt really disturbed me the first time I saw it, and it really stuck in my memory.

I remember cringing in revulsion. That wasn’t something I needed to see.

This time around, it didn’t affect me as much, possibly because I knew it was coming. That first time, when it happened, I really thought through the implications.

Really disturbing.

It’s clear to the Joker that the mob are afraid of Batman. Despite what they say, they’re not having their meetings in broad daylight because of Harvey Dent.

The Joker makes an offer. I’ll kill the Batman, but not for free. That’s why he’s here.

But can they take him seriously? He’s shown he’s clever. He’s shown he can pull off a heist. He’s demonstrated his competence and his boldness by stealing some of their money.

But does that mean he’s capable of killing Batman? That’s quite a different task than stealing money from a mob bank.

The outspoken gangster, Gambol, isn’t impressed and says he’s putting a price on the Joker’s head, but I think their new leader is seriously thinking about it all.

So let’s talk about this version of The Joker.

I see Heath Ledger as the definitive on-screen version of The Joker. I know a lot of people will point to Mark Hamill, but I’m just not really into a lot of animated stuff.

So to me, Ledger was the ultimate portrayal of what I traditionally thought of as The Joker.

His personality is creepy. He comes across as somewhat unhinged, but at the same time capable, and a worthy adversary for Batman.

The make-up is dishevelled and badly done, and he has big scars on his cheeks, extending into a sickening smile, covered crudely with lipstick. It gives a wonderfully creepy vibe that works wonderfully for me. If the makeup was applied better, it would lose all its power. Incidentally, that’s why I didn’t like Joaquim Phoenix's look for the Joker in the trailers, although when I watched the movie and understood the character’s backstory, I realised that it worked for that version of the character.

But some people took issue with the whole make-up idea. I know a friend of mine has talked at length about how he didn’t want a joker wearing makeup. He wanted a joke with chemical-bleached skin.

Now because I don’t have much of a comics history in my youth, I was simply unaware of this aspect of the character. I’m bingeing on DC comics now, but that didn’t help me in the past.

You see, I always thought The Joker wore makeup. My main previous exposures to the character were Ceasar Romero, who wore makeup right over his moustache, and Jack Nicholson.

As I explained last time, I completely misinterpreted what was going on in the 1989 Batman movie. I thought that Nicholson’s Joker wore makeup to cover his disfigurement from landing in the chemicals. It was only very recently that I learned that the natural skin tone was in fact the makeup, and the clown face was his real skin.

And I’m sorry, but I just find that kind of silly. Especially the hair. I can buy the idea of bleached skin from chemicals, but not if it just looks like white makeup. And green hair from landing in chemicals. No. That doesn’t work for me at all.

So to me, The Joker has always been, and probably always will be, a creepy guy who wears clown makeup.

I’m sorry, but I didn’t know any different before, and now that idea is solidified in me.

Anyway, it goes without saying that Heath Ledger’s performance in this movie is outstanding. He won an oscar for it. It’s just such a tragedy that he died before even receiving it.

So Dent and Gordon meet Batman on the rooftop. There’s a lot of blame going around for what happened, but what really matters is they need to get Lau back. He’s fled to Hong Kong. Harvey can get him to talk if Batman can get him back somehow.

Is it just me or are all the actors in this movie really young?

When Bruce goes to Lucious for help. The scene always plays like a Bond film, where 007 gets his latest gadgets from Q. But somehow, that works.

The Joker comes to see Gambol, but his method of arrival is suitably theatrical. He arrives in a body bag, pretending to have been killed.

And that’s when we hear his question for the first time.

“Do you want to know how I got these scars?”

It’s not the last time he’ll ask somebody that question, and each time, he’ll give a completely different story, each as dark and twisted as the last.

Of course, at this point in the movie, we don’t realise that, so we take the story about his wife-beating mother at face value. Ah, so that’s why The Joker is so messed up. But that’s too easy. Too trite. Does a tragic childhood justify the person The Joker is? It certainly doesn’t excuse it. Does it explain it? Plenty of people have had horrible childhoods like the story he tells, but they don’t grow up to be psychotic serial killers.

Ultimately, I think the reason the writers had him give all these conflicting stories is that they’re showing that no one incident really truly explains or justifies what he is. He’s just insane.

Normally, I don’t like it when explanations are not fully given, when stuff like this is left hanging as a mystery that’s never resolved. Often, it’s done badly so it leaves me feeling unsatisfied. But here, it works wonderfully. So I’m with it.

The Joker is slowly taking over the criminal underworld in Gotham. But he’s doing it in such a Joker way. He has Gambol and some other goons fight it out, to the death, for the privilege of joining his team.

This guy really is sick.

Fox has a clever way of getting into the interior of Lau’s building and planting another jamming device in there. I quite like seeing these two working in the field together.

This part of the movie really does feel like a spy thriller.

Batman usually confines himself to Gotham. I think this is the first time I’ve seen him operating in another country on screen.

The method of extracting Bruce and Lau from the building into the plane looks awesome, but man it would be terrifying.

It seems strange to me that Rachel - a lawyer for the DA’s office, is interrogating Lau, not a police officer. Is that normal in America? Because here, it’s the police who interview people. Then, when they think they have sufficient evidence, they charge the suspect. Then they appear in court. Although, interestingly, we don’t have District Attorneys, like in America. As far as I understand, it’s actually the police themselves that prosecute criminal cases. You hear the term police prosecutor.

Gordon makes mass arrests. Rachael and Dent have worked out some legal options where if you get a conviction on one, you can get a conviction on a bunch of their accomplices. I don’t fully understand, but it’s looking pretty nice for the good guys at the moment.

Until the Judge finds a playing card, a joker, amongst her papers.

The Joker makes a direct challenge to Batman by dumping the dead body, in Joker makeup, of one of the copycat batmen into the Mayor’s window.

The Joker wants Batman to step up and take off the mask. Every night he doesn't, people will die.

Despite the jokes and ribbing, Bruce is genuine when he says he believes in Harvey Dent. Yeah, he’s got his ulterior motives, but he genuinely believes Harvey is what the city needs, maybe even more than it news Batman. Gotham needs a hero with a face.

Bruce opens up to Rachel. He believes that day is coming very soon when Batman won’t be needed. And when that day comes, he’s asking her to be there for him.

The people The Joker plans to kill tonight are quite important. The judge and Commissioner Loeb are among them. Harvey Dent may be another. The Joker crashes Bruce’s fundraiser for Dent.

Rachel stands up to him and that’s when he tells his second scar story. This one is about a wife who was disfigured. He disfigured himself to be like her, and she left him.

When Batman shows up, The Joker throws Rachel out the window. Batman has to jump out, catch her, and reach the ground safely. His cape barely opens as he’s seconds from crashing into a car uncountable stories below.

This is even more unbelievable than the fall out the window in Batman Begins. It’s laughable to expect us to believe that Batman and Rachel are still alive. That’s a real problem for me.

Alfred seems to have a greater understanding of The Joker. This is not a man with a rational goal. He’s not after the things that most criminals are after. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

So how do you understand a man like that? How do you defeat him?

Batman has been called the world’s greatest detective. We get to see him doing a little detective work. Specifically, some forensic work, analysing gunshots into brick.

I really like how the movie acknowledges that somebody in Wayne Enterprises is going to notice their own tech from applied sciences being used out there by Batman. That’s only logical. But Lucious is quite capable of dealing with that.

What’s harder for me to swallow is that Bruce gets a fingerprint of the shooter off the hundreds of shards that were once a bullet.

The Joker’s next target is the mayor, who is giving a speech at Loeb’s funeral.

It’s interesting to see the Joker out of makeup as he pretends to be one of the cops giving a rifle salute.

Gordon has been shot, but we know he can’t die because he hasn’t become commissioner yet.

Still, they play it for real. And they portray the emotion of it very well.

Rachel is the next target.

Harvey needs someone he can trust, and Rachel suggests Bruce Wayne.

So, you know the trope, where the vigilante holds the crook out a window, threatening to drop them. We know they won’t. The crook knows they won’t. In this case, Batman has specifically chosen a height that won’t kill Maroni, so that he can make good on his threat when Maroni calls his bluff.

Maroni makes a good point. Batman has rules. The joker has no rules. Nobody is gonna cross The Joker for Batman. The only way to find him is to take off his mask and let the Joker come to him. Or he could just let more people die while he makes up his mind.

Harsh truth.

Dent is trying a different tactic. Putting a gun to the mobster’s head. But Maroni was right. This guy won’t talk.

Dent offers a toss of the coin. But is he really gonna kill the guy? I know he’s worried about Rachel being the next target, but is the DA really ready to take a life in cold blood?

Turns out, this guy is a paranoid schizophrenic. There’s not a lot Dent is gonna learn from him.

Batman has some words for Harvey. He is a legitimate voice standing against the crime in Gotham. Doing it by the book. That’s the first ray of light this city has seen in decades. What would happen if people saw their white knight holding a gun to a man’s head?

Bruce is convinced that the people need someone better than a vigilante in a bat mask. They need somebody working on the correct side of the law with his face uncovered. That’s something Batman can never be.

I love how all of this is building toward the conclusion of this movie. It’s like a tapestry where all the threads are coming together to make something greater. There really is some great writing in this one. It’s all very thematic.

Bruce is ready to pass on the torch. Right now. He’s going to unmask himself so nobody else dies on his behalf.

Dent considers giving up. Even Rachel isn’t convinced that this will keep The Joker from killing people. But it may flush him out and allow somebody to stop him.

I understand Bruce’s perspective. What choice does he have? He can’t just keep watching while people die. Is protecting his secret identity really more important than all those lives?

I think he’s making the only call he can under the circumstances.

Rachel admits she meant what she said to him at the end of Batman Begins. If he ends Batman, she’ll be with him.

But she believes that if Bruce turns himself in, they won’t let them be together.

“They” could refer to a lot of people. The Joker, any criminal with a grudge against Batman. The police.

Bruce is destroying any evidence that could lead back to Lucious or Rachel.

Today, Bruce has found out what Batman can’t do, but as predicted, Alfred doesn’t want to say “I told you so.”

At a press conference, Dent debates whether Batman should be turned in with the crowd. They all want his head, so he gives in. As Bruce begins to step forward, Dent falls on his sword. “I am the Batman,” he says.

Bruce hesitates.

He doesn’t turn himself in.

What should he do?

Rachel isn’t impressed.

Dent reveals how he makes his own luck - both sides of his coin are heads.

The Joker makes his move to capture Dent from the prison transport. But Batman makes his move as well, essentially proving that Dent is not Batman by appearing in the tumbler.

Action scenes with The Tumbler are always fun.

But sadly, it’s been damaged beyond immediate repair. So…..Bruce ejects in a motorbike.

This is a problem.

I can’t believe that the bridging vehicle was designed to come apart and partially transform into a motorbike. Clearly, Bruce and Lucious have made a lot of alterations.

But I just can’t buy that. I mean, the bike with the massive wheels looks cool and all, but this breaks the believability a bit too much for me.

This is no ordinary bike, though. It can do some really cool things.

Despite all he has done, Bruce still holds to his rule. He doesn’t kill The Joker.

Just when all hope looks gone, who should show up but Jim Gordon. Alive and well.

Now they have The Joker in custody.

Gordon says he couldn’t risk his family’s safety, which is why he went through this ruse. But he still put them through the heartbreak of thinking he was dead. And that’s pretty bad. And they haven’t even found out the truth yet. Gordon is on his way home to tell his wife he’s alive now. She gives him the slap that I think he deserves.

But in all the commission, one thing that I missed in my first watching all those years ago. The mayor names Gordon Commissioner. So he’s finally reached the position he’s known for.

They’ve found no Id on him. No idea what The Joker’s true identity is. His name.

How do you charge someone without knowing their name? It’s not like they can just call him “The Joker.”

But there’s some bad news. Dent didn’t make it home. So who has him?

Gordon lets Batman do the interrogation. This is where we see the beginning of the nemesis relationship. The Joker doesn’t want Batman dead. What would he do without Batman? Go back to knocking off mob bosses? The Joker needs a worthy adversary. Batman completes him.

The Joker tells Batman he’s going to have to break his one rule tonight - his rule against killing. And he’s already been considering it.

But it seems the Joker knows who Batman is, or at least, he knows there is a connection between Batman and Rachel.

Batman is going to have to choose between Dent and Rachel. One life or another.

The Joker tells Batman where each of them are.

Batman’s decision is made without even thinking. He’s going after Rachel.

The police will go for Dent.

It’s a sick setup. They’re both wired to bombs, but there’s a speakerphone between them, so they can talk to each other. Hear each other’s screams.

The Joker’s method of escaping is clever, but disturbing.

Rachel doesn’t want to live with Harvey, so he finally gives him the answer he’s been waiting for. The question is obvious. Her answer - yes.

So…seems she’s not willing to wait for Bruce after all. She’d already decided that, as we’ll learn from her letter. She’s convinced a day will never come when Bruce doesn’t need Batman.

And now comes the real tragedy of this whole thing.

Batman bursts into the location where he was told Rachel would be.

But it’s Harvey.

The Joker gave him the wrong addresses. He switched them.

So that by thinking he saved the one he chose, he’d actually be killing them.

Harvey is not happy that Batman came for him instead of Rachel - which of course he didn’t mean to do.

And Rachel has to calmly accept it. It’s that moment when you realise you’re about to die and there’s nothing you can do to stop it, so there’s no use struggling. But at least the one you love is safe.

And then it happens. The buildings explode. Harvey is saved, but Rachel is not.

Rachel is dead.

And Batman unknowingly killed her.

This is a heart-breaking tragic moment. It was a gutsy move. It was not normal, especially at the time, for a superhero to actually kill off the love interest like this.

That was dark.

Of course, I’m not against tragedy or darkness in stories. But ouch. This hurts. But sometimes stories are supposed to hurt. That’s what makes them powerful.

Before she died, Rachel gave Alred a letter for Bruce, telling him she’d decided not to wait for him. She was gonna marry Harvey Dent. Alfred ultimately decides to destroy this letter rather than give it to Bruce.

I think he reasons that the rejection on top of the death is just another level of grief he doesn’t need. He’ll at least let Bruce keep the hope that Rachel was going to be with him.

It’s hard to say which would be more painful, knowing that you could have been with her if only she’d survived, or knowing that no matter what, you’d never have been able to be with her.

Harvey’s face is half-burned in the explosion. We know what that means.

When I first saw this movie, I was embarrassingly unfamiliar with Harvey Dent, and who he was destined to become. I think the coin gave me some hints but I remember being surprised when I realised where this was going.

So…..Two Face is born.

The makeup effects are very well done. But….it looks really gross. Not something I actually want to look at.

Harvey is not accepting skin grafts. I’m no doctor, but I don’t think he’s going to be able to just walk around with a big hold in his cheek, with his eyeball all exposed like that, without getting some serious infection.

Maroni claims he can tell Gordon where the Joker will be tonight.

The Joker proves he’s a different kind of criminal when he burns all the money. He’s an agent of chaos. Then he calls the talkback show that’s about to reveal Batman’s identity and threatens more chaos unless someone called “Coleman Reese” isn’t dead within the hour. It wasn’t entirely clear to me at the time, but Coleman Reese is the guy who has figured out Batman’s identity.

Rese is not dead, so true to his word, The Joker sets off a bomb destroying the entire hospital.

They managed to clear it, fortunately.

Bruce has developed a system where he can use every mobile phone in the city to listen in and pinpoint people of interest. As Lucious points out, it’s a clear violation of privacy and potentially gives too much power to one person, even though the only person Bruce trusts to use it, over even himself, is Lucious.

It’s an interesting dilemma. It may help Bruce find The Joker, and Lucious is willing to help him this one time, after which, he’ll resign.

Batman is a vigilante. He operates outside the law. It’s interesting that this is the line that Lucious feels so strongly about.

What do you think? Has Bruce crossed a line here? And if it helps him stop The Joker, is it worth it?

Havey is after the people that took Rachel. Moles within the police department.

The Joker has threatened more chaos and death in the city, and half the population are evacuating Gotham via ferry.

The joker is running a sick social experiment.

Two boats. One full of criminals. Another full of evacuating civilians.

Each rigged with a bomb. Each with a detonator to destroy the other boat.

At midnight he blows both boats up, unless someone on one of the boats pushes their button - destroying the other. The Joker will let that boat live.

So by sacrificing (murdering) the people on the other boat, they’ll save themselves.

The civilian boat is taking a vote.

The guards on the criminal boat are desperately trying to stop the prisoners from rioting and pushing the button. 

This kind of sick game is exactly the kind of thing that The Joker delights in. 

Meanwhile, Harvey has taken Gordon’s family.

It’s all happening.

There’s lots of fantastic drama as the crews of the boat try to make their decisions. It’s really interesting how it all develops.

Thanks to his invention, Batman has found The Joker. And so begins their epic showdown.

In the end, neither crew destroys the other.

Likewise, Batman and the Joker won’t kill each other, Batman because of his morals, and the Joker because fighting Batman is too much fun.

The joker is fighting for the soul of Gotham. That’s not gonna be won with a fistfight. Much 

like Lex in Batman V Superman, he’s trying to make a philosophical point about morality.

But the people in those barges have just proven that the city is full of people willing to do good.

But for how long? The Joker has taken the white knight - Harvey Dent, and transformed him into something ugly. I’m not talking about his face. He’s turned Dent into a killer. The beacon of hope that Bruce so believed in. When people see that, their idealism, their hope in good, will evaporate.

THAT is the joker’s victory.

But the Gotham police arrive and arrest him. He’ll spend the rest of his life in a cell, and that’s the last we see of him in this movie.

But there’s still a good 20 minutes left of the film. How can you have a climax without your primary villain? Isn’t that The Joker?

Well, he may in fact be the primary villain, but putting aside that word, he’s not the primary antagonist.

Harvey Dent is the primary antagonist.

The antagonist is the one who stands opposed to the protagonist’s goal in the story. Our protagonist is Bruce Wayne. And what does he want? Ultimately his goal in this movie is to stop being Batman, so he can be with Rachel. He wants to raise up Harvey Dent as a different kind of hero, a better hero, a white knight who can do the things Batman can’t.

Harvey opposes Bruce’s goals the whole way through. First, simply by being with Rachel, keeping her from a relationship with Bruce.

But ultimately, by becoming bad. By failing to be the hero Bruce wanted him to be. By constantly making bad choices, proving that he’s not the good person Bruce so desperately wants him to be.

And that’s what we’re about to see play out in this final sequence as Harvey threatens Gordon’s family.

So if the Joker isn’t the antagonist, what role does he place in this movie?

I learned this from an old episode of the Writing Excuses podcast about the Hollywood Formula with a guy named Lou Anders. The Joker is what is referred to as the relationship character. The relationship character is the embodiment of the story’s theme. The Joker is constantly trying to convince Batman that he’s more like The Joker than he is like the idealised hero he wants Dent to be. “You’re a freak - just like me.”

In the end, Batman fulfils this by accepting his role as The Dark Knight.

This is fascinating stuff to me.

It’s interesting to me that Harvey has chosen Gordon as the target of all his rage. I understand he failed to save Rachel, but there are bigger targets. The Joker is the most obvious, of course, but he has his reasons why he wants to go for someone more directly connected to the failure.

Batman is a more logical target. Batman was the one who went to the wrong place and saved Harvey instead of Rachel.

I could totally understand Harvey targeting Batman, but Gordon?

I guess the difference is, Gordon is tangible. Gordon is a real person with an identity and a family.

What is Batman? A persona. How do you hurt Batman? Who are his loved ones? You can’t know that without knowing who is behind the mask.

And Harvey’s approach is very Joker-like. He’s playing games. He’s gonna pick one of Gordon’s family, the one he decides Gordon loves the most. That’s the life he’s going to take. One for one.

He doesn’t even want to escape from this, and that makes him especially dangerous.

Batman shows up, mercifully.

Harvey feels betrayed not just on a personal level because of Rachel but on a larger leve.,

“You lied to me. You said we could be decent men, in an indecent time. You were wrong. The world is cruel. And the only morality in a cruel world is change.”

In his mind, that’s fair.

The Joker chose Harvey because he was the best of them. Joker wanted to prove that even a man like Harvey Dent could fall.

Sadly, Harvey has proven him right. That’s the tragedy of this whole story.

The heavy drama here is powerful. Doubly so because I’m a parent.

So Batman rescues the boy, and Harvey dies in the struggle, leaving Gordon and Batman with a dilemma. The Joker has won.

Any hope for saving Gotham dies with Harvey’s reputation.

So Bruce does the only thing he can. There is only one way left to defeat the Joker, and he can’t let the Joker win.

Batman claims responsibility for Harvey’s crimes. “Tell them I did it,” he says to Gordon.

Batman takes the fall for Harvey so that Harvey’s reputation can remain untarnished, thus preserving hope for the people of Gotham.

Batman calls back to something Harvey Dent said early in the movie. He has now grown old enough to see himself become the villain. But not in the way anyone expected.

As Bruce rides off on his bike, Gordon’s son says “But he didn’t do anything wrong.”

I can’t help but see strong Christ parallels here.

An innocent man taking on the crimes of the guilty, for the good of others.

And Christ parallels always hit me right in the heart, because of my own personal beliefs.

This is a tragic but beautiful ending.

So Bruce has now become The Dark Knight. The hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs.

The name takes on so much new significance at the end. It wasn’t just a case of “well, we can’t call it Batman, so what’s another name for Batman?” No. The Dark Knight has deep meaning, especially when contrasted with Harvey Dent as the White Knight. Love it.

Critics of DC films, particularly the ones that get a reputation for being dark, tend to say that the movies are without hope, without optimism. Nothing could be further from the truth.

This movie is dripping with hope. It’s all about hope.

I feel the same way about Man of Steel and Batman V Superman.

I love this movie.

It’s so well written.

It all fits together so nicely. Events are foreshadowed. Themes are set up and then paid off satisfactorily.

It’s almost poetic.

So, having now re-watched both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, I might still say that Batman Begins is my favourite because I really like the origin story aspect, but I think I might have to say that The Dark Knight is actually the better film.

But we’re talking about the difference between two awesome movies, so what does it really matter? The point is, they’re both fantastic.

Next time, we’ll conclude our look at this trilogy by watching The Dark Knight Rises, which I’ve also only seen once.

And then after that, we launch into our new series on Star Trek Continues.

Have a great two weeks

Live long and prosper

Make it so

Batman Begins is my favourite standalone Batman movie. It set a precedent for the kind of grounded serious superhero movie that I would love going forward. So let's dig in an talk about it. Over the next three episodes, I'll be covering the Dark Knight Trilogy, but it all begins here with Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins.

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven.

I’m Adam David Collings

The author of Jewel of The Stars.

And I am a nerd.

This is episode 92 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about the movie Batman Begins.

The description on IMDB reads

After training with his mentor, Batman begins his fight to free crime-ridden Gotham City from corruption.

The story for this movie was written by David S. Goyer

The screenplay was written by Christopher Nolan.

It was directed by Christopher Nolan

And it first released in June 2005 

In order to share my thoughts and reactions to Batman Begins, I need to very briefly talk about my past experience with Batman. Much like Superman, Batman has always been a part of my consciousness. I can’t remember a time in my life before I knew about Batman. He was just always there.

The first version of the character that I actively remember engaging with was the 60s TV series, although I’m sure there was awareness before that. I wasn’t alive in the 60s, of course, but I saw the show on repeats.

Remember Saturday morning cartoons in the 80s? Our local TV station did their own Saturday morning show, and amongst all the cartoons, they always showed one live action show. At one point they showed the Beverly Hillbillies. At another point, it was Adam West Batman.

I enjoyed the show, but I think even at the time, I was aware that it was incredibly cheesy and silly. But to me, Superheroes were not silly. I took them very seriously.

When news of the 1989 Tim Burton movie came out, my ears pricked up. I didn’t see the movie at the cinema. We just didn’t really go to the cinema much when I was a kid. We watched everything on Video. And that’s how I eventually saw this movie. But I remember seeing the marketing. And I had a hardcover book about the making of the movie. I remember looking at the darker aesthetic and thinking, wow. This is a gritter, more serious take on Batman. I was VERY interested. Would this movie take the character as seriously as I did?

When I finally saw the movie, I enjoyed it. It was more grounded. I liked how they explained the Joker’s smile. He had to have his skin stretched after his accident, so he used makeup to make it less weird. At least, that’s how I interpreted it. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realised that the normal skin tone was actually the makeup, and the white skin was real.

This movie was much closer to the kind of Batman I wanted, but it still had more campiness than I expected. Most of that came from the Joker. Seeing him prance about with his goons spray painting the museum, it felt like I was right back in Adam West land. But it was more than that. There was a thick veneer of un-realness over them, especially the second. It was the architecture, the people, the 1930s cameras, Penguin’s father’s monocle.

And the movies in that series got progressively more and more silly.

I don’t want to speak too disparagingly about that series, because there’s lots of good stuff to like.

But when they announced that the Batman movies were getting rebooted, I was very interested once again.

And this time, they really were taking it seriously. Batman Begins was a more serious grounded Batman. This was a movie that took the character as seriously as I did. It treated him like a person and really fleshed out Bruce Wayne as much as it did Batman.

This was EXACTLY what I’d been looking for. And to this day, Batman Begins is still my favourite stand-alone Batman movie. It’ll be interesting to see if that still holds after I re-watch The Dark Knight, which I’ve only ever seen once. I say standalone because Batman V Superman was a multi-hero movie. But Batman Begins primed me for Zack Snyder’s work. Batman Begins made me fall in love with the grounded serious Superhero movie. And I’ve never looked back.

So let’s dig in and talk about it.

So the movie begins with a shot of the sky with bats flying everywhere, and Batman’s logo revealed in the background. That logo is so recognisable that you really don’t need any text. That’s something the marketers knew even back in 1989.

Bruce is running around his garden as a child. Most Batman stories begin with Bruce walking through the alley with his parents at night, but this is a different take. This is Bruce before the tragedy. It’s all bright colours and sunny. Bruce has a big smile on his face as he plays with his childhood friend Rachel. But he’s a bit of a little ratbag. Rachel has found something cool, it’s an old arrowhead, and he snatches it from her. It seems that child Bruce has developed a sense of, I can have what I want, because I’m rich. Not exactly the lesson his parents would want him to pick up, we’ll see later that they’re really good people. But this is an attitude that could easily develop in a child raised in an environment like this, unless much care was taken to help him unlearn that kind of stuff.

As Rachel chases him, Bruce falls through a hole into an old boarded up well. rachel runs to get help from her Mum, who is in Wayne Manor, which looks really cool. I’m surprised they didn’t take more care to fence it off or something. This well connects to a cave system underground, and it is filled with bats. Young Bruce freaks out as they flap around his face, giving him a life-time fear of bats. This is an important element that will come back later in a way that I thought was really cool.

That’s when we cut to Bruce waking up as an adult.

Now I’ve heard from some sources, some criticisms of this movie and it’s realistic take. Pointing out that there are things in it that are far from realistic. Bruce’s fall without apparent injury could be classed as one. Although we’ll later learn that he did break his leg, but a bit more visible pain on his face would have helped.

For me, when I say I love this movie for its realistic take, it’s not about every little moment being perfectly realistic. It’s about the realistic take on the characters. It’s about the world feeling like ours, rather than having that thick veneer of fakeness plastered over it like the previous movie series. As I said before, it’s about this movie taking itself seriously.

This is a Bruce Wayne we’ve never seen. He’s got a beard. He's lying in a foreign prison. Okay, What is going on here?

Most Batman stories do the parents’ death and then cut straight to Batman fully costumed and operating in Gotham. But there’s a big jump between those. How do you get from one to the other? That was the big promise of this movie. They were going to delve more deeply into Batman’s origin story, a story that had never really been told on screen before. We see how Bruce as a young man goes off in search of his destiny, and finally finds it. Finds a way to deal with the pain of his parent’s death, and ultimately, becomes the Batman we know.

This was a story that was completely new to me, and I loved it.

We don’t yet know what Bruce is in here for, but another of the prisoners has it out for him. Is bullying him.

I quite like it when the bully refers to himself as the devil, and Bruce says, “you’re not the devil. You’re practice.” 

That tells you so much about Bruce’s mindset here. He’s using everything around him, every experience, to learn and develop. To become what he wants to become. And that’s very Batman.

We get to see a nicely done fight scene. It’s fierce and brutal.

When the guards drag Bruce away “for protection” and then reveal it’s not for him, it’s for all the thugs he beat up, I audibly laughed. A little humour, but not the kind of humour that pulls you out of the seriousness of the scene.

Somebody is waiting for him in his cell. A well-dressed Liam Neeson calling himself Ducard. He says something very interesting. “Are you so desperate to fight criminals that you get yourself locked up so you can take them on one at a time.” This gives us a lot of insight into who Bruce is at the moment, and what’s going on in his head.

Did he deliberately get himself locked up in here? I wouldn’t put it past this version of Bruce Wayne.

Of course, Ducard has figured out exactly who Bruce is. And he says he works for Ra’s al Ghul, a name I hadn’t heard before I watched this movie the first time.

Bruce has been exploring the criminal underworld, but in the process, he’s become lost. Rotting in a foreign prison. He may be learning about criminals here, but he’s certainly not going to do anybody any good.

Ra’s al Ghul can offer him a path. Something he needs but isn’t yet convinced about. The path of the League of Shadows.

Ra’s al Ghul shared Bruce’s hatred of evil. He can provide a way to serve true justice.

So a vigilante. Bruce isn’t sure that’s what he wants to be.

But Ducard sees al Ghul differently. A vigilante is just a man lost in the scramble for his own gratification. He can be destroyed or locked up. Kinda like Bruce right now. But if you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can’t stop you, then you become something else entirely. A legend. There’s some good dialog in this film.

And now he’s got Bruce’s attention. Because he’s offering a concrete way to become what Bruce really wants. A way to truly make a difference against the kind of evil, so rampant in his home city, that destroyed his life.

This is as good a time as any to talk about a theory I have.

You see, the whole idea of a man dressing up as a bat to fight crime is absurd. It’s ridiculous. You might even say, it’s pretty stupid. So why does it work? How do you make it work?

When you’re adapting a comic book to a movie, and you come across something in the comics that’s silly, there’s two main ways you can deal with it.

The first is to basically hang a lantern on it. This has become quite popular in recent time, but has been for a long while. The MCU did this when Hawkeye says “I’m fighting robots with a bow and arrow. None of this makes any sense.” I really don’t like this approach. It’s the acknowledgement, of, this is silly, we know it’s silly, but let’s just go with it, yeah?

Even Zack Snyder’s Justice League does this a little bit, when Aquaman derides Bruce for “dressing up like a bat” and later says “I dig it.”

At the other extreme, you’ve got the approach that Batman Begins takes. When you find something that's silly, you either find a way to make it work, to make it less silly, or you eject it.

An example of this is the penguin. I believe Christopher Nolan has been quited as saying that The Penguin would never have worked in his trilogy because the character just wouldn’t fit with the more realistic take he’d developed.

But right here, in this scene, we’re seeing that Batman Begins is going to try to explain why an orphaned boy grows into a man who eventually wears a bat costume, in a way that doesn’t feel silly. And for me, personally, it works really well.

Ducard has arranged for Bruce to be released from prison tomorrow. He’s instructed to find a rare flower that grows on the mountain. If he can pick one, and bring it to the top of the mountain, he may find what he’s been looking for all this time.

I’m liking the character development they’re already doing with Bruce. He knows he’s looking for something, and he’s been stumbling around the world trying to find it, but so far he’s failed. This is exactly the kind of person that Ra’as al Ghul would try to recruit. And yes, Bruce may have finally found what he’s been searching for.

The scenery in this next sequence is quite beautiful. The grassy plains and the snowy mountains.

He makes his way up the mountain, past villages. They warn him to turn back. I guess there are stories about the questionable people who live up at the top.

Bruce is being put through a physical challenge to reach his destination. It’s one thing to want to fight injustice, but it’s another to have the strength of body and will to do so.

Bruce first has to prove himself capable. Which he does.

Bruce finds an old asian man sitting in a chair when he finally reaches his destination. “Ra’as al Ghul?” he asks. And you’ll notice the man doesn’t answer. He speaks in another language, and Duard translates. I’m not sure exactly what country this is. I get the impression it’s somewhere like Tibet or maybe Nepal.

Bruce is asked “What are you seeking?”

“A means to fight injustice. To turn fear against those who prey on the fearful.” Bruce sounds like somebody who has already given a great deal of thought to the answer to that question. We know he’s been seeking this for some time.

He presents the flower to Ducard.

“To manipulate fears in others, you must first learn to control your own.”

Which seems to make sense.

Bruce can barely stand after his climb, but is still expected to defend himself. Ducard is testing him. He learns that Bruce is afraid, but not of him.

Bruce has been in fights with thugs so many times before. He used to that.

When Ducard asks him what he fears, we cut back to that childhood memory. Being rescued from that cave full of bats.

We learn here but Bruce did indeed break a bone, so points back for the realism thing. We also see that Rachel’s mother works for Wayne as a maid.

Importantly, we see Bruce hand the rock back to Rachel as they go past.

It seems he’s learned a lesson of sorts through this experience. Maybe life isn’t all about having everything you want, and taking the things you desire from others.

His father is trying to impart an important lesson to Bruce. “Why do we fall? So we can pick ourselves back up.” That’s a lesson that adult Bruce has really taken to heart, which is how he’s survived so long in this lifestyle. But he’ll have to re-learn it later.

In this scene, we get our first glimpse of Michael Caine as Alfred. Superhero movies are usually cast with unknowns. That makes a lot of sense, especially for the titular heroes. But Christopher Nolan deliberately cast a lot of big name stars in this movie. Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Katie Holmes. 

Nolan’s thinking was, why shouldn’t a superhero movie deserve to have the very best actors available. Of ourse, star power isn’t always directly equal to acting ability, but these actors all do amazing jobs in their roles in this movie.

I was a little sceptical about someone as famous as Michael Cain playing Alfred. Would I really be able to see the character through the famous face? But it absolutely worked for me. All these actors sold me on their characters, and after this, I couldn’t imagine anybody else ever playing Alfred. Who could possibly top Michael Cain? Of course, then Jeremy Irons blew me away in Batman V Superman, but that’s another story.

Bruce is having recurring nightmares about the bats. They’ve really scared him. His father explains that they attacked him because they were afraid of him. All creatures feel fear - especially the scary ones. This conversation will really shape who and what Bruce will become.

And then his father shows him a pearl necklace he plans to give Bruce’s mother. That’s ominous. We know what those pearls mean. Right?

The next scnene gives us some great insight into who Thomas Wayne is. He’s not only a good father, he’s a good man. The people of Gotham have been going through hard times. He’s used his money to provide cheap transport for the city, and he’s not above using it himself, by the way. He owns Wayne Enterprises, a big successfully company, but he doesn’t take an active role in running it. Instead, he chooses to spend his time working in a hospital as a doctor. In his own way, Thomas Wayne is a hero. He instilled a lot of values into his son.

There’s been one or two interpretations of Thomas Wayne where he’s a corrupt businessman. Not a nice guy at all. And while I appreciate the grittiness of that approach, I prefer this version of Thomas. The idealistic nice guy who established a legacy for Bruce to follow.

And notice that Thomas is wearing a tuxedo, and Martha is wearing the pearls. We know what’s coming.

The actors in the opera seem to be dressed as bats. It’s freaking poor Bruce out. There’s a little exchange between father and son.

First of all, he says “Can we go?” And that just comes across as any restless child who is bored and wants to leave. My response to that would be a quiet firm “No.” But his face shifts and he says “please” in a pleading kind of way. And Thomas sees what’s really going on inside Bruce. And being the good father he is, Thomas leaves the show, something he probably spent good money on, something he was probably enjoying himself. But for the sake of his child, there’s no question.

Martha hasn’t picked up on it the way Thomas did. She asks what is wrong, and Thomas covers for him. I’m not sure exactly why he felt the need to do that. Maybe so as not to embarrass Bruce over his fears. I got another chuckle when Thomas said “A little opera goes a long way, right Bruce.”

So they’ve left early and are walking through the alley, and that’s when it happens.

The inevitable moment that defines Bruce’s life.

When the mugger appears, Thomas is calm. He’s willing to hand over whatever this guy wants. Again this shows the man’s values. He cares about his family far more than money. And he’s trying to calm the mugger.

But when the wallet drops, the mugger gets jumpy.

The mugger wants the jewelly as well. He raises his gun toward Martha.

And suddenly it all happens so fast.

The previously calm Thomas reacts on instinct. It’s not about the pearls. Somebody is pointing a gun at my wife. I must protect her. He stands in front of her.

The sudden movement spooks the mugger and he fires.

It’s all so tragic. They were so close to getting out of this without anybody getting hurt.

Somewhere along the way Martha is shot as well.

And the poor kid is left there in an ally all alone, next to the dead bodies of his parents.

And it’s all because they left early. It’s all because Bruce was afraid of the bats.

That’s got to hurt. This is a good addition to the mythology because it drives that knife even deeper into Bruce’s heart. And it’s that pain that pushes him to become Batman. 

The death scene is done pretty well here, but I have to say, after seeing the version Zack Snyder did in Batman V Superman, well, this just can’t compare to that. That haunting music!

And the lack of blood seems to detract from the realism somewhat.

We get our first look at Commissioner Gordon, although he won’t be a commissioner at all during this movie. Right now, he’s just a uniform cop. Probably a constable. I don’t know exactly how police ranks work in America. You can tell right away he’s a good cop. He shows a lot of compassion and empathy for Bruce.

The detective delivers the good news. They got the guy who did this. But that’s got to be very little comfort to a child who has just lost his parents.

One of the Wayne Enterprise executives promises they’ll be watching over the empire until he’s ready. Again, that’s the last thing that Bruce cares about.

Bruce breaks down and admits the guilt he’s feeling to Alfred. And we see the beginnings of the father figure that Alfred will be from now on. That’s a dynamic that I really like.

Back in the present, Ducard asks Bruce if he still blames himself for his parent’s death. He says that his anger outweighs his guilt. Honestly, I’m not sure which is healthier.

Bruce has buried his guilt with that anger, but Ducard is going to help him confront it and face the truth.

Next we get something of a training montage. Not quite a montage because there’s snippets of dialogue through it.

Bruce has come a long way with his own training, but Ducard will take what he can do and take it to new levels. There are a lot of similarities between Batman, the way he operates, and a ninja. Both use stealth. This movie digs into that and outright makes ninja training a part of Batman’s background. I imagine a lot of this is drawn from comics, but I’m not familiar enough to know exactly what. I’m still pretty early the comics-reading journey I recently started.

But it’s all good stuff.

One little detail that I love is that during their sword fight, Ducard is wearing armoured spikes on his arms, these are a famous part of Batman’s costume. 

There is an emphasis on theatricality and deception. These also lead very naturally into what Batman will be and lend believability to the whole thing that I really appreciate.

When Bruce is shown a criminal in a cage, we get some insight into the zero-tolerance that the league of shadows have for crime. Ducard says “criminals thrive in the indulgence of society’s understanding.”

We’ll see shortly the kind of justice that they believe in.

The next conversation explores this idea of guilt and blame.

Ducards says “Your parents' death was not your fault. It was your father’s. He failed to act.”

Bruce defends his father. “The man had a gun.”

“Would that stop you?”

“I’ve had training.”

“The training is nothing. Will is everything. The will to act.”

So Ducard is placing the blame firmly on Thomas, for not having the strength of body and will to stop the mugger.

This is a very interesting perspective.

The truth is, there are a thousand different things that contributed to them being there at that moment. Bruce’s desire to leave early, their decision to go to the opera, Thomas’s gift of jewellery to his wife, probably many factors that lead the mugger to choose that particular night, that particular alley.

But ultimately, the blame for his crime, in my opinion, has to fall on the mugger. He made the moral choice to steal from these people, and he made the moral choice to kill them. The responsibility for that crime rests on him.

There’s another nice quiet character scene with Bruce and Ducard around a campfire. Ducard displays a keen insight into the kind of pain Bruce has at the centre of his life. The anger he has wrapped around the guilt. The way it has affected him. He shares a little of his own story. He knows Bruce’s pain because he shares it, because of the death of his wife.

Then he says something important.

“Your anger gives you power, but if you let it, it will destroy you.”

And isn’t that the truth!

When Bruce asks what helped Ducard, he says vengeance. And I’m going to have to dispute that one. From what I’ve observed, Vengeance rarely makes people feel better. It doesn’t take away the pain. We talked about this in Stargate Universe when Rush took revenge on Simeon for killing Amanda Perry and Ginn.

Bruce says vengeance is no help to him. He asks why Bruce never took revence for his parents.

And that leads us to another flashback. Bruce is now a young man, probably just out of his teens. He’s been attending Princeton, which I believe is a pretty high profile university, but he’s back home with Alfred for a hearing. Related to the man who killed his parents. Justice works very slowly. But that’s probably a good thing. If there’s one thing where you don’t want to risk making a mistake, it’s the justice system. Sadly, of course, no matter how slow and careful they are, there are still mistakes made. 

Bruce is not returning to Princeton. Apparently, he hasn’t ingratiated himself to the staff there. But he can’t see Wayne Manor as his home either. This is his father’s house. A mausoleum. Alfred doesn’t see it that way. This house has been home to six generations of the Wayne family. Many times, it has passed from parent to child. The child becoming the new master of the home. Moving into the master bedroom is symbolic of that. The only difference is, Thomas’s death happened so young, and so tragically.

Bruce doesn’t understand why Alfred cares so much. But Alfred cares very much about this family, and thinks of it as his own. We see the same thing with Jeremy Irons’ Alfred too. Thomas made Alfred responsible for that which was most precious to him. Bruce. Alfred takes that responsibility very seriously.

And then we find out why Bruce has little regard for his future. We see what Bruce plans to do. He has a hand gun.

But there’s a lot more to it than just wanting revenge for killing his parents. We learn that Rachel works for the DA, and the DA is letting the mugger, Chill, go free. He shared a cell with Carmine Falcone. He’s testifying against that crime boss in exchange for early parole.

So this isn’t the sentencing after all. I Guess justice doesn’t move THAT slowly.

This is hard one. I understand why the justice system needs to make deals like this. You reward the small fish for helping you catch the big fish. The truth is, Carmine Falcone is a much greater threat to the safety of the people of Gotham than Chill is. If they can bring down Falcone, then a lot of lives can be saved. A lot of crime can be prevented.

But what about Bruce? What about his parents? Where is the justice for them?

That’s why Bruce feels somebody should be there to represent his parents at this hearing. To remind the world that Chill’s crime had consequences. That his crime broke Bruce’s life in a way that can never be repaired.

And this is also why he’s planning to take justice into his own hands with that gun.

I’m not sure I noticed this when the movie first came out, but watching it now, as a 44 year old, Rachel almost looks too young to be a lawyer. Katie Holmes was famous as a teenage actor in the TV show Dawson’s Creek. I didn’t watch that show at the time, but I saw a little of it with my wife some time later. I’m still very much seeing that teenager in her face here in this movie.

Of course, this movie came out in 2005. It feels like it was just yesterday, but that’s actually 17 years ago. My first child was born in 2005.

Anyway, I guess the moral of that, which I’m trying to say is that Katie Holmes retained her youthful look, so good on her, and … well….I’m getting kind of old.

As the DA, makes his case, he mentions a depression. To my knoweldge, the only depression that has occured in the last few centuries, was the great depression between the two world wars. We’ve had a number of recessions, but that’s a lesser thing, right? And depression isn’t something that just affects one city. A depression affects nations. Multiple nations. So that’s a departure from real-world history.

Chill speaks of his regret for his crime. Yes, he was desperate, but that doesn’t change what he did. I believe his remorse. It comes across as genuine. After 14 years of paying for the crime, how could you not come to regret it?

We all know regret right. I’ve been torn up by regret over all sorts of things. But none of them close to the severity of what Chill did.

When the judge announces that a member of the Wayne family is present, and invites Bruce to speak, the actor playing Chill does some great stuff with his face, showing the emotion that the character is feeling in that moment. The shame and guilt. The regret. How do you face the living victim of your murder?

But Bruce doesn’t speak. He stands and walks out. And gets his gun ready.

Bruce walks toward Chill, gun hidden in his sleeve, but he never gets the chance. Somebody else shoots Chill dead. No doubt somebody working for Falcone.

Bruce and Rachel talk about the difference between justice and revenge. Bruce posits that sometimes they are the same thing. Rachel says that justice is about harmony. Revenge is about making you feel better.

But Bruce points out her impartial system is broken, which, it is. We talked about that, the imperfection of humans.

So Rachel decides to give him a real lesson. She takes him into the slums. She shows him the people living in poverty. Falcone floods the streets with violence and drugs. He makes these people desperate. The real villain in Bruce’s story may not be the man who pulled the trigger. It’s Falcone, who made Chill desperate enough to want to steal. (Which obviously doesn’t exonerate Chill for his terrible crime).

Rachel knows exactly where Falcone hangs out. He’s there in that bar every night. But through corruption and threats, he keeps the police at bay. Nobody will touch him. They’re all too afraid.

This scene is foundational to Bruce becoming Batman. This movie shows there’s so much more to it than just the death of his parents and training to be a ninja. There’s some real depth to the story in Batman Begins, and I love it.

Bruce admits to Rachel that he’s not one of her good people. Shows her the gun. She gives him the slap he deserves. And she’s right. His father would be ashamed of him right now. 

So Bruce storms right into Falcone’s bar and walks up to the crime boss.

I like how the first half of this movie uses Falcone as its primary antagonist. In the grand scheme of things, he turns out to be a minor foe for Batman, but at this point in his life, Falcone is an untouchable, insurmountable foe to Bruce.

The conversation between Falcone and Bruce is fantastic. More great dialog. Falcone has the kind of power where he wouldn’t hesitate to shoot Bruce in the head, right here, in front of cops and judges. That’s power. The power of fear.

In a few quick sentences, he reminds Bruce how much he actually does have to lose. Rachel, his butler. He thinks he knows pain, but he knows nothing of desperation. It’s ironic that Falcone is the cause of so much desperation in this city, but he understands it. He lives amongst it. Bruce doesn’t yet comprehend that type of desperation.

But as we’ve seen earlier in the movie - he will. 

This encounter with Falcone is the impetus he needs to go and start learning about desperation and fear. To begin his long training toward becoming Batman. So he can be one of Rachel’s good people. A good person who won’t just do nothing.

I don’t know if Bruce will ever think of himself as good. He’s too morally gray. But he’s going to stand against the evil that has infested his city.

Like his father did before him, in a very different way.

As soon as he’s thrown out of the bar, Bruce begins to shed the trappings of his privileged life. His wallet, his cards. His fancy clothes. He sells his nice coat to a homeless man, exchanging it for a ratty old one.

His journey has begun.

During this training, he lost a lot of assumptions about the simple nature of right and wrong. But he never fully gave in to it all. He didn’t become one of them. He stole, but technically, the things he stole belonged to his company anyway. He still had a moral line.

So back in the present, Ducard is using drugs to teach Bruce a lesson. He must become more than a man. He must become an idea. He must use fear against his enemies. The drug is from that purple flower that grows on the mountain. It has hallucinogenic properties.

Ra’s Al Ghul is satisfied that Bruce has overcome his fear. He’s ready to join the league of Shadows and lead these men. But first, he has to prove his commitment to justice.

He has to behead a criminal in front of them all.

But this is one of those lines Bruce has set. He’s not an executioner. He won’t kill this man. That’s not justice. That’s what Rachel tried to teach him.

This is where he differs from the League of Shadows. He’ll fight men like this in Gotham. But he won’t kill them.

Ducard brings up a classic objection. “You compassion is a weakness your enemies will not share.”

And Bruce has a good comeback. “That’s why it’s so important. It separates us from them.”

Ducard makes a point that Bruce knows well. Legal systems are corrupt. They are often not fit to dispense true justice. Bruce has seen this first hand in Gotham.

The League has turned their sights on Gotham. That city has become so corrupt, it’s time for it to die. And Bruce, as their “Prince” as Falcone called him, “is the perfect one to deliver that justice.” They plan to destroy the entire city. As they believe, this is necessary.

And so is born this Batman’s no-kill rule. 

I have no problem with this Batman having a no-kill rule. I quite like it. This Bruce still has some idealism left. I like idealism.

I also have no issue with Ben Affleck’s Batman having no such rule. That’s Bruce at a very different time of his life, in a very different situation. Batman has certainly killed before, in comics, and in other movies. Remember that time when Michael Keaton’s Batman casually murdered a minor goon and then cracked a joke over his corpse?

Bruce attacks the league to make his escape, burning the temple, and saving Ducard’s life. Because he’s still a good person.

Now Bruce is ready to be Batman. It’s time to go home.

Alfred is very happy to see him as he arrives in a private jet.

People need a powerful symbol to shake them up. He can’t do that as Bruce Wayne. As a man, he can be ignored and destroyed, but as a symbol, he can be indestructible.

We get a nice little moment of humour as Alfred expresses some concern over his safety with Bruce’s new endeavour. We also learn that Bruce was declared legally dead by the Wayne Enterprise shareholders. They wanted his majority share, but luckily, he left everything to Alfred, who is now a wealthy man in his own right.

The overhead view of the Gotham skyline shows us a very realistic looking city. A place we can well believe exists. A far cry from the gothic cartoonish Gotham we’ve seen in previous Batman movies. This was a breath of fresh air to me. I could never really connect with the setting of the previous movies. The city just felt so overwhelmingly fake and non-real.

Now, before we see the birth of Batman, we need to meet a new character, One who will be an important villain in this movie going forward.

Doctor Crane.

The psychologist that gets all of Falcone’s thugs declared insane, and transferred to his care, rather than facing criminal justice.

Rachel is onto him, of course, as probably everyone else is. But she’s the only one with the courage to do something about it.

Interestingly, Rachel seems to be taking on something of the role that Jim Gordon generally fills in the comics. The one brave good person who is willing to stand up when everyone else just looks away, either for money, or out of fear.

Of course, we see Jim Gordon doing that as well in this movie, but so far, he’s been largely absent.

Rachel is warned to back off by one of her colleagues. You can’t take on somebody like that. You just have to pretend it’s not happening.

Bruce’s first step is research. And that’s a very Batman quality. Preparation. He needs to know if he’ll have any allies out there. He finds some newspaper clippings about Gordon.

And that’s when he sees the bat. And after all that Ducard taught him, he has an idea.

He goes down the well that he fell into as a child, and finds the cave.

The cave is very rustic. It’s not a habitable place, as caves generally aren’t. I love the waterfall.

As Bruce stands up, allowing the bats to flap all around him, he finds that he has overcome his fear of them. Now that he has it under control, it’s time to share that fear with his enemies.

Despite his bravado, Rachel actually has Crane a little spooked. He has a deal with Falcone. He gets his thugs off the hook, and Falcone brings in a shipment of something for Crane. Falcone is more interested in favours than money, and for somebody like him, that makes a lot of sense. Falcone has plenty of money, but it’s the favours, the connections, that make him who he is. That’s the basis of his power. Other people doing what he wants so he remains untouchable. Anyway, Falcone is gonna take care of Rachel for him.

We see in the board meeting, that they are wrestling with the idea of going against the kinds of business practices that Thomas Wayne believed in. One of them argues that after 20 years they should be able to stop thinking about what Thomas Wayne would have done.

And …. In part….. I think he does have a point. Thomas is no longer alive and hasn’t been involved in this company for two decades.  They’re the ones running this business. They need the freedom to take it in their own direction.

But, in terms of values, that’s a little different. Thomas Wayne clearly set precedent for the kinds of moral and ethical values that Wayne Enterprises stands for. And those values are something that perhaps should endure. Especially when you’re carrying on the legacy of your founder.

Bruce says he’s not here to interfere with the company. He just wants a job to get to know the company his father built. He’s interested in the applied science division.

Of course, he has something of an ulterior motive here.

And this is where we get to meet Lucias Fox.

Now as I understand it, this character was created for the movie, and he became so beloved, that they actually added him into the comics. This kind of thing has happened before. Batgirl was first created by the Adam West TV show, and later became part of the comics. Harley Quinn, as well. I think it was an animated series for her.

Anyway, I like Lucias Fox, and it’s hard not to when he’s played so warmly by the one and only Morgan Freeman. 

Fox is surprised Bruce would want to be here. This division is a dead end, to keep Fox from causing any trouble for the board. A whole bunch of prototype technologies, not in production. Exactly what a young Billionaire needs when he wants to come a superhero vigilante.

This scene is great because it legitimises all of Batman gadgets. His suit is an advanced body armour, not used in active duty by the military because it’s too expensive. But perfect for a vigilante who only needs one or two.

I’ve often heard the criticism that Batman can’t have body armour any more advanced than what the US Military use in real life because they always have the best that has been invented. I think this scene goes some way to help address that.

This is what I was talking about earlier. You find something that’s kind of silly in a superhero’s story. In a movie like this, you either make it feel believable, or you dump it.

And that’s the key. Making it feel believable, even if it’s not strictly 100% realistic. That’s not the point. It needs to feel sensible, not silly. It needs to give you enough to help you suspend your disbelief.

And for me, Batman Begins does that perfectly.

I love how Fox sees completely through Bruce’s excuse. But all this stuff belongs to him. If he wants to use it, why not?

Alfred gives us another nice little bit of texture. Back in the civil war, Bruce’s great-great-grandfather was involved in the secret railroad, helping free slaves. The caves under the mansion came in handy. There is already a passage down into them. Another nice touch that adds an extra veneer of believability to this whole thing.

Bruce is now making his suit. Painting the body armour and adding the arm spikes he learned about with Ducard.

Alfred helps him figure out the logistics of ordering the materials he needs to assemble everything without raising suspicion.

We check back in with Jim Gordon. He’s in an interesting situation. He’s not that courageous good man standing against corruption yet. He refuses to take bribes himself, but he does sit idly by while his partner Flass collects his money.

He even assures Flass that he’s no rat. He won’t tell anyone about the bribes. He’s resigned to the fact that there’s nobody to rat to.

Gordon is in a small way still part of the problem. He’s definitely not yet a part of the solution.

But Bruce pays him a little visit.

I like how on Bruce’s first time out, he doesn’t have the full cowl. He’s just wearing a balaclava. I kind of like it when origin stories do that. The slow build-up to the real suit.

Jim needs a little push. It’s not until Bruce tells him about Rachel that he really considers taking a stand himself. Bruce wants to take Falcone down for the drug shipments he brings in each week. The shipments that nobody does anything about.

Bruce definitely lacks the elegance we’ll come to expect from Batman as he clumsily falls and crashes around the city. He’s gonna need more stuff from Fox.

The memory cloth that will form the basis for Batman’s cape is pure science fiction. But couching it in science fiction terms once again gives it that sensible believability to me.

I like the exchange between Bruce and Fox. Fox is happy with the plausible deniability of it all. He knows Bruce is up to something. Bruce knows he knows. They don’t have to keep pretending otherwise.

And that’s when Bruce notices the tumbler.

I love the tumbler.

Designed as a bridging vehicle. They could never get the bridge to work, but the vehicle itself is fine. Perfect for Bruce’s needs.

I love how they introduce the batmobile in this way. I love how you first see it in Army cammo colours, but Bruce asks if it comes in black.

I love everything about the tumbler.

The batmobile is one of the silliest things about batman. That name especially. Thank goodness that term is never spoken aloud in this movie, or in the Synder movies. You don’t need to call it that on screen, it just needs to be present.

I always thought the idea of Batman driving around in a car was pretty silly. But this thing? Now you’re talking!

Now, there are some issues with the tumbler in the second movie, which we’ll get to. But just looking at Batman Begins in isolation, this is absolutely perfect.

You can see a defined difference between the way Bruce is approaching Falcone now, as opposed to how he did it as a young man. Back then, he was hot-headed. He burst into Falcone’s bar armed with nothing but anger and emotion. And he was humiliated. Now, he’s taking his time. Doing surveillance. No longer a child, Bruce has become a man. There’s still a lot of emotion driving him, of course, but that emotion is no longer in the driver’s seat. Bruce has learned to control it.

In reality, this isn’t just a drug shipment. There are drugs, but there’s also something special for Crane.

Flass is actively helping Falcone protect the shipment. And he’s all but offered to kill Rachel.

And this is where we first see Batman in action.

I love this scene.

It takes all the tropes of a horror movie and inverts them. It’s the bad guys that are being terrorised, and Batman is the monster.

In a lot of ways, this scene defined for me, who and what Batman is. I remember playing the Arkham Asylum game. This scene was in my mind as I played that. It impacted how I played the game.

The crooks are vanishing one by one. Being taken by something in the shadows. It’s creepy and it’s cool. Possibly the best scene in the movie.

I love when the crook screams “where are you you?” And then we hear that gravelling voice behind him, as an upside-down Batman says “here.”

They actually use the “hide the monster” trope here, but in the way I like, not in the way I hate. Because the crooks don’t get a good glimpse of Batman. Not until right at the end, we finally see Batman in all his glory, as he pulls Falcone out of the car.

Bruce saves Rachel’s life, and gives her the leverage she needs to get the judge to do the right thing.

It seems everything is all wrapped up.

In one night, Batman has taken down Carmine Falcone, something the police in Gotham haven’t been able to do in 20 years.

So Falcone is strapped to a massive floodlight. Making the image of a bat on the clouds. It’s this movie’s take on the bat signal.

This is a moment that gets criticism. Those floodlights get extremely hot. In reality, Falcone would be burned to a very dead crisp. And I can’t argue against that.

First of all, I’ll point out that this light is hardly at full strength. You can tell just by looking at it that the light is pretty dim.

But then, there’s no way it’d be able to project that image up into the sky to be visible like that.

This scene is a cheat. I’ll admit that.

I always found the bat signal pretty silly. I never liked the idea that Gotham police had Batman on speed dial. Gordon, sure. But he needs a much more subtle way of getting in touch with him.

I’ll admit this moment doesn’t quite work, but given the overall tone of the rest of this movie, I kinda don’t care.

The point is, we’ve established just how powerful Bruce has become, in his new persona. Up until this point, Falcone has been the big bad of the movie. He was the primary villain. And he seemed a very powerful, very intimidating villain. How can one man bring down somebody like that?

But Batman has done what that young Bruce could never have conceived of. He’s brought down Falcone, and it feels kind of effortless.

Bruce Wayne has come of age. 

But they’ve already laid the seeds of a greater challenge that Batman will face.

This movie actually has an escalating scale of villains, three different levels.

Bruce has just cleared level 1.

And the way the movie has done it, taking all of this time to establish Bruce’s journey, it convinces me. The idea of a man dressing up as a bat and running around with a cape at night no longer feels ridiculous and preposterous. The journey has sold it. That’s really important to me.

I’ve always been primarily a Superman fan, but looking back, while I’d always liked Batman, I think it was this movie that really made me love Batman. This movie gave me a version I could believe in. This movie finally delivered on the promise that I first saw when they started advertising the 1989 movie on TV.

Rachel has a rock-solid case. Batman has given her everything she needs.

But the police chief wants Batman off the streets. This is the tension I like. Batman is doing the right thing, he’s getting the job done, and Gordon sees the value in that, but officially speaking, Batman is a criminal, pursued by the police just as much as any of his rogues are. That’s what Batman was designed to be.

Alfred has some good advice for Bruce. If he’s going to live this double life, he’s going to have to put some effort into his Bruce Wayne persona as well. Just as Supermam cultivates an akward nerdy Clark Kent, Batman needs to cultivate a frivolous playboy Bruce Wayne to throw people off his scent.

Now we introduce a new but important element. A microwave generator has been stolen from Wayne Enterprises. Designed for desert warfare, it vaporises an enemy’s water supply.

This is more science fiction. But again, I’m okay with science fiction. This is still a superhero movie, after all. And that’s what this movie does so right. You establish the silly elements of the story in a believable sensible way, and then you have room to suspect disbelief over things like this. I don’t mind a little science fiction, in fact, I welcome it. What I don’t want is silliness and cheese. That’s why when people criticise the realism of elements like this, I think they’re missing the point.

Bruce’s appearance at the hotel, with the weird skinny-dipping ladies goes a good way to establishing Bruce as a frivolous playboy, the last person you’d expect to be Batman. Why those women decided to get naked and hop in the water feature I’ll never comprehend. Maybe Bruce paid them to do so.

Bruce is willing to be seen in this light in order to protect his true self.

But there’s one person whose good opinion he doesn’t want to lose.

Rachel.

He tries to tell her, without telling her. “Inside, I am more.”

But she’s not buying it.

“It’s not what you are underneath, it’s what you do that defines you.”

And this is a very thematic statement for the whole movie.

I partially agree with what Rachel says here. While, I think we are defined by more than just what we do, What she’s getting at is the whole idea of putting your money where your mouth is.

You can have the best of intentions inside, but if your actions don’t match your intentions, then those intentions aren’t worth much, are they?

It actually reminds me of James chapter 2 in the Bible. Faith without actions is dead.

Falcone wants Crane to get him off on the insanity plea, just as he has with his goons. But more than that. He wants in one whatever Crane and his mysterious boss are up to.

But this is the moment that Crane replaces Falcone as the primary villain. Crane gases Falcone and Falcone goes genuinely insane from whatever is in that gas.

It’s obvious at this point, that Crane is the Batman villain Scarecrow.

And this is the moment it really becomes a comic book movie. Weird gas that makes people go crazy?

But because everything has been established in such a grounded sensible way up until now, I’m willing to buy it, I mean fully buy into it.

We won’t be seeing Falcone again. He’s done with. But we’ve learned how sinister Crane is. He’s doing experiments with his patients, using whatever was in that shipment Falcone brought him.

Bruce already knows some of the shipments went elsewhere. He wants to know where. He’ll get it out of Flass. Which he does. Batman is a pretty effective interrogator. And Flass is a coward.

So he tracks the shipment to Crane. The shipment is what he uses to make that gas, not to mention the microwave generator. We see that the gas amplifies people’s fears. Makes them see what they’re afraid of.

Bruce jumps out of a window many stories up, while on fire. And miraculously survives the fall without even a broken bone. That’s not realistic. I call valid criticisms on this moment. But the funny thing is, they have their explanation for that. The memory cloth can turn his cape into a glider. Why didn’t this scene use that device?

Under the influence of the gas, Bruce becomes that scared helpless little boy again.

He cries out to Alfred for help. And of course, Alfred is there for him.

Bruce recognises the hallucinogen. He’s felt it before, but this is more concentrated. Weaponised.

Fox has invented an antidote.

Bruce is supposed to have a birthday party tonight, but Rachel is heading to Arkham Asylum to figure out what’s going on with Falcone. And she’s gonna need backup from Batman to keep her safe.

Why does Crane show Rachel the truth of his whole operation?

I know he drugs her afterwards, but why show her what he’s doing?

He’s pouring that hallucinogen into the city water supply.

Batman crashes the party and uses Crane’s own gas on him. I love how he sees Batman as a weird human/bat hybrid creature. The gas allows this movie to do some crazy sci-fi/fantasy looking stuff that would otherwise not fit in a movie like this at all.

And we learn that Crane’s mysterious boss is none other than Ra’s Al Ghul. But isn’t he dead? Didn’t he die when that temple turned?

Bruce calls in the bats presumably using pheremons to attract them, so he can get away wtih Racel, to give her the antidote. Not sure the bats would smell the pheromones from that distance, though.

This is when we first get to see the Tumbler in action.

Bruce uses the bridging vehicle’s ability to jump to his advantage.

There are a couple of moments of humour that work for me in the chase.

It’s a pretty cool action scene. Anyway, he gets Rachel to the cave in time to the cave, where Fox has left the antidote waiting.

Crane has dumped his entire supply of this stuff into the water supply. Been doing it for weeks. But it hasn’t affected anyone because it needs to be absorbed through the lungs. So why dump it in the water?

Crane is in custody. Bruce uses Rachel to get the antidote to Gordon so he can protect himself and mass produce it.

Level 2 cleared.

The final ultimate villain will soon be fully revealed.

Alfred is concerned that Bruce is losing himself in this monster. Bruce argues he’s using the monster to help others. But this can’t be personal or else he’s just a vigilante.

The mansion is full of guests. Bruce wants to get rid of them. There’s too much going on right now. Alfred doesn’t want Bruce to destroy his father’s name. It’s all that’s left of him. The playboy persona is one thing. But Thomas’s legacy is important and shouldn't be tarnished.

And, Bruce agrees, for now.

Fox figures it out. The microwave emitter would allow somebody to disperse the toxin into the air supply. He’s just been fired for asking too many questions about it.

And now we meet the final boss. The true villain of this entire movie. Bruce is introduced to a Mr. Ra’s Al Ghul. It’s Ducard. He was Ra’s all along. The man Bruce watched die was just a decoy.

Bruce wants Ra’s to let the guests go. They’re innocent. His only reply “You can explain the situation to them.”

And so, in order to save their lives, he must offend them. Dragging his father’s name through the mud. They’ll never know what he sacrificed to save their lives.

Crane’s toxin was derived from the blue flowers on the mountain. He wasn’t a member of the league of shadows, just a pawn.

Ra’s plans to vaporise the toxin and watch Gotham tear itself apart.

He said near the start of the movie that he planned to destroy Gotham. He was serious.

The League of Shadows has been a check against human corruption for thousands of years. They sacked rome, released plague rats, and burned London to the ground. When a civilisation reaches the peak of decadence, they come in to return the balance.

But you can’t fight evil with evil.

They may think they’re the good guys, but they’ve murdered billions of innocent people along the way.

Bruce believes Gotham isn’t worth saving. He wants more time.

Ra’s rgues the very fact they’ve been able to do what they’re doing is proof of its corruption.

We’re seeing here that everything from the start of the movie is coming full circle. It’s almost poetic. I love it.

As his goons burn the mansion to the ground, Ra’s drops another bombshell. They tried to destroy Gotham in the past, through economics. Create so much hunger that everyone becomes a criminal. See them rip themselves apart.

But Bruce’s parents got in the way of that plan, by helping alleviate the poverty where they could. It was Ra’s al Ghul who created the circumstances that lead to his parent’s death.

Falcone was only a piece of that.

We see here how alike Bruce and his father are. Both, in Ra’s opinion, are misguided idealists trying to save the city that deserves to be destroyed. There’s a lot of symmetry in this movie, and I love it.

Alfred saves Bruce from the burning house.

Bruce feels he’s destroyed everything his father left behind, but Alred reminds us what we’ve just learned. The Wayne legacy isn’t bricks and mortar. It’s that idealism that tries to save Gotham. Ultimately, Thomas failed, and now so has Bruce.

And then that line from his childhood returns. “Why do we fall?” 

“So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.”

I think Thomas would be proud to see what a fine father figure Alfred has become.

Ra’s activates the microwave generator and the gas bursts out of the ground. Right under the narrows - the worst part of Gotham.

Fortunately, Gordon has the antidote.

Everything has gone to hell.

All the riot cops are on the island already, and they’ve been affected by the gas.

There’s nobody left to send. And just as Commissioner Loeb says that, the tumbler bursts through the air behind him. That’s a very effective shot. Love it.

The monorail follows the path of the water mains. They’re gonna load the generator on the train and infect the entire city.

Batman is going into battle. He may die. Rachel at least wants to know his name.

He replies with that same line “It’s not what I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.”

And this, of course, has a double meaning. In one sense, it means, it doesn’t matter what my identity is under this suit. It only matters that I’m trying to help.

But, of course, by using that phrase, he’s letting her know exactly who he is.

The shot of Batman gliding in like a giant bat and landing is awesome.

A lot of people are getting infected while Bruce struggles to catch the train. More with every metre.

This brings us to the climactic fight scene.

It’s suitably tense. I like it.

Gordon uses the tumbler to take out part of the monorail.

It’s interesting that ultimately he’s the one that saves the day. Bruce is there to make sure Ra’s doesn’t go on to cause havoc another day.

And now we reach that controversial moment. Has Bruce finally learned to let go of his compassion? Ra’s asks.

“I won’t kill you, but I don’t have to save you.”

Many people feel this is a betrayal of the “no-kill” rule that Bruce established for himself early in the movie.

And strictly speaking, it is.

Bruce is cutting that moral hair mighty thin.

But I don’t see this as a negative to the movie. Bruce is a morally gray character. This is when he really steps into that. This is why he and Superman never get on, because they are different. Yes, Batman may be an idealist compared to the likes of Ra’s al ghul, but he’s not as cut and dry as Superman. And even Superman is forced into some of those gray areas, which I’m also fine with.

The train is stopped, and Ra’s al ghul is finally dead.

But there’s still a lot of people out there who will need that antidote. A lot are gonna get hurt and killed before they get it.

It’s Batman. It’s messy.

The next scene is very satisfying. The company went public, but Bruce bought up most of the shares through various charities and trusts. He’s placed Lucious Fox in charge as the new CEO, the previous one, who fired Fox, is out.

Rachel comes to see Bruce, who she has newfound respect for. Bruce thanks her for giving him that first lesson that started him on his journey of transformation.

Now that she knows the type of man Bruce truly is, she’s started to hope.

They grew up as childhood friends, but there’s a lot more between them than just friendship. They’ve loved each other for years, in some form. The movie probably could have done a better job of portraying that romantic undercurrent of their relationship, though.

But there’s a problem. Bruce has changed. He’s a good man, but the real Bruce that she remembered is gone. Maybe he’ll come back someday when Gotham no longer needs the Batman.

And that line perfectly sets up the primary conflict of the next movie.

Bruce is going to rebuild his father’s house, but it might be a good opportunity to do some work on the foundations.

The bat signal re-appears at the end. Gordon is going to use it when he wants to summon Batman. There’s a lot of trouble still out there. 

Gordon teases the villain of the next movie by mentioning a thief and murdurer who leaves a calling card - a joker.

And the credits roll.

This movie changed everything. It created a new era for DC comics movies, and started the journey that would eventually lead us to the Snyder Cut.

Without Batman Begins, there would be no Man of Steel. No Batman V Superman.

This movie presented a new way of portraying superheroes. They were no longer something to laugh at or make fun of. They were something to take seriously.

This movie made realistic, those things it could, which made the speculative elements all the more easy to accept. It was a perfect balance.

It’s like Christpher Nolan reached into my soul and said “Let’s create the perfect Batman movie for Adam Collings.”

There was a lot in this movie. Heaps to talk about.

And there’ll be plenty more to talk about next time, in a movie I’ve actually only ever seen once. The Dark Knight.

Have a great two weeks,

Live long and prosper,

Make it so.

So here it is. My podcast on the final episode of Stargate Universe. Gauntlet. This was intended to be a season finale, but never a series finale. But with the tragic cancellation of the show after the end of season 2, there was nothing more to come. So how does this episode function as a series finale? Well, surprisingly well. At least, as a series pause. Grab a comfy chair and listen as I explain what I mean, as we delve one final time into Stargate Universe.

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of the Stars

And I am a nerd.

This is episode 91 of the podcast. 

Today, we’re talking about the final episode of Stargate Universe. “Gauntlet”

And if you’d like to check out my original science fiction books, head on over to AdamDavidCollings.com/books

The description on Gateworld reads

Cut off from every star and every planet in their path, the crew takes a stand against the drone command ships. Meanwhile, Eli comes up with an extreme plan to escape drone space for good.

This episode was written by Joseph Mallozzi (whose name I’ve apparently been mispronouncing for the last two seasons, sorry about that) and Paul Mullie.

It was directed by Andy Mikita

And it first aired on the 14th of May 2012.

It’s with something of a heavy heart that I share with you my thoughts on Stargate Universe for the last time. This, of course, was never meant to be the final episode, just a season finale.

I’ll talk about the premature cancellation of this show at the end, but first, let’s take a look at the episode itself.

TJ is removed Park’s bandages from her eyes. She’s in good humour, jokiig about not having had this much rest in weeks. Greer stands faithfully by her side.

Park is hoping she’ll be able to see now. She’s looking forward to getting bleary eyes looking at data. She’s been seeing occasional flashes of bright light.

The moment she TJ tells her to open her eyes is the moment of truth. That’s when she’s gonna finally find out if she can see or not. It would be a nerve-wraking moment. I’d be hesitant, knowing that the moment I open my eyelids, I might have to face the worst. Until I open them, there’s still the possibility I might be able to see. Right?

Sadly, after she opens her eyes, it’s still dark. She can’t see anything.

She can’t see the light TJ shines in her eyes.

Eli has found a way to track the done command ships by isolating the subspace frequencies they use to comminicate and plugging them into the ship’s long range sensors.

This means they’ll be able to avoid them and find safe star systems to refuel next time we have to.

But the news isn’t good. The drones are waiting at every gate between Destiny’s current position and the edge of the galaxy.

Eli sums it up effectively when eh says “we’re screwed.”

On earth, Rush explains to Telford that going off the grid won’t work. The seed ships have already done the legwork and found the needles in the haystack, and plotted a course for Destiny accordingly. So with drones at every gate, they have no way to get supplies.

They’ve got a month’s worth of food. They could really use a supply line from Earth but the Langarans are still refusing to help. Woolsey continues to push diplomacy but he’s not having much luck.

TJ doesn’t know if Park’s condition will improve. She should have shown some improvement by now. If they don’t heal by themselves there’s nothing more TJ can do. But TJ isn’t really thinking about Park. She’s thinking about her own death sentance.

It sounds like a horrible way to die. Eventually, she’ll become fully paralysed, but her mind will still be active. She will have no way to interact with others. No way to express herself. She’ll be a prisoner in a body that no longer works. That sounds like hell to me. Like, I can’t imagine hell being any worse than that. It’s horrific.

Rush is discussing the possibility of going on the offensive when they need to resupply. They choose a target, go throug hte gate, and take out as many as needed to get what they require. They have the advantage of surprise now that they can track the drones. And they still can’t track us.

He’s actually got a pretty good idea for boosting the effectiveness of the shields.

Destiny’s shields rotate through various frequencies, because different energy weapons will use different frequencies. The closer the shields are to the frequency of the weapons, the easier it is for them to absorb the energy. But since they know they’ll be facing the drones, they don’r have to guess. They just tuine the shields to the narrow band of frequencies that the drones use.

I really like this. It’s nice to get some techy details on how the shields work. It makes sense. You can design something to protect you from a known quantity. But Destiny was made to go out where nobody had explored. The ancients didn’t know what races they might encounter, let alone what kinds of weapons they might have. So they had to invent shields that would protect the ship from unknown weapons not yet encountered.

Rush has a clever plan, and it should help the ship to withstand attack in a significantly improved way.

They’ve plotted a course for one of the command ships. They going to try to jump in, take it out, and jump away again. That’ll be one less command ship, at least.

We get a nice exterior shot which makes it clear just where in the ship the bridge actually is. It’s right up the top of the big high-rise pyramid thing at the back.

Chloe is so good at plotting these FTL exists that they drop out right on top of the command ship, so close, in fact, that they scrape along its hull. Given the unimaginable vastness fo space, that’s amazing.

The plan seems to be working. The drone weapons are having almost no effect.

The command ship is smart. It realises immediately that the weapons are not working, so it instructs the drones to make kamikaze attacks against Destiny. And because the shields are tuned to that specific frequency, it can’t stop them.

They manage to destroy the command ship pretty easily, but they’ve taken a lot of damage from the drone collisions. 

They’ve bought time to get some supplies, not that there was much on the planet.

Eli has a plan that could get them out of all their troubles.

This galaxy has turned out to be a pretty rubbish place, infested with all of these drones. As Eli puts it, a hostile environment. So why don’t they just skip it. Fly one continuous FTL jump to the nearest edge of this galaxy, and then on through the void to the next in the seed ship’s path. Just the drones behind and try the next galaxy for size.

It’s not a bad idea, but they have power issues, the distance between galaxies is a lot longer this time, plus damage to the FTL drive. So it’ll take three years.

How will they survive three years without food and water? We use the stasis chambers that Rush, Eli, and Brody found a few episodes back. They spend the next three years in cryogenic suspension.

The big problem with this, of course, is if they miscalculate the amount of power needed by the slightest fraction, they’ll have to drift at sunlight the last bit, and that could take thousands of years.

Rush is convinced it’s too risky. But Young orders Eli to make preparations. It’s at least an option. He gives Rush 24 hours to come up with a better idea.

Camille wants to give everyone one last trip to Earth to say goodbye. That makes good sense, and it’s a nice idea, but they’ll have to be really quick about it. Every minute they delay this plan means they’re losing more power.

Rush’s real problem isn’t so much about the margin of error. It’s about the mission. The ship wasn’t launched to arrive at some final destination where all the questions will be answered. It’s meant to gather information bit by bit by bit as it travels. If they skip this galaxy, they might miss a vital piece of the puzzle. And I share his concern about that. It’s a real worry. It could make the entire journey all for nothing. That’s something Rush couldn’t live with.

And I wish I had a solution for him.

Chloe has some wise words for him, though. It boils down to this. If they stay, and Destiny is destroyed by the drones, then it really is over, and all for nothing. If they get out of this galaxy, even if the crew die, Destiny will go on, still searching for the answers it was created to find.

And so, the plan goes ahead.

They’re starting to put people into stasis.

The Lucian Alliance are among the first. Makes sense. They were never meant to be part of this expedition anyway.

Eli goes home, via the stones, to say a quick goodbye to his Mum.

The way he starts, “I just wanted to come and say goodbye” was not the best way to go about this. His mother will obvious jump to the wrong conclusion. Is he dying? Is this the last I’ll ever see of him. I guess at least the trust is not as bad as any of the scenarios she’s be imagining at that moment.

But, he plains it all to her.

Eli feels really guilty about this. He feels that he’s abandoned his mother. He thinks if he’d made different choices, she wouldn’t be alone right now.

But his Mum won’t have any of that. Which makes perfect sense.

Any parent will tell you that they want their children to live a fulfilling life. Eli is seeing amazon things. Living an incredible life.  That’s what we all want for our kids.

Of course, there’s still the pain. If one of my kids was as far away from me as Eli is from his mum, it would hurt. I’d miss them terribly. But I’d also be glad they were living an amazing life. Proud of them.

The thing is, now that she knows the amazing things that Eli is doing, his mum is a much happier puerson. Her deep depression is gone. And she has friends in a similar situation. Friends like Sharon, who understand.

So, his mum asks him the one question, the only question that matters. “Are you happy?”

And despite everything, he is.

That’s all she needs to hear.

That’s good enough for her.

This is such a beautiful scene.

But, Brody and Volker have found a problem. Wouldn’t you know it?

The last section of pods have taken damage. Possibly before they even came on board. They can’t bring those pods online. They’re not gonna have enough for everyone.

They’re 8 short.

In order to repair them, they’d need metals, alloys, from a planet that’s seen a lot of meteor activity.

They’ve found one. It had a gate. But it’s locked out, because it’s not hospitable to humans.

The drones don’t know what kind of planet humans need  to survive. They just know that planet has a gate. So there’s a command ship there.

Even if Destiny survived the fight, they’d use up too much power. They’d never be able to make it to the next galaxy, which defeats the whole purpose of going.

Those 8 people won’t be able to survive on the ship. The power needed for life support for 8 people would make them fall short. So….they need 8 people to commit suicide for the good of the rest?

That’s impossibly dark.

I couldn’t enact a plan like that. I couldn’t even ask for volunteers. I just couldn’t do it.

Could those 8 people try to find a planet to settle on? Maybe, but the drones would find them and kill them anyway. Either way, it’s suicide.

Park is really worried that Greer is going to volunteer to be one of the 8. And he admits, he might do it, but he wouldn’t ask 7 other people to do it with him, and he doesn’t think Young would either. 

It’s funny how my opinion of Greer has changed so much over two seasons. He’s becoming one of my favourite people on the ship.

But Park has an idea.

Use a shuttle as a decoy, to draw the command ship away from the planet. Make it simulate a gate dial.

While the drones are away, slip in an get the minerals they need.

They can even ram the shuttle into the command ship and blow it up.

It’s risky, but it’s a good plan that coudl very well work. It’s certainly better than asking 8 people to kill themselves.

Greer’s right. Young was never going to do that.

The command ship takes the bait. So they have a go.

 I have to admit that watching that command ship explode as the shuttle collided with it brought a big smile to my face.

They got the supplies they needed.

Scott has to go say goodbye to his son.

And it’s hard.What do you say to a kid when he doesn’t even know that you’re his father? You’re just a guy who pops around every now and then.

His mother is a good person, but Scott is worried that she’s not a good parent.

It’s a hard situation.

When Camille went back to say her goodbye, she told Sharon it wasn’t fair on her anymore, and she should move on.  And that’s a hard thing.

I see Corporal Barnes in a new way, now that I know she and Eli got married on Novus. I can’t help but wonder, could anything happen between them in this timeline? I know that to an extent, they got together because they were kind of among the last few left that hadn’t found anyone. But, they made it work. Maybe this version of Eli and Barnes could make it work as well.

During the montage of people saying goodbye and getting in to the pods, we see a shot of Park, in well…a park. It’s raining, and she’s crying. It took me a moment before the true impact of that hit me. 

She’s in someone else’s body.

She can see.

This might be the last time she ever gets to see anything in her life.

There’s a positive to all this.

All the food they’ve collected, other than the non-perishables, like the canned goods, it’s all gonna go to waste. So they might as well have a feast before they go into stasis.

And I really like that they get to do that. For the first time in a very long time, they’re full. Really fully. Of course, Greer can fit just a bit more in.

This is a really nice scene. It’s a god moment to round off the show with. Our main cast are sitting around a table having dinner. Young makes a speech, acknowledging that they have become a family. They were far from that at the beginning of season 1, but now, yes. They’re a family. 

I love how Rush doesn’t object to Young calling him the slightly mad uncle who still manages to come through for you. I like that Young and Rush have reached this place. There’s no real conflict between them at the moment.

There’s a real camaraderie in this scene. I know this was written as a season cliffhanger, not a series finale, but this scene really works for its place as a final episode. I can’t help but wonder if this scene was added, or modified slightly, when they knew it would be the last.

It’s an emotional sendoff. And honestly, it works as well as the poker game at the end of Star Trek The Next Generation.

The last of them are going into pods now. Chloe, Scott, Greer. Camille. TJ. 

As the pods close, only Young, Rush, and Eli are left awake.

While Eli and Rush finish the automated programming for the ship, Young checks in with Telford. It’s a shame they couldn’t get Richard Dean Anderson for one last O’Neill cameo here, but in a way, it is more poignant that it’s Telford. He’s the one Young has all the history with.

He’s not going to go say goodbye to Emily. Their marriage is over.

And Telford tries to apologise, even though it was the Lucian Alliance programmed personality that cheated with Young’s wife.

Young stops him. His marriage was broken a long time ago. He has nobody to blame but himself.

And while I grieve the loss of his marriage, I like the way he takes responsibility for it like this.

It’s nice to see thes men, who have been such bitter enemies in the past, now parting as friends. Telford promises they’re not going to give up on the people on board Destiny. Another beautiful scene.

But, wouldn’t you know it. There’s still one final problem.

They repaired those 8 pods, but one of theme was more damaged than the others. It came online, but has just died.

They’re gonna be one pod short.

They can’t fix it.

If two of them go into stais, they’ll have about 3 weks for that one last person to try to find a solution. To get the last pod working.

Rush has vontunteered, but Young can’t trust him.

What if Rush really can’t get it working. Will Rush sacrifice himself at that time for the rest of the crew? Can Young trust Rush to do that?

They’ve put most of their conflict behind them, but there’s still that doubt.

And when push comes to shove, I can’t tell Young that he’s wrong.

Rush is not a martyr. He’s not a self-sacrificing kind of guy. He’s selfish and he has a strong sense of self-preservation.

Ould he do it? Would he kill himself so the rest could live?

I can’t guarantee that he would.

I don’t think even Rush can guarantee that honestly. He doesn't try to argue it.

Young is going to stay. He can’t fix the pod, of course, but he’ll sacrifice himself.

But Eli has another idea. He’ll stay.

If Young stays, it’s automatic suice. If Eli stays, he has a chance.

He’s sick of staying in Rush’s shadow. Being the reager young protoge.

He’s not afraid to say it anymore, and all three of them know it.

Eli is smarter than Rush.

And that may well be true.

It’s not fair.

One of the most good-hearted people on that ship has to be the one that will very probably die.

Young doesn’t want this, but he knows it’s the only answer.

Rush and Eli have a nice last scene together. Rush doesn’t want Eli to be the one to volunteer.

He doesn’t say it often enough, but Eli has amazing potential, and they’re going to need him on the other side.

But as Eli says, “what the point of having potential if you’re not going to step up when you’re really needed.”

And I can’t argue with that logic.

I don’t think Rush can either.

I did laugh when Rush said “You’ve come a long way from that video game slacker,” and Eli says “You’ve been pretty much consistent.”

So Eli puts both Rus hand Young to bed.

And there he is. Alone.

On a space ship full of sleeping people.

He turns out all the lights where they’re not needed.

He shuts down the stargate.

This is all very symbolic of the show ending. Kind of like how JMS turned off the lights on the station in the final episode of Babylon 5.

But even more than it, it mirrors the pilot episode, when we first see Destiny, and all the lights are coming on, as we pan through the ship. It rhymes like poetry.

And so there he is ion the observation deck, looking out at the wispy blue of FTL.

The last man standing.

Eli gives a little smile as Destiny sails off into the distance.

I’ve heard some speculation about that smile.

Is he just appreciating the wonder of where he is?

Or does he have an idea? And idea that will change everything?

We don’t know.

Probably the only person in the world who knows the truth is Brad Wright. I just hope he gets the chance to tell us some day.

And so there ends Stargate Universe.

It sounds like Brad had some really cool ideas for season 3.

As cliffhangers that ended up being finales, it’s not a bad way to go.

The whole device of everything going to sleep for 3 years gave us hope.

I remember thinking, well, if they can get themselves sorted out, they can always come back and do anothjer season, or a movie, in three year’s time. That’ll be a real-time look at when they all should be waking up again.

How cool would that have been?

Sadly, those three years went, and became ten years.

We still don’t know what happened to the brave crew of Destiny.

To Eli.

But Brad Wright had plans.

I remember him posting online that while the show was over, he was still fighting for something that would let him bring closure. Not a new series. It was going to be a TV movie. SG-1 had enjoyed some good success with TV movies that went to DVD. He wanted to make one that would combine the casts of SG1, Atlantis and Universe, one big grand crossover adventure to try to bring the crew of Destiny home.

Sadly, even that could not be greenlit.

And so the story was lost to history.

So what happened? Why did this show really end?

Was it the case, as I’ve heard some say, that SGU was cancelled because it sucked?

Obviously, I don’t think it sucked. It’s my favourite Stargate series. But did it have lower ratings that SG-1 and Atlantis? Given that a lot of fans of the previous shows didn’t like it, I’d have to say it probably did.

But there was so much more going on at the time.

MGM was going into bankruptcy at the time. Stargate Universe wasn’t the only thing cancelled because of this. They were dropping like flies.

And while the DVD movies had worked well for SG-1, the industry was changing. Direct-To-DVD was no longer a popular thing. Streaming was coming, but wasn’t quite here yet.

Stargate Universe was this show trying to survive in this weird void between times, where everything was in flux.

In the end, I think this show was a victim of timing. The world just wasn’t quite ready for it, in terms of audience expectations, but also in terms of how the industry was changing.

I will always grieve the loss of this amazing and wonderful show, but despite technically ending on a cliffhanger, I would heartily recommend people watch it. These two seasons give you a satisfying experience. It ends on a bitter-sweet moment, filling with questions, and uncertain hope. And that is perhaps fitting for a show with the tone that SGU had.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to the cast and crew of Stargate Universe, for making my dreams come true. Stargate Universe remains to this day, my favourite Stargate show, and one my my favourite sci-fi shows of all time.

So is there still hope of knowing more?

With MGM recently having been purchased by Amazon, it seems likely, if not certain, that Stargate will return some day soon on Amazon Prime.

Will it be the in-canon continuation that we all hope it will be?

I have to have faith and say yes.

Brad Wright has a pitch. A new show with a pilot script. Joseph Malozzi has read it and says of it

“The verdict? Fantastic. A perfect series for first-tiome viewers who know nothing about Stargate, but also a richly rewarding experience for longtime fans. Action, adventure, friendship humour, cool sci-fi, terrific characters, a compelling story - and one ulluva antagonist.”

There is a huge fan movement to convince Amazon Studios that they should continue with the existing canon of the last 3 TV shows, and use Brad Wright’s pitch.

And honestly, I think Amazon would be utter idiots to go a different direction.

They’ve got to know that this is what the fans want.

So…we’ll see.

Brad Wright has been open about the fact that if his new show gets greenlit, he will address the fate of Destiny, which makes me very happy.

So now…..we wait.

That was Stargate Universe.

I hope you enjoyed myt thoughts on this series. I certainly enjoyed watching through it again and recording them.

So one question remains.

What’s next for Nerd Heaven.

Well….I want to cover the Dark Knight trilogy. So next time, we’re going to start that by looking at my favourite solo Batman film of all time - Batman Begins.

After we’ve done these movies, we’re going to be launching into a new series.

Star Trek Continues.

You may have heard of it. It’s actually a fan-produced series, but doin’t let that put you off. It’s fantastic, and highly regarded by many, including Rod Roddenberry, son of Star Trek creator Gene Rodennbery, who says he considers it canon to the original series.

Basically, Star Trek continues gives TOS one final season, and also provides a big epic send-off, which the original show never had.

I can’t wait to delve into this show with you.

So, until next time,

Have a great two weeks

Live Long and Prosper

Make it so.

We're at the second-last episode of Stargate Universe. In today's podcast, we delve into Blockade. A surprisingly good episode that I remembered little about. While the crew gate to a planet once settled and deserted by the descendant of the Novans, Rush, Eli and Park take Destiny on an extremely risky mission to recharge the ship, with devastating consequences. These drones are not letting up. It's all going to come to a head soon.

Join me as we delve deep into Stargate Universe "Blockade"

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of the Stars

And I am a nerd.

This is episode 90 of the podcast. Can you believe that? We’re getting close to 100. When a TV show gets to their 100th episode, it’s a big deal worth celebrating. I still feel like I only just started this podcast, and it’s a relatively new thing.

Today, we’re talking about the Stargate Universe episode “Blockade”

And if you’d like to check out my original science fiction books, head on over to AdamDavidCollings.com/books

The description on gateworld reads

Destiny is attacked by drone ships while attempting to recharge its power reserves, forcing most of the crew to gate to a nearby planet while Eli tries a risky alternative.

This episode was written by Linda McGibney

It was directed by Andy Mikita

And it first aired on the 2nd of May 2011.

Eli is still immersed in the history of Novus. Rush doesn’t get it. And he admits freely that he had no part of it. His counterpart wasn’t there. He had no descendants. But to Eli, it’s more than that. They were humans and they lived and died here in this distant galaxy.

And I love that he’s adding footage of the descendants to his documentary. I agree wholeheartedly with Eli when he says that he thinks the documentary is important.

Hey, I like to document and vlog my holidays. But a journey like the one they’re on, that’s so much more important.

The Collings Show on youtube, by the way, if you’re interested in my travel vlogs.

They’ve arrived in a star system to refuel. I thought this was the system where they’re taking the surviving descendants. But apparently not. The passengers don't show up or get a mention throughout the rest of the episode, so I’m assuming we’ve already dropped them off on their new world. Destiny is taking the long way around a gas giant for some reason. It clearly has a reason, the crew just don’t know what it is. But the longer they take to reach the planet, the more their resources are going to be strained.

Now some bad news. There are drones with a command ship here in this system.

How did the drones know Destiny was going to be in that system? Was it coincidence or are they still tracking the ship somehow? They haven’t been using the stargate so that’s ruled out.

Maybe they’re no longer tracking us, but maybe they can predict our path.

So Rush suggests going off their usual course. They drop out of FTL a long way from the star so they’ll have time to rebuild their ability to jump before they encounter any potential drones. They got lucky last time.

And guess what. There’s drones here too. They’ve set up a blockade blocking us from the star.

Destiny has to recharge somehow.

They’re blockading all stars they think Destiny might try to visit.

Power is getting critically low. They only have one more chance.

The drones know Destiny’s weakness. It has to recharge from certain types of stars. The only way to ensure there are no drones waiting is if they choose a star that Destiny would never go to.

A blue supergiant.

I’m not an astrophysicist but I can tell by the character’s reactions this is a terrible idea.

Volker is convinced the crew would never survive the heat given off by one of these stars.

The plan is, leave most of the crew on a planet and a small team pilots the ship. They rely on shields and suits to survive the heat. Hopefully.

It can’t be fully automated because even if they could convince the ship to do this itself, the core AI systems would stop working at this heat.

There won’t be a habitable planet near such a star, so they’ll have to gate to a nearby planet, which, of course, will attract the drones.

So they’ll have to be quick and get it done before they arrive.

It’s an insane plan and it could go wrong in so many ways.

But …. What other choice do they have? If they don’t charge soon they’ll be dead in space. And then they’ll make a very tempting target to the drones.

Young makes it clear to Telford they’ve not asked permission. They’re doing this. They don’t have a choice.

The plants in the garden won’t survive the star any more than people will, so they’re gonna have to harvest everything.

I don’t think Destiny is very happy about what they’re doing. It locks them out of the bridge.

Rush, Eli, and Park are the ones who will stay behind.

Park has some medications she wants to protect, and then she’ll back up Rush, who, in her words, isn’t as great as he thinks he is.

It makes good sense since Park is the expert on the suits, as we saw back in early season 1.

When Young announces that Park is staying, we get some insight into Greer.

He didn’t try to talk her out of it. He has confidence that she’ll be all right.

In most stories, when someone wants to go into danger, the loved one argues passionately against it.

And I get that. It would be very very hard for me to watch my wife put herself in danger like this.

But in little ways, we trust our loved ones as they take all sorts of risks during day to day life.

My wife is a nurse, and there’s risk involved in that job. But I trust her that she has the training and the knowledge to handle it.

But a risk like this is something else.

Rush has found a star. As they approach, the gate is dialled to a planet in rage.

This is where we get a big surprise.

The gate on the planet isn’t in the middle of a deserted forest or desert. It’s in a building. A big metal shed.

It must have been built by the descendants.

As Eli says “Holy crap, we dialled pittsburg.”

I don’t actually know what pittsburg looks like because I’m Australian, but it made me chuckle.

The place looks less advanced than Novus, and there’s no sign of life.

Due to isolation and different ideologies, it’s entirely possible that colonies of Novus would advance at different rates.

But what happened to the people?

But this town is a gold mine. They could find all sorts of medical supplies, food, weapons. The benefit is too great to ignore. It definitely outweighs the risk. Of course, the risk is impossible to assess right now because they just don’t have enough information.

But they make the right call to explore.

I’ve seen this episode multiple times in the past, but I don’t remember this at all.

Which is weird, because the discovery of the town on this planet is really cool, and ties in nicely with the previous two episodes that I loved so much.

Brody Makes a very interesting observation. There are paved streets, but no vehicles of any kind. Clearly, this world has cars. So where are they?

Rush and Eli have an interesting conversation. Rush wants to know “how they’re gonna do this”. Eli has to push through his frustration to find out what Rush is really getting at. What he really wants to know is, who’s gonna be the boss. Who will enter the course changes into the computer? 

Naturally, given Rush’s self-important ego, Eli assumed Rush would do it.

But Rush is asking.

So Eli volunteers.

It’s really hard to read Rush at that moment.

If he doesn’t trust Eli to do the job then why is he asking? Or is he trying to give Eli the push to step up and believe in himself? He has expressed some of that kind of desire in the past, he does see himself as a bit of a mentor figure to Eli in some ways.

Park is cutting it mightily close to get out of the atrium. And just as she’s about to walk through the door, Destiny seals it. In fairness, the ship did give an auditory warning, but not much time to evacuate.

Eli tries to override the door to rescue her, but it’s not working. 

Rush seems open about the fact that they may have to let Park die. They don’t have time for this. And as much as I want to disagree with him, I kinda can’t.

The entire crew are counting on them accomplishing their mission. In order to achieve that, at some point, Eli may have to stop trying to rescue Park and fulfil his other duties.

It’s harsh and it sucks, but that’s the reality of their situation.

Eli doesn’t care and is ready to go down and try the door manually.

So Rush has to force the issue by explaining the reality of the situation to her.

“Eli is spending too much time trying to rescue you, more than we can afford.”

She’d got her suit and there’s a pool in the middle of the garden. If she’s fully submerged, she should have enough protection from the star.

Rush promises her she’ll be okay.

But is he telling the truth?

Meanwhile, Volker and Greer have found a diner, and there’s more canned food in there. The labels are worn off, so it’s a bit of a mystery what they are, or how old they are. But Greer’s not worried.

This makes me wonder what date system the Novans used. And would any used-by dates be meaningful to us even if they weren’t worn off.

The crew had no way of knowing what year, or even what period of history, it was when they arrived on Novus. So using the Earth calendar would have made little sense.

I imagine they started a new calendar. The day they arrived was the beginning of year 1.

That would make it easy for our people. Given that the Novan culture started around 2,000 years ago, which is roughly when our calendar starts from, the year would be pretty similar to ours. Technically, this would be the year 2000. (assuming the 200 years wasn’t an approximation) To Destiny’s crew, it’s 2011.

One of the crew finds an old Novan newspaper and shows it to Camille. The headline says attack.

Firstly, I want to praise the fact that the props people spelled it without a c. A t a k. In reality, it’s pretty unrealistic that the Novan survivors would speak contemporary English after 2000 years. Just think what the English language was like in the real world, 2000 years ago. English didn’t really exist 200 years ago. It was brought to Britain by the Anglo Saxons in the mid 5th century. So let’s just look at how English has changed in the last 1500 years. Have you ever looked at old english? Or listened to somebody speak it? It’s unrecognisable as anything I’d call english. It’s a whole other language. It kinda sounds alien and I find it a little creepy. It’s really fascinating. Definitely worth a google.

Anyway, the language the descendants speak now, would be vastly different to what the drew of Destiny spoke when they first arrived on Novus. For the sake of storytelling, the show has ignored that, and fair enough. Stargate has been doing that since early SG-1. How many aliens we’ve never met have spoken english with no explanation at all.

But I do like that they at least acknowledge this concept by showing that spelling has changed. Not only that, the guy is having a little trouble reading the article. He can make the gist of it, but it’s difficult for him. So while spoken English seems to be the same, at least for the descendants we found, written English has definitely changed. Maybe the people who lived on this planet changed their language more than those closer to Novus. Anyway, a big thumbs up for that detail. Very cool.

But let’s talk about what the article actually means. The people on this planet were attacked. Young will shortly discover that half this city has been destroyed. And they’ll spot a drone flying through the streets.

Now the drones may have just come here because they noticed the stargate use, but this is a single scout. IF they knew destiny’s crew were here, they’d come in force.

It’s very likely that the original inhabitants of this city were destroyed by the drones.

And that’s worrying.

It means even without interference by Destiny’s crew, the Novan descendants are at risk from these drones.

Morrison wants to run to one of the planets in range, which won’t be in range of destiny. He starts dialling but James punches him out before the wormhole can form. 

Still, that might have been enough to attract the drone’s attention.

Idiot.

It’s all well and good seeing those drones flying through space, but there’s something extra creepy seeing one of them flying above the rooftops in a planetary setting. And that noise they make. I don’t normally notice sound design, but I’m really appreciating it in this episode.

Turns out, it’s a lot quicker to take out a drone with a rocket launcher than it is to take it out with machine guns. Who knew?

When the team get back near the warehouse, TJ asks if there are any injuries. And JAmes says “Just Morrison. I broke his nose.”

TJ doesn’t ask any questions. She just smiles.

I love that.

We haven’t seen a lot of Morrison in this show, but what we have seen makes it pretty clear he’s the kind of guy whose nose a lot of people would like to break.

I like the visual effect of Destiny flying into the blue giant star. I know it’s just CGI, and pretty average by today’s standard, but with the loud whooshing sound, and then cutting to the control room with the shaking camera and the actors in their suits. I dunno, I really got the sense of the danger.

Eli is starting to worry that Destiny locked out the dome because it knew it wouldn’t be survivable in there. Rush admits he had considered that possibility, but still maintains PArk should be okay as long as they both focus on doing their jobs.

The scene where Park makes her way to the pond is really tense. The lighting is very bright, to show how much light and radiation is coming through that dome. And there’s a bit of a heat haze effect on the footage too, which is very effective. But the anxious heavy breathing that the actress does as she desperately tries to survive is what really sells it.

The music really adds to this too.

As we get another beauty shot of Destiny flying through the star, we see the shields fritzing on and off. That’s the kind of effect you might often see in sci-fi but in this case, we know what that means. We know how vital that shield is to keeping Park alive, not to mention Rush and Eli. Every time that shields drop out, my throat gets a lump in it.

 They get closer.

The plants in the dome start to burn up.

And the water in the pod is bubbling around Park. She's hiding in boiling water. That’s intense. How long before it all evaporates?

Apparently, when shooting this scene, the helmet was filling up with water. So Jennifer Spence had to do the scene as long as she could, and then stand up, remove the helmet, and let the water out so she could breathe.

It must have been pretty scary, but the stunt coordinator got her through it, helping her realise she was in complete control.

What I love about all of this is that it’s giving us real stakes and real tension. We don’t know at this point if Park will survive or not. We don’t know how honest Rush was being about her chances. We know this show isn’t afraid to kill off semi-regular characters like Park. They’ve done it before.

They really are giving us a bit of a treat in terms of exterior ship visual effects in this one.

You can see the dome filling with fire.

And then the glass shatters.

And the water is gone.

And park is being sucked out, holding on to the edge of the pond for dear life.

And inside that helmet, she’s screaming.

They make it out of the star. It’s done. They made it.

They can start cooling the gate room so the crew can return.

But that’s when Rush noticed that the hydroponic dome has been breached.

No point trying to hide it from Eli.

Eli runs.

Back on the planet, we learn a little more of the history of the attack from the newspaper.

They moved the stargate to a less technological part of the city, and they drove all their vehicles out of the city to try to lead the drones away and save as many as possible. I wonder where they went. One of the other planets in range, I guess.

Young didn’t find any food or guns, but he did get some clothes from a dry cleaner.

And while Camille’s desire for a new outfit sounds comedic, it’s not so silly. Clothes ARE going to wear out. And unless they all want to become nudists, which I don’t think would be a good idea, they’re going to need new options. So it makes sense to grab some while they’re here.

Eli is relieved to hear that Park is still alive. The atmosphere has been vented and she’s near the door. She’s not out of the woods yet, but she hasn’t been killed by the heat of the star.

Now that they’re through the star, Rush can override the door. It opens.

Eli pulls her to safety.

Jennifer Spense gives a great performance as she lets all of that emotion out. It’s not just the fear that she’s just been through. She can’t see. She’s been blinded by the experience.

The way she cries, it churns me all up inside and makes me just want to give her a hug.

The most important thing is that Park has been saved. But there has been a loss. All the plants in the dome. Some of them were medicinal hybrids they may not be able to recreate. But they at least have stores of seeds so they should be able to start the vegetables again from scratch.

They have a scheduled time when they’re supposed to dial back to Destiny. It’s ten minutes too soon, but the drones are at the door. So they dial now.

We know the ship is through the star. Let’s hope Rush has succeeded in cooling the gate room enough for them to survive.

As the wormhole engages, a giant alien ship descends on the city. Is that a command ship or something bigger? Either way, it’s creepy as hell. Especially when it makes that noise.

As the crew comes back through the gate, Rush tells TJ there’s a patient waiting. Greer overhears.

The mission has been a success. Eli was brilliant. And Rush is seriously impressed. He just doesn’t want Eli to know he said that.

And I think that’s so stupid. Eli probably needs to hear that. I know I would. In this life, we are bombarded with so many negative messages. So many of us spend most of our lives doubting ourselves. To know that somebody believes in us, that they think we did a good job. Hearing those words is gold to a wounded soul. And most of us have wounded souls.

Why do we have this embarrassment about praising people? We need to get over that. We really do.

But we have to face a difficult reality check. It worked this time, but we won’t be able to fool the drones the same way again, and those blue stars are pretty rare.

The ship is recharged for now, but it’s not gonna stay that way. AT some point, they’re going to need to recharge again.

What will they do when that day comes?

That’s the question that will take us into the next episode - the show’s season finale, and the last show ever produced.

This was another fantastic episode. We remember the big moments., Twin Destinies, the Novan two-parter. The finale. But we don’t always remember the episodes in between. This was an episode in between, but it was really good.

And that stuff with Doctor Park - that was really intense. The writers could very easily have killed her off.

And where would that leave Eli and Rush?

Where would that leave Greer and Rush?

I think Rush was lying when he assured Park she’d be okay. I’m not saying he believed she’d die, but he wasn’t certain. There was a chance, but he had no idea if it would work.

Luckily, she did survive.

But she’s lost her sight.

And yet, I’m still faced with the uncomfortable realisation that Rush probably did the right thing. They had to do those calculations. They had to get the ship through the star. They didn’t have time to keep messing with the door. They probably wouldn’t have succeeded.

I like when shows put our characters in difficult situations like this.

But I’m sure glad I’m not in one of those situations.

I’m starting to feel sad about getting to the end of Stargate Universe. And feeling again the pain of this show’s cancellation.

One episode left.

I guess I’ll see you next time as we discuss Gauntlet.

In the meantime, have a great two weeks.

Live long and prosper.

Make it so.

We continue this two-part arc was Destiny arrives at Novus - the planet where their alternate timeline counterparts founded a new civilisation 2,000 years ago. I love this episode. In the present, we get to see our heroes digging through the ruins of their descendant's civilisation like archeologists, and in the past, we watch as our heroes slowly form a new society. It's all good stuff. So let's dig in to Stargate Universe "Epilogue".

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a Nerd.

This is episode 89 of the podcast

Today, we’re talking about  the Stargate Universe episode “Epilogue”

And if you’d like to check out my original science fiction books, head on over to AdamDavidCollings.com/books

The description on Gateworld reads

While attempting to return a group of colonists to their home, the crew finds records of their own alternate lives -- and a planet on the verge of seismic destruction.

This episode was written by Carl Binder

It was directed by Alex Chapple

And it first aired on the 25th of April 2011

We open with a very elderly Colonel Young in his deathbed. Chloe sits by his side, and his grown son Steve approaches.

Then we cut to present day. The shuttle is landing in a big city square, which features a statue of Young.

It’s so ominous seeing this very familiar modern-day type city covered in ice and ash. Completely deserted.

They’ve found an underground bunker. It’s possible somebody might have survived down there.

But how do they get in?

They gonna try using Destiny’s weapon on low power.

It works.

They gain entrance and even find that there’s still working power in the facility.

It’s nice to know that bad elevator music is a constant throughout the entire universe.

Although, to be honest, lifts don’t tend to play music here in Australia. I’m not sure I can think of one time I’ve been in one where it’s happened. But I get the concept.

Anyway, it’s a mildly amusing moment.

In the bunker, they find an archive. The entire history of the Novan civilisation. Eli hopes they’ll find answers to exactly what happened.

What they find is kind of remarkable. A 2,000 year old recording of the first moment the twin-destiny crew arrived through the gate and found that they weren’t on Earth. It looks like they’re surrounded by a sand storm. Not a very hospitable place.

Imagine having something like this. A video record of the exact moment that your civilisation began. The moment your ancestors first walked on the surface of your planet.

It’s like finding footage of their equivalents of Adam and Eve.

But while Eli is geeking out over the history, Rush is more concerned over life-support supplies, like more Lime.

They haven’t found any of that yet, but there are a lot of food supplies. Canned goods.

That is huge. I can’t overstate how important and useful this is.

Imagine going two years with nothing to eat but alien vegetables that taste so bad it almost makes you vomit. And then you find a supermarket.

This will greatly improve their chances of surviving, but also be a massive boost to morale.

Turns out, the planet they first appeared on wasn’t Novus. But there were several gates in range. They explored and one of the worlds they found was Novus. The green trees and blue sky would certainly be a welcome sight after the caves where they sought refuge from the sandstorm.

When Park remarks on how they documented everything, Yaozu says “It is easier to know where you are going when you know where you have been. Eli Wallace.”

And I just love that. Any time Eli gets credit and appreciation for his space vlogging is gonna get a big thumbs up from me.

It took me a moment to realise why Yaozu was being a little weird around Brody. I was thinking maybe he thought it insensitive that they wanted to upload the data without acknowledging the pain of the Novans losing their world. And then the episode reminded me that Brody was the founder of the opposing nation.

And again, Valko is still giving him a hard time about the name Futura. Give it up Volker. We get it. You think the name is stupid.

Shut up and move on!

I love how Chloe has found a bunch of science and maths textbooks all written by Eli.

Of all the scientific minds on that ship, he, more than anyone else, would be the one to want to preserve that knowledge for the next generation.

Rush, would see the value, of course, but to actually sit down and explain science in a way that kids could understand? No, he wouldn’t do that.

But she’s also found her own diary.

That’s gotta be weird

In the next flashback, we see the beginnings of Brody’s dissatisfaction with everyone. He’s specifically angry at Eli. It was Eli’s calculations that got them stuck on this planet. The fact that he agreed with Eli’s calculations seems to be irrelevant to him. But that’s fine. This is an emotional reaction, not a rational one. And that’s completely believable given their situation.

Meanwhile, Scott has found some nasty animal life, so they’re gonna need walls around their city.

It’s like they’re playing a real-life game of Civilisation.

I love watching this episode. I love fantasising about being one of them, settling a new world. Building a new civilisation.

In reality, it would suck, of course. But fantasies are not meant to be realistic.

I’m not saying the portrayal of the show isn’t realistic. Just my desire to be among them, and conveniently ignore the harsh realities.

I’d actually watch an entire show about this. The people who have to build a new life on an alien world. But then, I kind of have seen that show already. It’s called Terra Nova. And rather than an alien planet, it was the distant past, with dinosaurs. It only ran for one season, despite its popularity, because it was expensive to produce. It was shot here in Australia. But if you haven’t seen it, I would highly recommend Terra Nova. Seriously, check it out. I may even cover it on the podcast someday.

6 weeks in, they have their first death. It’s Volker. Probably his kidneys, but without any medical equipment, she can’t be sure.

And that’s one of the big harsh realities. It might be fun to plan out where in the forest you’re gonna found your city, but having to go back to the stone age, medically speaking, that’s horrific.

Volker is there looking over Chloe’s shoulder as she reads about his funeral.

How weird would that be?

He looks pretty confronted by it. It’s not his future, of course, but it’s a sobering reminder that he has a medical condition that is difficult to manage so far from Earth.

Young, of course, is beating himself up over this. TJ tries to encourage him. And that’s when they finally allow their prior feelings to come back out again. They’ll be trapped on this planet for the rest of their lives. He’s divorced from his wife now. So there seems little reason for them not to pursue it all.

Keep in mind, Varro is on the planet with them. I wonder how he’s going to react to TJ choosing Young over him.

They’ve got a shuttle-load of supplies they’re sending up to the ship.

It’s funny. As horrible as all this was for the crew in the previous timeline, the whole twin destiny thing has been pretty good for the crew in our timeline. This is the second time we’ve managed to benefit heavily from supplies left by that crew. First Destiny itself, and now all this stuff left behind by their ancestors.

Eli has figured out what happened to the people.

Many of them escaped through the stargate before it was buried in lava by a volcano, but those that remained needed another way off. Both countries realised they stood a better chance working together, so they built huge ships together. But they weren’t capable of FTL.

They set off for one of the planets they’d previously sent expeditions to.

Destiny could get there in a few days but it’ll be a 200-year journey for the Novans. I guess they figured out cryogenic stasis. So that’s good news. There are survivors. They didn’t all completely die out.

Back in the past, Scott finally works up the guts to talk to Lieutenant James about their past, and how he used her up and threw her away. The reason - he’s getting married to Chloe.

James, for her part, is surprisingly forgiving. I guess she moved on a long time ago.

Anyway, nice to see these two finally put it all to rest. 

But I wish, instead of just saying “Y’know, we never talker” he could have said, “I’m sorry.” 

Anyway, during the ceremony, Varro gives James a look. So I think she’ll be okay.

A lot of this history is about people hooking up. But that kind of makes sense. They’re a community of people living on a planet now. They kinda need to perpetuate the species if they’re going to survive.

So marriage and children is an important part of Novus’s history.

Eli actually remarks on this in one of his kino vlogs. Every else is getting together.

Except him.

Chloe is pregnant. Scott is building them a house. They have a bit of a township going on now. They have what look like stables.

I laughed at the montage of various children being born. Rapidly cutting from one screaming face to another. Chloe, TJ, James, and Park are all now mothers. The tribe is growing. Park is with Greer, obviously.

Eli is truly happy for all of them. But still feeling very lonely and left out.

And then Corporal Barnes sits next to him.

Cut to Barnes giving birth to their first child.

The editing of this section of the episode gives us some great comedic storytelling.

But the best bit is when we see Eli and Chloe watching this vlog together. And Chloe says “Something worth pursuing.”

Barnes is a character that is sometimes around, but we really don’t know much, if anything, about her.

The one person who hasn’t hooked up is Camille. Not because she can’t find anyone, but because she already found her soul mate, back on Earth.

Park has discovered that the black hole theory is right. The planet will soon be torn apart. They may have to leave before they’ve got all the data uploaded.

They’ve found one of those ships that the Novans built. It’s still in the factory on the planet. It never left. That’s convenient. If it’s operational, it could take the entire group of descendants.

TJ has made a disturbing discovery. Her counterpart developed a disease she was pretty sure was ALS.

I always thought ALS was just what Americans called MS, but according to Google they’re two similar but different conditions.

Which is interesting, because I don’t think I’ve ever heard Americans talk about MS, and you never hear about ALS here in Australia. Either way, it’s a pretty horrible thing.

And it’s really scary for TJ. It means she will develop a deliberating disease in her future. It could be a few years away. It’s not something you contract. She’s carrying it in her right now. And there’s no cure.

And that really sucks

I actually lost an aunty to MS. It’s a horrible thing.

As interesting as it is for them to see what their other versions of them got up to, it can be kind of disturbing. In some ways, you’re better off not knowing.

TJ has about 5 years before she’ll start displaying symptoms. She’ll die a few years after that.

Volker is looking in the ship’s database to see if the ancients had anything in there about this, or similar conditions.

The scenes of Young nursing and caring for his wife to her eventual death are heartbreaking.

But then there’s some good news. The Novans had a cure for ALS and many other diseased. Developed over 200 years ago. It’s in the archive.

But some bad news, the spaceship factory is now a river of lava.

So everyone is gonna have to cam back onto Destiny. How long will the air filtration system hold out?

Rush has found something interesting. Some kind of foam. He’s keeping pretty quiet about what it is, but he certainly seems to think it’s important.

Back in the past, while most of the crew are enjoying being grandparents, Camille is drafting a constitution. Their fledgling township is becoming a nation. 

And Brody is turning into a grumpy old man. He hasn’t broken away and founded Futura yet, but he’s cranky and doesn’t appreciate the kids running on his lawn.

For various technobabble reasons they can’t search the database until it’s finished uploading, or they stop the transfer. They’ve uploaded a third of the data so far.

They might have it, they might not.

But they’re gonna have to leave soon.

The bunker is falling apart around them.

The ladder is coming apart as they climb it. Varro helps TJ but falls in the process. They have to pull him up. Fortunately, he’s alive.

On his deathbed, Young apologises that he never got them home. Chloe tells him what is obvious at this point. They are home.

Rush finally reveals that the special foam he found is for C02 scrubbing. Their problems have been solved. Much more effective than lime. It’ll last for years.

Volker has an interesting remark for Rush. It burns you up that we did okay without you.

He’s probably right. They’ll be dropping off their descendants on a nearby planet shortly.

Eli hasn’t found the ALS cure in the data they were able to upload. Nothing in Destiny’s database either. It’s hard because different cultures have different names for diseases, but it doesn’t look good.

Still, this is sci-fi. There’s lots of other medical knowledge they can learn from. They can figure out a cure. That’s what Eli believes.

I love how Eli’s grandson has named the school after him. Eli is gone now, but one crew member remains alive.

Camille.

The makeup job making her look really old is pretty great. I was quite moved listening to her speak to the descendants of her friends. Seeing how proud she was of the civilisation they’d created.

The final shot of the townscape changing over the centuries is a fitting end to the episode.

I really enjoy this one. I think it might actually be my favourite episode of season 2.

Joseph Malozzi mentioned in his blog that this episode actually would have made a great finale for the show, and I agree, but at the time, they planned Gauntlet as a season finale, not a series finale.

Two left to go. It’s time to see how our heroes will deal with those drones.

I’ll see you next time for Blockade.

Have a great two weeks

Live long and prosper.

Make it so

This episode begins a two-part arc that may just be my favourite plotline in Stargate Universe. Running from the drone ships, Destiny finds a planet populated by a settlement of humans. These humans claim to be the descendants of the crew of Destiny, their civilisation founded 2,000 years ago.

This episode covers a lot of ground and has a very interesting structure.

Let's dig into Stargate Universe "Common Ground."

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a Nerd.

This is episode 88 of the podcast

Today, we’re talking about  the Stargate Universe episode “Common Descent”

And if you’d like to check out my original science fiction books, head on over to AdamDavidCollings.com/books

The description on Gateworld reads

Destiny comes upon a colony of humans who claim that their civilization was founded two thousand years earlier ... by Destiny's own crew.

This episode was written by Robert C. Cooper.

It was directed by Peter DeLuise

And it first aired on the 18th of April 2011.

We’re really in the home stretch of Stargate Universe now.

This episode and next episode form a little two-part arc, and then the final two episodes round off the season arc.

I’ll warn you in advance that I may be doing a lot of gushing over these next two podcasts. I love this episode and the next one.

Remember the CO2 scrubbers that were failing back in the pilot episode Air? Well, some of them on one of the decks are failing, resulting in headaches and nausea for the crew who sleep in that section.

I like how TJ immediately reports the unusually high number of people with similar symptoms all in the same area. There could be a cause which presents a bigger problem than just the medical one. Fortunately, Brody is already onto it.

They’re still allowing Destiny to follow its own predetermined course, for the most part. They can control the ship if they have to, but the rest of the time they let it do its thing. It’s just dropped out of FTL and there are two planets with stargates in range. One of them looks promising. Destiny is still helping them find the supplies they need.

When Eli meets Chloe and Camille in the observation deck, Chloe talks about how she hopes they find some of the purple fruit they discovered recently. Interesting that you’d expect to find the same fruit on multiple planets. I wouldn’t expect that to be likely. Voyager did the same kind of the with Leola root being common to many planets in the delta quadrant.

Anyway, like most edible plant life in this part of the universe, they tasted terrible, but Chloe and Camille share a knowing look. Apparently, they were good for something else. But they’re not gonna let on what that was to Eli.

That’s when Chloe spots something out the window. Drones. Our old friends. We haven’t seen them in a while, but last time we did, they nearly destroyed the ship. As they come into range, they open fire immediately.

So that’s not good.

One would assume the crew have been practising operating the ship in a combat situation since last time. They seem to be doing a decent job flying and shooting. Greer is actually getting pretty good at it.

Scott detects the command ship. It’s on an intercept course.

They’re keeping distance between them, but they won’t be able to keep it up until it’s time to jump. That’ll burn out the engines.

Young and his crew had assumed they were out of drone space, and Rush still believes this, so it seems the drones are actively pursuing Destiny. They may have tracked us using the re-programmed drone that got the crew out of their last encounter. They destroy it, but that’ll only help after they make their next jump, assuming that really is how they were tracking us.

Rush thinks the damage they’ll suffer from jumping early is a greater risk than the damage they’ll suffer from the next attack.  Which just goes to show how bad an idea it really is to jump early. Something you only do in the most dire of circumstances.

This episode is our first indication that the drone problem really is going to be a bigger issue than just that two-parter in the middle of the season.

As the command ship comes into range, we see a huge swarm of drones. They’re not gonna make it.

Except they do. Rush boosts the shields and they make it until the timer runs out. They jump.

As Eli says, they’re lucky they’re still alive. There’s a lot of repair work to do. Destiny is not going to be able to survive continual attacks like that one. So let’s hope the drones no longer have the ability to track Destiny.

They must have been travelling for quite some time, because Destiny wants to drop out of FTL again, near a planet. This presents a bit of a dilemma.

Young is inclined to override Destiny and keep going. Just to be sure they can get far away from those drones. And I get that. When you’re being chased by something scary, the last thing you want to do is stop running and stand still.

But that’s a very emotional response.

It’s actually Brody who is looking at this a little more logically. They need lime for the CO2 scrubbers. It’s safe to assume Destiny has found some on this planet, which is why it wants to stop.

They’ve dealt with the worse of the repairs. And as Rush says, if they don’t stop soon, they’re gonna have trouble breathing.

There are no drones immediately on sensors.

The planet seems relatively inhabitable.

At least this time they’re not searching for lime in a dessert.

Space exploration has always been an important part of the Stargate franchise. 

But you know one of the big things I like about SGU, there really is a sense of going where no one has gone before.

In SG-1 and Atlantis, they were travelling to planets populated by humans, who had been placed there by the Goa’uld, or the Ancients. But here, in Stargate Universe, we’re in the deep distant reaches, where no human, or any other race known to humans, has ever been. Not even the ancients.

There’s a real sense of wonder I get from that. But it’s a spine-tingling, cold almost scary kind of wonder. It’s hard to describe, but I think it’s cool.

However, as I say that, who should run out of the forest, but two human beings.

At least, they look human,

And they understand and speak English.

But even more surprising, the young woman says “I know you. You’re Matthew Scott.”

Okay.

When Scott demands to know how they know our names, the male says “You’re the ancestors.”

They claim that their civilisation was founded 2,000 years ago by the crew of Destiny.

They have historical Kino footage, which is how they recognised Scott and Greer.

The logical conclusion here is that the ancestors were the alternate timeline crew from Twin Destinies.

The time anomaly sent Destiny itself back a few hours, but the wormhole itself may have sent the crew back thousands of years. So why didn’t they arrive on Earth in the first century? We know the wormhole was connected to Earth because Telford made it through.

Remember that when a stargate gets impacted by a solar flair, not only does it travel through time, it also loops back on itself, so you come back out the source gate, not the destination. And since there was no Destiny there 2,000 years ago, Rush theorises that it simply connected to a nearby gate in the network. A gate that had already been placed by a seed ship far in advance of Destiny. 2,00 years ahead of it in fact. That’s not too unbelievable. I mean, we know that Destiny will just plod along at sublight until it reaches a star to recharge, if necessary. If that ever happened in the past, Destiny could easily have fallen back a few thousand years behind its furthest seed ships.

Eli seems to be the only one who sees this as super cool. As he says “Don’t you at least want to know how they survived and developed as a society?” I know I sure as heck would.

Chloe rekons Eli played too much Sim City as a kid, but I’m with Eli. Chloe, Young, TJ and the rest have no poetry in their souls. I’d want to know every little thing about this society’s history.

But Rush has to remind everyone why they came to this planet in the first place. They need lime. Jason and Eli can probably help them find it.

The crew are subjected to some hero-worship, which has got to be a little uncomfortable, if flattering.

Jason and Ellie don’t understand how their ancestors can be here alive, but they mention their testament said that Destiny might return someday.

The other Eli probably theorised about what had happened, and his words may have taken on sacred, almost religious importance.

This planet is not where they first established their civilisation. That was on a planet called Novus. This group came here as part of an expedition to try to find other viable worlds.

But one day something happened and they couldn’t dial Novus anymore. They think it was likely destroyed in an earthquake. And with no other gates in range, they were stuck here. That was 30 years ago.

These settlers have tents, radios and soccer balls.

But no permanent buildings, it seems. You’d think that over the course of a generation they’d build some houses.

Camille is chuffed that the leader of this tribe has the same name as her father.

It’s nice to know that their descendants have finally managed to find palatable food and drink.

Eli wants to get his hands on the testament. How cool would it be to just sit down in a nice library for a few days and just read through it all. I’d be up for that in heartbeat.

We learn that Novus had a population of millions, and it was pretty advanced technologically. But it was facing some kind of natural disaster. There was a lot of political tension around the issue, as you can imagine, but it turns out there were two countries on the planet, each with a different political philosophy. 

Tenara believed in the testament, which some of them wrote. The name means “The land of the Young” in ancient.

The other group blamed alternate Eli for what happened. They thought Rush was still on board Destiny and would one day come and rescue them. He became a saviour figure. They broke off and formed a country of their own. Futura. Brody was one of them. He came up with the name.

They have some of the old footage on a data port compatible with Destiny. The original Kinos that first housed that footage are viewed like the Dead Sea Scrolls. Which makes perfect sense to me.

Rush seems to lack the enthusiasm everyone else has for all of this. But then, he doesn’t have any descendants down there. His counterpart never made it to Novus.

When Jason and Ellie meet Rush on the bridge, they bow their heads, but apparently, it’s not in reverence. Some of their descendants have come to believe that Rush was a demon who would drag their souls down to hell.

And when Park remarks on how some things get twisted and exaggerated, Volker says “and some don’t” which I found amusing.

But many Futurans worship Rush like a god, which I’m sure Rush would be thrilled about.

We’re treated to some footage of Eli showing where they’re going to break ground building their town. He also explains the history of how the planet got the name Novus.

The settlers have helped the crew get the supplies they need and now they have a request. “Take us home to Novus.” They know the gate won’t dial, but they don’t know exactly what happened to their world. What state is it currently in?

These guys were sent out to create a colony, but with the expectation of help and support from the homeworld. Since they were cut off, they’ve had to make do on their own, and they’re barely surviving.

Goodness, that all sounds familiar. Seems the Destiny crew have a lot in common with their descendants.

Eli and Camille feel they have a moral duty to help these people, which I would agree with. But Young points out they can’t take that many people on Destiny.

Eli has figured out the location of the planet. The trip will only be about a week.

But with that many people on board, the lime they got here will be running out by the time they get there. If they can’t secure more lime on Novus, they’re finished. And that’s not a risk Rush wants to take.

The people of Novus might be advanced enough to help them get Destiny back into a fully working condition, or, they could all be dead.

The theory, 30 years ago, was that a rogue black hole was approaching the system. The tidal forces could rip it all apart. But that process could have taken hundreds of years.

And all of this was happening in the early eighties.

Crazy. While I was a pre-school kid here on Earth, the Novans were looking for a new homeworld.

And there’s another problem. The drones. In all the excitement, we’d kind of forgotten about them, hadn’t we? That’s actually how this episode started. The last thing they need right now is a drain on their resources.

So… what’s the alternative? Say “no thanks” and let their descendants, possibly their only remaining living descendants, just slowly die on this planet?

Young has a good compromise. The planet is close. They go there and investigate the planet and see what’s up. Maybe they can repair the gate and then the settlers can get there without the ship.

It seems a reasonable first step to me.

Another clip from the Kino footage shows TJ giving birth to the first baby born on Novus. I love how Eli practically has tears in his eyes as he says it. It seems those versions of TJ and Young got back together and started a family.

They had a boy, by the way.

Then there’s a big jump ahead. The town is well established. There are wooden structures that don’t look too dissimilar from what you might see in an American frontier town in a western. It seems Eli has a child too. His only regret is that his mother will never know how they turned out, or get to meet her grandson.

A much older Young is giving a speech. This is the time when the Futurans broke off and formed their own country.

Young seems pretty magnanimous about it all.

But he talks about how the early days were hard, but it brought them closer together. They’ve build a life they can all be very proud of.

Eli still thinks Young’s plan isn’t enough. They should be taking everyone on board now.

He hoped showing Young the footage would convince him of that.

So what are they going to do if they reach Novus and the gate can’t be repaired, or there’s nothing there to go back to?

Will they return here and help these people find some other home? Will they at least go back and tell them what they’ve learned?

It seems Young is offering no promises on that front. And that, I think, is what is really bothering Eli and Camille.

The leader of this world sadly observes that the Futurans were wrong at all. Destiny didn’t come back to help them. If they’d known this sooner, they could have avoided generations of conflict over the question.

And that’s when the drones appear. Not just in orbit, but flying through the atmosphere of this world.

That’s a problem. Because if they leave the settlers here, they’ll die.

There’s only one option now. They all evacuate through the gate, as the drones blow the settlement to pieces.

Destiny is also under attack.

Young allows the settlers to evacuate. Good thing he has a heart after all.

Rush doesn’t know how the drones found them.

Scott and Greer manage to destroy the drones, but the gate has a big chunk out of it. They’re not getting off this planet that way.

Young has no choice. Destiny jumps.

Eli, Scott, Greer and Camille are stranded on the planet with the remaining settlers.

Ellie asks an uncomfortable question. Why would the drones come here?

And that’s our fault. Destiny brought them here.

So …. Rather than bringing salvation, Destiny’s return has brought destruction and ruin.

Boy were those Futurans wrong.

Eli and Rush have both come to the same conclusion. The drones are tracking Destiny via the gates. An active Stargate is a massive subspace event. The drones can detect that event.

There are other settlements on the planet. Jason and Ellie run off to warn them, but it’s probably already too late.

This means that as long as they don’t use the gate, they should be able to hide. They’ll have to use the shuttle to get supplies from planets.

Young agrees with Rush that it’s too dangerous to risk going back for everyone else.

But…..if they don’t use the gate, then the drones shouldn’t be able to track them.

I’d be buying a little time to get the drones off the scent and then going back, personally.

Eli may have found a way to get a signal out to Destiny. Stargates have a transmitter. They communicate updates with one another and send status to destiny. So far, all Eli can do is turn it on and off, but that’s all they need to tap out an SOS.

I kinda wish they’d all give Brody a break. Yeah, I don’t think Futura is the greatest name, but do they have to keep mocking him for that? The answer, by the way, is no. They don’t. It’s getting a bit old and I’m kind of annoyed on Brody’s behalf.

I think this is possibly meant to be funny? I’m not sure. But it reminds me of the kind of humour you sometimes see in old DC comics, where everyone makes fun of Aqua Man because he’s the butt of all their jokes. And similar nonsense between Superman and Batman.  I hate that kind of humour, and really don’t understand why people find it funny. If you do, then great. But it does nothing for me.

Anyway, they’re overjoyed when they see that shuttle in the sky.

As they near the planet, speculation is rife. As usual, Eli is the voice of optimism. Their descendants have to be there. We passed down all our knowledge to them.

But, as TJ points out, they passed down some of their disagreements too.

The shuttle descents toward Novus. There are no radio signals, which is odd, given they were advanced. They’re passing through a layer of particulate matter. Dust and Ash. That’s ominous. It’s very cold down there. A nuclear winter?

They see a huge modern city. But it’s completely deserted.

It seems the ash came from a supervolcano and it produced conditions similar to a nuclear winter. There’s nobody alive down there.

So….where did they go? Are they all dead?

We’ll have to tune in next time to find out.

This episode had a pretty unusual structure. It actually covered a lot of ground.

First it raised the issue of the CO2, but very quickly became an episode all about the drone attacks.

But then it transitioned, almost into an entirely different episode about finding their descendants.

Only to have it all come together with the drones, and the CO2 being important elements of the climax.

Then, we make it all the way to Novus before the episode ends.

In my memory of earlier watches, this was all covered over a series of several episodes, not just one.

But … as unusual as it may feel, this structure works for the episode.

It’s a thrilling ride.

And I can’t wait to delve into the next one with you.

That’ll be called Epilogue.

Until then, have a great two weeks.

Live long and prosper.

Make it so.