![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
They had to go and do the Middle Ages, because no SF&F show is complete without a nod to ye olde medieval timez. sigh It could have been worse, I suppose. Spoilers from here on out, of course.
Complaints
Okay, I have to get this out of the way first: why the frell do people in the Middle Ages speak Modern English? Egad, people! You know, there are a gazillion Middle English people out there. You can call one of us, and virtually any of us would help you do some back translation, free of charge. We'd be geeked just to get our names in the credits. Heck, I've had undergraduate students translate Modern into Middle English. It's just not that hard. So why couldn't they toss in some Middle English? After my second or third complaint of this nature, Brilliant Husband reminded me (with just a look--funny how that works) of my analysis of the Middle English in a Stargate SG-1 episode: "Demons" Meta: Carl Binder, Ye Bee Doin It Wroong. (Good times, good times.)
I'd query the Latin, too, if they'd said it at a rate I could follow it. I don't think it was quite right, but Tony Curran did a bang-up job, delivering it too fast for the two Latinists in the house to catch every syllable, so I can't rip that apart. Points for Tony Curran.
I can admire Sarah's initiative, but her sneakiness was just silly. That soldier never did think Lester authorized her to go through, did he? If he had, he certainly didn't after she got back. Nor will Danny remain in any doubt for long. He suspects. He'll verify. He'll have a few words with her. (He'd better not come down on her hard, though, given the stunts he has pulled!)
I also have to wonder how reliable a source a kid that age was for not only information but motivation. If they'd shown Sarah talking to an adult, I'd find it more plausible that she'd understand that not only had Sir William been a mercenary, he'd returned tired of killing. Of course, then they'd have had to pay for another speaking role. Then ITV might cancel the show because it costs too much. Oh, wait....
Why the frell was Abby running around with a tranquilizer gun if she would only use it on Becker? The dragon charges him, and she doesn't shoot it? (Does anyone have the correct spelling of the thing's real name? It sounded like "dragonex" to me, which in turn sounds pharmaceutical--something you'd use for halitosis, I suppose.) I guess she didn't want to shoot the poor widdle lizard because it was already injured and near death. It seemed to be doing just great, however, when it charged. Clearly, Abby values the lizard's life more highly than Becker's.
I can handle that assessment (though Becker wins points in this episode too; see below). What really bothers me is when Abby appears to value the lizard's life more highly than her own. The only justification I can offer is that she was certain the knight wouldn't kill a woman to get at a dragon, so she never felt she was risking her life. In that outfit? I can totally see why he thought she must be a demon. Did he even know that she was a woman? Or did he give up in confusion?
I could not reconcile Lady What's-Her-Name's hairdo with her outfit. Wasn't that the time when the stylish women wore their foreheads shaved? I suppose it might be hard to get an actress to do that for a non-speaking part, however. And language, not fashion, is my forte.
Why on earth did Connor try to cover what Jack had done? He should scream it to the rafters! (which are really high in the atrium there) Abby needs to know her bother--Freudian slip, I mean "brother"--is a low-life scumbag who abducted her pet and lied to her. He needs to move back out. (Connor needs to move back in, before Lester really gets fed up and feeds him to a Dave or something.)
The bar fight was silly. I'm not sure that's actually a complaint; I'm not sure where that belongs.
Redeeming Features
Who is this Tony Curran and why do I not seem to have encountered him before? He gave the Latin fast enough that I had to let him get away with it. I could sympathize with the man, instead of simply complaining about his amazing Modern English (hey, I can multitask). I even kind of liked his silly fight scenes (and loved the little "Inside Look" clip of Jason Flemyng recounting how the two of them practiced the one scene in his garden while his wife accurately dubbed them both idiots). I like this actor.
I like that Sarah insisted on going along and saved the day. Has everyone else noticed (probably) that the only ones on the show with common sense are women? (And occasionally Lester. Hmm. Which is not to say that all the women have common sense at all times; Abby has exhibited some spectacular failures on that count, and Jenny's second season outfits also undermine the generalization.)
"I am in hell!" "No, mate, this is London. Easy mistake to make, though." Obvious and yet still screamingly funny (to me, at least). Poor Sir William! It must have looked like hell!
I like what they did with the church. When people took refuge there, back in the Middle Ages, they didn't just take themselves, and someone did at least a little homework: no fixed pews in most churches of this time. The tomb effigies even looked passable to my eye! (Did they show stained glass in that church, though? That didn't look right. My memories are very vague, however. That's what I get for writing two ep reactions, a book review, a movie review, and a ST ep review in less than twenty-four hours. But I couldn't disappoint my loyal readers! Hey, is anyone still reading?)
I hated, hated, hated the Jack subplot--except that the final scene of the episode redeemed it. I thought at first, "Oh, no! Connor hasn't learned! He went there by himself!" Then, of course, he stepped aside.
"My army, actually."
Connor, I LOVE YOU! Becker, I even like you too!
Questions for Discussion
1. Did Sarah actually pay for the outfit before she went sweeping out of the costume store? Because it looked to me like she didn't. (Hey, she can just expense it out! Yes, I know that's not actually a verb.)
2. How hard will Danny have to work to look stern and not amused when he finally talks to Sarah about going through an anomaly with neither authorization nor backup?
3. Can anyone promise me I'll never see Baby Brother Jack again? (If the answer is "no," just skip this one.)
I'm skipping previews because they keep showing me too much, so I have no idea what to expect next week. No, actually, I have some idea of what to expect: absurdity, bloopholes, and bad dressing by at least one major cast member. Beyond that, I'm not sure.
Complaints
Okay, I have to get this out of the way first: why the frell do people in the Middle Ages speak Modern English? Egad, people! You know, there are a gazillion Middle English people out there. You can call one of us, and virtually any of us would help you do some back translation, free of charge. We'd be geeked just to get our names in the credits. Heck, I've had undergraduate students translate Modern into Middle English. It's just not that hard. So why couldn't they toss in some Middle English? After my second or third complaint of this nature, Brilliant Husband reminded me (with just a look--funny how that works) of my analysis of the Middle English in a Stargate SG-1 episode: "Demons" Meta: Carl Binder, Ye Bee Doin It Wroong. (Good times, good times.)
I'd query the Latin, too, if they'd said it at a rate I could follow it. I don't think it was quite right, but Tony Curran did a bang-up job, delivering it too fast for the two Latinists in the house to catch every syllable, so I can't rip that apart. Points for Tony Curran.
I can admire Sarah's initiative, but her sneakiness was just silly. That soldier never did think Lester authorized her to go through, did he? If he had, he certainly didn't after she got back. Nor will Danny remain in any doubt for long. He suspects. He'll verify. He'll have a few words with her. (He'd better not come down on her hard, though, given the stunts he has pulled!)
I also have to wonder how reliable a source a kid that age was for not only information but motivation. If they'd shown Sarah talking to an adult, I'd find it more plausible that she'd understand that not only had Sir William been a mercenary, he'd returned tired of killing. Of course, then they'd have had to pay for another speaking role. Then ITV might cancel the show because it costs too much. Oh, wait....
Why the frell was Abby running around with a tranquilizer gun if she would only use it on Becker? The dragon charges him, and she doesn't shoot it? (Does anyone have the correct spelling of the thing's real name? It sounded like "dragonex" to me, which in turn sounds pharmaceutical--something you'd use for halitosis, I suppose.) I guess she didn't want to shoot the poor widdle lizard because it was already injured and near death. It seemed to be doing just great, however, when it charged. Clearly, Abby values the lizard's life more highly than Becker's.
I can handle that assessment (though Becker wins points in this episode too; see below). What really bothers me is when Abby appears to value the lizard's life more highly than her own. The only justification I can offer is that she was certain the knight wouldn't kill a woman to get at a dragon, so she never felt she was risking her life. In that outfit? I can totally see why he thought she must be a demon. Did he even know that she was a woman? Or did he give up in confusion?
I could not reconcile Lady What's-Her-Name's hairdo with her outfit. Wasn't that the time when the stylish women wore their foreheads shaved? I suppose it might be hard to get an actress to do that for a non-speaking part, however. And language, not fashion, is my forte.
Why on earth did Connor try to cover what Jack had done? He should scream it to the rafters! (which are really high in the atrium there) Abby needs to know her bother--Freudian slip, I mean "brother"--is a low-life scumbag who abducted her pet and lied to her. He needs to move back out. (Connor needs to move back in, before Lester really gets fed up and feeds him to a Dave or something.)
The bar fight was silly. I'm not sure that's actually a complaint; I'm not sure where that belongs.
Redeeming Features
Who is this Tony Curran and why do I not seem to have encountered him before? He gave the Latin fast enough that I had to let him get away with it. I could sympathize with the man, instead of simply complaining about his amazing Modern English (hey, I can multitask). I even kind of liked his silly fight scenes (and loved the little "Inside Look" clip of Jason Flemyng recounting how the two of them practiced the one scene in his garden while his wife accurately dubbed them both idiots). I like this actor.
I like that Sarah insisted on going along and saved the day. Has everyone else noticed (probably) that the only ones on the show with common sense are women? (And occasionally Lester. Hmm. Which is not to say that all the women have common sense at all times; Abby has exhibited some spectacular failures on that count, and Jenny's second season outfits also undermine the generalization.)
"I am in hell!" "No, mate, this is London. Easy mistake to make, though." Obvious and yet still screamingly funny (to me, at least). Poor Sir William! It must have looked like hell!
I like what they did with the church. When people took refuge there, back in the Middle Ages, they didn't just take themselves, and someone did at least a little homework: no fixed pews in most churches of this time. The tomb effigies even looked passable to my eye! (Did they show stained glass in that church, though? That didn't look right. My memories are very vague, however. That's what I get for writing two ep reactions, a book review, a movie review, and a ST ep review in less than twenty-four hours. But I couldn't disappoint my loyal readers! Hey, is anyone still reading?)
I hated, hated, hated the Jack subplot--except that the final scene of the episode redeemed it. I thought at first, "Oh, no! Connor hasn't learned! He went there by himself!" Then, of course, he stepped aside.
"My army, actually."
Connor, I LOVE YOU! Becker, I even like you too!
Questions for Discussion
1. Did Sarah actually pay for the outfit before she went sweeping out of the costume store? Because it looked to me like she didn't. (Hey, she can just expense it out! Yes, I know that's not actually a verb.)
2. How hard will Danny have to work to look stern and not amused when he finally talks to Sarah about going through an anomaly with neither authorization nor backup?
3. Can anyone promise me I'll never see Baby Brother Jack again? (If the answer is "no," just skip this one.)
I'm skipping previews because they keep showing me too much, so I have no idea what to expect next week. No, actually, I have some idea of what to expect: absurdity, bloopholes, and bad dressing by at least one major cast member. Beyond that, I'm not sure.
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
Tony Curran's a Scottish actor who's done some reasonable TV stuff. He and the actor who played the journalist in Primeval shagged in the toilets in the infamous final ep of a cult show called This Life about a load of lawyers. I keep meaning to watch the DVD of a film called Red Road that he was in.
He disappeared off to the States for a while and seems to have done some reasonable stuff. And I note from IMdb that he was in one of the seemingly many film versions of Beowulf!
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
I keep meaning to watch the different Beowulf versions. At the moment I content myself with Seaumus Heaney and the audiobook version of his translation.
From:
no subject
Most movies I see are rentals or on TiVo these days (thank you, Small Child). One of the things that really got to me about the Beowulf I saw in the theater was that if BH and I only go to a few movies a year, darn it, I want to enjoy it when we go to one!
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Jack was just annoying.
I never liked the idea of anomalies opening in near-historical periods. The thing primeval has over many other Sci-Fi shows is the prehistoric angle. This ep smacked too much of Doctor Who. I like Who. I don't want Primeval to resemble it at all.
Did I mention that Danny annoyed me in this? :-) I was watching the first four eps last night, and in ep four, he was actually not so bad. In this one I just wanted to slap him for being too bloody good at everything!
Nice to see Abby remembering the purpose of the team is not to kill the creatures if they can avoid doing so. But they're still behaving too much like a gang, and not the research team Cutter created.
From:
no subject
I know! He gets hit in the face repeatedly by a man with metal gauntlets and doesn't have a mark on him for a while! Later they put in a little bruising, but honestly! And apparently Danny has had "a couple of lessons" in fencing, as well!
I like Who. I don't want Primeval to resemble it at all.
Yes! I kept wondering, "Where's the TARDIS, that they all understand each other?"
Nice to see Abby remembering the purpose of the team is not to kill the creatures
Oh, yes, I meant to mention that. I had wondered the previous week if anyone was ever going to remember that. Abby had been one of the staunchest defenders of the creatures, but she showed little concern over Mushroom Men or terror birds. (I suppose I wouldn't either, though.)
Can we feed Jack to the terror birds? Or the minefield?
I'm glad that they finally made some use of Sarah again. I think they can't manage to write all the characters in any one episode.
From:
no subject
You expect a teatime, ITV (i.e. cheap*), ‘family’ drama to think of this kind of thing? I must admit, had it been in s2, it had bugged me, but by this point I didn’t really care…
Also due to various irritations, I don’t remember most of this episode. I have blanked it out. Thusly, I only vaguely remember Sarah nicking the dress (I’m sure she didn’t pay), going through the anomaly, doing… something, and coming back.
I also do not remember Becker getting shot: hello, reason to rewatch! And I shall skip to the question of why Connor covered for Jack: who the fuck knows? Seriously. He’s a little shit who needs a smackdown.
Tony Curran’s rather good, actually. Total OIH. He’s been in everything.
...Has everyone else noticed (probably) that the only ones on the show with common sense are women? (And occasionally Lester)...
YES. See previous comments about how Abby should be in charge.
"I am in hell!" "No, mate, this is London. Easy mistake to make, though."
I know at least one person who’d regard that as an accurate assessment rather than a joke…
…Hey, is anyone still reading?...
YES. I spent most of last week hoping for your 306 entry and I can't even remember the episode!!!
Stained glass would be plausible, I think (well, Henry VIII’s men got rid of a lot in the Reformation, so it must have been about beforehand…).
The bit with Connor at the end annoyed me, but the whole subplot annoys me.
Discussion:
1. I doubt it.
2. Harder than he’s ever worked at anything ;)
3. Nah, you’re alright, it’s the long-awaited aliens episode next week. Smug git gets abducted ;)
*Cheap by SF standards – obviously still too expensive for ITV.
From:
no subject
…Hey, is anyone still reading?...
YES. I spent most of last week hoping for your 306 entry and I can't even remember the episode!!!
Oh, thank you! I do take these episodes as an opportunity to be funny. It was easier when I enjoyed the show more, but I still do my best.
Yes, medieval churches had stained glass; it was the style I dimly remembered from this episode that bothered me. Looked later. I have friends who work on stained glass, so I've spent some time looking at pictures, and I've even seen one late medieval sample up close (Detroit Institute of Arts).
3. Nah, you’re alright, it’s the long-awaited aliens episode next week. Smug git gets abducted ;)
Oh, yay!
*Cheap by SF standards – obviously still too expensive for ITV.
And now I hear the producers offered them a deal where SciFi would eat about half the cost, reducing it ti £600,000/ep to ITV! Cheap idiots. grumble grumble
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Perhaps we should go with the old stand-by of Stargate fandom: The anomolies give the humans the ability to understand the native tongue anywhere they go. Jaffa kree! Except when it doesn't. ;)
(This post now earns a Teal'c icon. Just because.)
"My army, actually."
Connor, I LOVE YOU! Becker, I even like you too!
That line, combined with Becker totally posing for the next issue of Black Op Hotties Monthly, sells the whole scene.