Favorite SG-1 Episodes: Disclosure

And we are back. Sorry for the delay but that audio review that is now up on Youtube and Vidme took me almost two days to cut to my liking and I am still not 100% liking it. So on with the episode. Now this particular tale is not as exciting from an explosive action jam-packed power hour that you are used to. No new civilizations to beheld buuuut... it holds the future of the Stargate program in United States Air Force in the hands of many. This is SG-1 Season 6 Episode 17: Disclosure.

Sorry, sometimes the Borsch acts up.

A summit is held and foreign political representatives of the planet have been called in. For more than 6 years Cheyenne Mountain has been sending SGC teams to other worlds, finding new technology and making weapons to defend the planet against the Goa'uld but could easily being turned on their own enemies of the planet. Now many folks watching this episode have mixed feelings. You telling our rivals about all this sweet tech the military has been building? Why did it take so long to tell this story to the rest of the world? When will the SGC teams be revealed to the public?

General Hammond is trying to give vital intelligence on the Goa'uld's war capabilities, troops, ships that travel on interstellar levels and the weapons they possess when Senator Kinsey comes in with his hypocrisy for firebrand and God fearing, stating the SGC teams are incompetent, reckless and will one day have the Goa'ulds at our throats. He is counting on the representatives of the world to rally behind a civilian over-site committee to oversee all Stargate use, what trips to be taken and what material goods can come of this travel.  Again he sees overhead and gains rather than the allies and the people. Y'know, bad politician.

Gate bomb away!!!

With the ambassadors reluctance to accept that oblivion is on the rise, the collective heads of foreign relations are outraged as Senator Kinsey lays out some of SGC's dirty laundry. The fact of the foothold situation with an alien species incorporating a shape-shifting device allowing them to take over command for a short while, connecting the Stargate to a black hole nearly swallowing the whole planet up and diverting a planet killer asteroid barely in the nick of time.

His follow-up compromise is to have the NID (National Intelligence Department), a civilian committee to head up Stargate operations. These are also the same people that stole from the Asgard, threatened Hammond's granddaughters, almost killed a world removing its weather control device and frankly are a bunch of ex-military, ex-CIA dinks. Their objective is vast new technology at any cost including pissing off SGC's already established allies.

No France, we cannot immediately surrender. This guy.

Hammond endures about the whole episode of this when he decides he won't play fair either. Time for a winning hand and calls an ally in. You folks love the little guy and you know it. Of the Asgard fleet, Supreme Commander Thor appears and explains why the SGC teams need to continue, the alliance they have forged and how they would take any change as less than wise solution.

Now I know more than a handful of people that do not like this episode because it relies on a lot of stock footage of the previous episodes to explain the severity of the threat. Personally I thought this episode is vastly important to the series as the cat is out of the bag and all that is the SGC is in jeopardy if this summit goes south. Now anyone aware of nuclear deterrent summits, you know another will follow directly after this one has been reached to the goals intended or outright failed. Peace talks will continue and agreements will be done on table and everything under the table will still be in effect. They spy on us, we spy on them and so on.

Political struggle and the possession of the gate should have happened sooner but that is really at the end of the day in the hands of the creators and writers. I still felt there should have been more outrage and disgruntlement.

Extreme Wormholin'!!!

SG-1 Revisited: Fair Game

Day 3 of SG-1 Revisited starts off with a large gambit, a gambit for the planet and all the lives of the Earth. Sounds dangerous? Well how about not even being a big kid to speak at the table and just being the host. Yeah that could suck but when you lack a fleet of starships to do battle with your opponents it is understandable. Back to Season Three, Episode 3 for a bizarre chain of events to unfold. This is Fair Game.

Do you mind? I am on the throne.

Back in Cheyenne Mountain via Stargate Command, U.S. Secretary of Defense, Arthur Simms. Visits and gives a speech on behalf of the work they do defending not merely the country and its way of life but putting their lives on the line to defend our very planet. Applause all around as General Hammond tells all attending to be at attention in order to honor Captain Carter's promotion to Major. Colonel O' Neill removes Carter's...Captain insignia (You pervs, behave!) and replaces them with those of a Major before Hammond and O' Neill salute her. Jack of course is required to make a speech and he is never really good at the stirring speeches that don't involve kicking ass and taking names but he musters up his courage in front of crowds and then...is beamed out of the SGC and on to Thor's ship.

I sat on a tack!

Supreme Commander Thor of the Asgardian Empire (voiced by Michael Shanks) tells Jack of an impending conference the Goa'uld System Lords will parlay into rather than destroy Earth for their meddling in their territories. So Thor has offered Earth a membership to the Asgardian Protected Planets Treaty so the System Lords do not wish to face the Asgardian Fleet. Thor ports his way to the SGC and informs Hammond of the treaty terms that as Earth is the planet in question up for strike that it is only fair that the negotiations take place here. They will set the negotiations at SGC and O'Neill will represent all of Earth, per the Asgardians' wishes. of which he feels Daniel would be better suited doing but the Asgards think otherwise as he was the leader taking his teams into dangerous situations and coming out on top in spite of being a technologically inferior race.

Doctor Jackson proceeds give the historical lowdown on what Earth knows of legends and myths of the System Lords Cronus (Ron Halder of Antitrust, Stargate SG-1, Spider-Man Unlimited, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed, X-Men: Evolution, Kong: The Animated Series and Death Note) Yu-huang Shang Ti (Vince Crestejo of Level 9, Dark Angel, Cold Squad, Christmas Rush, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate: Continuum)said to have been the Dragon or one of China's greatest emperors and lastly the Indian god of death and destruction Nirrti (Jacqueline Samuda of Wolf Lake, Stargate SG-1, See Grace Fly, Wilder Days, Sub Zero and A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story). All in all, a swell bunch to be at your back door. Will Thor be able to deal with the System Lords? Can Jack not say something that will get the planet blown to bits?

A few facts of this episode now.

This was deemed an exercise in using folks that had never before appeared on camera. Jacqueline Samuda was a story editor for the show and given a major role as a Systems Lord? The same can be said of Vince Crestejo who at best was a stuntman and double for more than a few lesser characters on SG-1 and now made also a Systems Lord. And the gambit paid off well. Just goes to show you, you can never predict who will make a good actor or not.

Jack, did you float an air biscuit?

SG-1 Revisited: Prodigy

Welcome back for Day 2 of SG-1 Revisited. We are still in Season 4 of SG-1 and I always found this particular episode represented the past and the future of Stargate Command better than most of them. Imagine a lecture on wormholes being delivered by Major Carter and one of her equations was wrong. A brilliant but ill-tempered as well as ill-mannered young cadet points out this flaw and Carter sees potential in this girl if she could only play by the same rules as everyone else. This is Prodigy.

I am soooo bored.

Air Force Cadet Jennifer Hailey (Elisabeth Rosen of My Mother's Ghost, Sanctuary, Bless the Child, House of the Dead, Lucky Stars and Comforting Skin) would be a great asset to the SGC and Carter needs her to see in spite of being gifted she needs to go through the training as everyone else in order to rank up and probably not break the nose of any upper-classmates again. Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c are off-world at a research facility on a moon M4C-862 with a gathering of scientists that have deemed O' Neill and Teal'c as an unnecessary venture on Stargate Command's thinking and they will simply just get underfoot. O'Neill and Teal'c proceed to do sweeps around the base to ensure safety.

Back Earthside, Carter finds out that most of the negative attitude that stems from Hailey is due to boredom and frustration with the course she is taking. Constantly being compared to Carter regardless how her high scores in every class she attends. To sever the chip on Hailey's shoulder, Carter gets permission to give Hailey a tour of the SGC but General Hammond feels otherwise as he does not feel she is officer material. Carter goes to bat for Hailey stating if she glimpses her potential future with the SGC that she will buckle down and excel as a officer and make Hammond proud.

These titles are a bit too close to my groin.

Back at the moon, Dr. Thompson (Hrothgar Mathews of Cold Squad, The Core, Tom Stone, The Wild Guys and Cable Beach) discovers an alien life form comprised of energy phases through solid matter and discharges energy. Thompson tells the other scientists that they need to capture one for the betterment of all mankind!!! Yeah that old chestnut never comes to bite us in the ass.

Both Dr. Lee (Bill Dow of The X-Files, Cold Squad, Stargate SG-1, Pasadena, Da Vinci's Inquest, Kyle XY and Stargate: Alantis) and O'Neill think this is a bad idea as the makeshift container is breached by the lifeform zapping Thompson over and over and over again until he is a microwaved meal. Ick.

Unaware of what is happening on M4C-862, Carter and Hailey go for a visit to be right dab smack into a crisis when Carter goes into action to assist O'Neill, Teal'c and the surviving scientists. Hailey and Carter are butting heads on who hypothesized the most likely scenario while lives are in the balance. Will SG-1 be able to remove the scientists off the moon? Is M4C-862 deemed less than safe for humanity?

A few points on the episode now.

This marks the first appearance of Bill Dow of X-Files as Dr. Bill Lee. As he is barely is able to keep from being killed he ends up stay for the rest of the series, the spin-offs and even the movies. Pretty snazzy, sir.

Guest star Michael E. Ryan is the actual The Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force which Richard Dean Anderson gets to ask, "Do you really have Air Force Colonels who act the way I do? General Ryan simply replied, "Yes and worse!" General Ryan served until retirement in 2001.

No, let's not shoot it.

SG-1 Revisited

Welcome back to the week, folks. It has been a bit crazy with the whole Indiegogo campaign NOT really taking off and I am almost certain unless within the next 13 hours it will change that the funds we have earned will be refunded. Yippee... But enough grumbling about that and we focus on the week in question which consists of those planetary explorers, defenders and instigators from Stargate Command. That's right, SG-1. None have known more physical and mental pain than these folks. The Doctor hasn't seen that much torment...well okay probably he has but he'd rather not talk about it so just go peek in his diary.

A woman and a black guy???  What the Sam scratch is goin' on?

For the next few days we will find some fan favorite episodes, go through the Chappa'ai and experience more deafening explosions outside of some popular Trekkie shows. Over the years of interacting with SG-1 and Atlantis fans shows me there is no one answer to what episode is more popular then the other. For some, it is the guest star. For others it is the writing and every so often it is a body swap episode or alternative Earth Mirror Mirror effect.

With the need to scavenge the universe for advanced technology to appease the committees that fund the Stargate Command, along with gaining allies in the struggles against superior firepower, interstellar ships and older races that conquer and enslave lesser developed planets, the SG teams constantly have to weigh the pros and cons of helping others, get involved with their day-to-day events and even understand the cultures, social and political concerns. 

The safety word is "Apples"

I know, soooo wordy. Let's get to the real reason we are here. What do you deem is one of the best SG-1 episodes and why. I have compiled a handful of suggestions but feel free to write me back and let me know what episode moved you to laughter, tears or even both.

This is SG-1 Revisited Week.

Sci-fi Gems Week

Well hello there readers that somehow haven't found anything better to gaze upon yet I am glad to have kept your interest! Well we have managed our way through Italian horror fairly well and I thought... Hey, perhaps these devoted folks might want to see some decent sci-fi that doesn't hail from a channel rhyming with squiffy. So this week I am digging into my own archives of yesteryear, maybe a few years back and those that simply got missed.

My nose itches.. I don't mind tellin' ya.

Yes as often I have covered this particular genre, I am now going to be rummaging through the various sub-genres and excavating a fairly competent lot of science fiction that will be fascinating for some, boring and long-winded for others and lacking enough explosions for the 12 year old boys inside most menchildren. This of course can range from time travel to straight up hostile environment to the Last Man on Earth scenario that is far too coveted by Americans. Seriously, check with your friends of foreign lands and see how predominant or ruling that is stateside.

Keep in mind that I will be hitting the way back machine without Mr. Peabody's expertise and/or permission but his boy Sherman assures me everything will be nominal. So from the 1960s to Now I am hoping for find more than a few gems to share with you lot in the hopes to prove there is good Sci-fi out there you just have to look... sometimes for a very long time. Might help if a Hollywood Video or Blockbuster still existed in my immediate area but thank God there's a Redbox handy... for all my dated Sci-fi needs. I f&*king hate Redbox. Without further adieu, This is Sci-fi Gems Week!

My hair remains fabulous.

Free to Play Week: Get Off My Lawn!

Hey there folks and welcome to Day 3 of Free to Play Week. Well after combing through far too many MMO games, co-op options and fantasy games I realized three things. First, I really do not need a two to five minute cut-scene of dialogue, story arc or monologue if I am just interested in hack and slashing. Second, most MMOs take a bit of time to learn and get all the quirks of the game mastered and spending more than four hours on any one game I am just reviewing seems a bit tedious and unnecessary and third, I just wanted something simple to play and have a laugh. With that in mind, how about a game of first contact that goes horribly wrong? This is Get Off My Lawn.

You damn kids!!

From Digital Leisure Inc., the people that brought you Dragon's Lair, Space Ace and Dragon's Lair 2: Time Warp comes an arcade style shooter game in the same facet of Duck Hunt to Plants Vs Zombies. Enter Murray Mendelson, a 78 year old man very meticulous about his front lawn that looks as thought it was manicured with a pair of nail trimmers. Lush in green and finely tended to, a knock at the door interrupts his afternoon nap. Assuming it is some band candy offer or a local Mormon chapter that hasn't gotten the message yet, he grabs his musket and answers the door. A small, blue alien presents him a gift and for the creature's troubles and good conduct he gets gut shot by Mendelson.

Gut shot! Bad way to die.  Oh well, see ya!

In true checkerboard style, our legion of little aliens head to his front door. As Mendelson you have the default weapon of unlimited ammo via musket that causes the poor visitors to die by. With each kill in a row comes a series of orbs. With a collection of orbs you can purchase better weapons with each level of new alien combatants. Buying levels in each weapon improves the kill ratio and dispatches the poor critters rather effectively. With musket, shotgun and ray gun as your offensive you may also buy sandbags to hide behind.

The downsides now. You never have any exploration beyond your front lawn as you are out on the porch defending it to the hilt. You have to go to main menu to reach your shed to find the additional weapons which can only be purchased with orbs but that is where it gets you. Beyond the 500 orbs they give you for upgrades you have to buy via credit/debit/Paypal or electronic check the collection of orbs ranging from 25,000 to 1,000,000 orbs. The cost is 25,000 Orbs is .99 cents to the 1,000,000 is 19.99 but let's face it, you spend at least ten bucks a month on most MMORPGs so why go crackers?

The so called music does not alter throughout the game and trust me, after 6 levels of it you will go to main menu and switch it off. No real strategy to speak of other than smoke as many you can in a row for better points. All in all, a classic causal shooter game that is simple to play without a lot of in-depth story-line to follow.

Ahh! They're swarming!!

Random Picks Week: Superman: The Animated Series

Day 3 of Random Picks Week and clearly we haven't had any cartoons in a bit.  Don't worry, nothing zany and loony if you will.   Since 1992's popularity of Batman: The Animated Series, we seen copious villains, explosions, mysteries and wild adventures.   Rather than a Dark Knight how about a Beacon of Hope standing for truth and justice?  This is Superman: The Animated Series.

So... you own this starship or rent?

Darkseid: You dare to spoil me?
Superman: That's for Dan Turpin!
Darksied: Who?
 Superman: The good man you murdered!
Darkseid: If I had known the death of one human would hurt you so, Kal-El, I would have killed more!


As with the Batman series, Superman (Tim Daly of Almost Grown, Year of the Comet, Wings, The Batman Superman Movie: World's Finest, Invasion America and Eyes) has a bizarre collection of intellectuals, brutes and monsters for villains.  Constantly matching wits with genius philanthropist Lex Luthor (Clancy Brown of Thunder Alley, Highlander, Shoot to Kill, Earth 2, Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, Fallout: A Post-Nuclear Role-Playing Game, Justice League and Carnivale) who happens to get what or whom he wants by any means necessary.   In his secret identity as Clark Kent, Superman finds himself fascinated by Lois Lane (Kim Delany of Threesome, Almost You, Sweet Surrender, China Beach, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Justice League, Desperate Housewives and Body of Proof) a sassy, pushy and captivating lady reporter with the ability to be accident prone or drawn down the greatest amount of danger one person could experience in 8 lifetimes.  

I'm looking for Sarah Connor.

With a substantial supporting cast, voice casting director Andrea Romano (Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Superman/Doomsday, Justice League, Teen Titans, Ben10: Alien Force, Green Lantern: First Flight and Son of Batman)  does her level best to match the ideal voice with the character.  Such as: Brad Garrett for Lobo and Bibbo Lebowski, Malcolm McDowell as Metallo, Lisa Edelstein as Mercy Graves and Michael Ironside as Darkseid.


Just a few comments and critiques now.  Rather than the gritty and dark look of Gotham, Metropolis is always sunny and bristling with new technology.  Some of it for the better and a lot of it to beat on Superman and claim of power.  With the constant city-wide destruction that keeps occurring it is a wonder anyone lives in Metropolis at all.  The transition of more than a few Gotham villains hoping to get a break from Batman they head to a city with a being that is almost a Demi-God??   Does that make any sense at all?     To look at it in Marvel Comics terms, Hey I am tired of Spider-Man beating on me all the time, I will see if I can find the Hulk and have it a bit easier.

Regardless the reasons of said villains, Batman makes more than the occasional cameo and the two form a friendship despite their differences in methods and techniques.  And Batman's costumes is still cooler by far.  We also have the introduction of Green Lantern, The Flash and Aquaman for a younger audience that did not see the Super Friends or Super Powers.   Trust me kids, you are better off missing those episodes.

The alien with the heart of gold and Midwestern upbringing tries to solve issues without always resorting to punching and destruction but let's face it, with planes falling out of the sky, missiles zig-zagging around town and more than a few meta-humans trashing the joint, Supes is a busy guy.

Here's Lobo with the wind-up...

Indiana Jones Week!

Afternoon/evening fans of mine and welcome to the beginning of the new week.  This week I have been putting off for more than a few months now, I felt it was about time that I pay a bit of respect to a childhood hero of mine that was a blatant rip off of Alan Quartermain and Julian Sorel with a dash of Philip Marlowe.  I speak of none other than the archaeologist, Professor Indiana Jones.  That's right kiddies, this week is devoted to explosions, faces melting, Wilhelm screams and one man bucking the odds and still coming out on top of it all.

Yeah I need a shave, so what?

This fellow has fallen under hero/anti-hero so many times in the eyes of different gatherings of people.  Some call him a tomb robber, grave digger and despoiler of the dead.  Others call him a brilliant scientist.  From the humble beginnings of Lucas and Spielberg, this iconic character has had books, video games on various platforms, action figures, lunch boxes, Halloween costumes for both children and adults and even a bobble head.  Harrison Ford may actually receive more mail about this character than any other including Han Solo of Star Wars, so yeah Indy is kind of a big deal.   You have all week to figure that out of course so enjoy the write-ups, feel free to drop me a line or comment on either the fb page rottenreelz or directly on the blog.

Sci-fi of the 1950's Week: The Day the Earth Stood Still

Howdy all and as promised we begin our late week with a 1951 Sci-fi classic brought to us from the pulp Sci-fi novelist Harry Bates (Farewell to the Master, Space Hawk: The Greatest of Interplanetary Adventurers, Hawk Carse, The Affair of the Brains, The Bluff of the Hawk and The Passing of Ku Sui) this humble black and white mono recorded number about a humanoid visitor from another world bringing with him a large and powerful robot and a message for all mankind.  So prep the Army, check your weapons and vehicles and by all means shoot profusely at the unknown.  This is The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Wow Gort, they drop some clams on this set, huh?

Klaatu: You must go to Spoiler. You must then recite these three words. Klaatu barada nikto.

A flying saucer lazily approaches the Earth and eventually lands in Washington, D.C.  Naturally the US military completely encamp around it awaiting any sign of life and/or trouble.  A hatch and gangplank opens from the ship and a tall humanoid name of Klaatu (Michael Rennie of The Robe, The Third Man, The Lost World, Lost in Space and The Time Tunnel) exits the craft announcing that he comes in peace, but as he just jets down from the gangway he draws a small cylinder from his side which a twitchy soldier mistakes for a weapon and shoots him.  Yeah we are off to a fine start of intergalactic representation.   Without any warning a large robot name of Gort (7’7” Lock Martin of Lost in a Harem, Lady on a Train, Off Limits, Invaders from Mars and The Snow Creature) pops out of the ship and proceeds to disintegrate every weapon around him with a ray of awesome power from his head visor Cyclops style. 

Optic blast...fire.

Klaatu gets him to cease the destruction and goes on to explain the device he held would allow the President to see other worlds; a sort of an inter-dimensional View Master full of wibbly wobbly timey-wimey stuff.      

Rushed to the hospital he floors the Army medical by applying some healing salve that heals the wound instantly while the Army attempts to get inside his spaceship to no doubt reverse engineer the thing.  So blasting the guy wasn’t insult enough they now move on to the lesser crime of breaking and entering.   

After escaping military personnel, Klaatu snags a suit and calls himself Mr. Carpenter to better blend in and learn of this primitive backwater world that still think atomic power is a neat idea.  Staying at a boarding house under this alias he befriends the residents and listens with great interest on his fellow boarders’ opinions of why the alien is here on Earth. 

From petty fear to typical kneejerk reactions to the unknown, Klaatu is then attacked by the Army yet again as he flees off world stopping his servitor from killing the lot of them and leaves the assembled scientists with these thoughts how the penchant of humanity’s blood lust, harnessing the power of the atom and the exploration of space that the Earth will be viewed as savages of the cosmos and to tread carefully for it could very well mean the end for the planet.

From the paranoia of the Americans only six years after World War II and the Cold War coming to affect; this really is an excellent example of human behavior large and small.  Showing the military’s standing on zero tolerance to the innocence of a small boy befriending a total stranger, director Ray Wise (The Body Snatcher, Born to Kill, The Haunting, The Andromeda Strain and The Hindenberg) and crew go the message across that the jumping to conclusions without clear thinking or rational behavior could lead to devastating consequences. 

No Helen, Scientology is complete and utter crap.