Timeline 17 Story Notes

In The Summer of Love, we travel back to the sixties and introduce two important storylines of the Quadrant universe! First, we get the sixties/seventies super-team of the universe in an early incarnation: the Defenders of Democracy!

Plus, we have the introduction of Aphrodite, a character that will be recurring in a few of these Timeline stories as we bounce around the decades.

1967 was an interesting year in American history, and I doubt I have done it the justice it deserves. But the purpose of this story was two fold: introduce the Defenders as characters and set up a few of the growing conflicts in American history for the next few years afterward.

I really enjoyed this one... be sure to drop a few thoughts on me here.

Super-Powered TV: Heroes 3.24: I Am Sylar

We open again with Nathan on television. We then flashback to eighteen hours later, back in Washington, as Sylar awakes in a different form. Sylar admits to Danko that he is losing himself, and he is unwilling to be a “nobody”. Sylar kills another victim and declares his nature as a living entity. Danko tells Sylar he needs something to connect him to his past. Sylar uses his federal clearing to get his mother’s belongings. Sylar then has a phantom conversation with his adoptive mother, as he transforms between his natural form and her.

Parkman tries to convince Hiro to give up the fight... that they have more to live for, as does he. But even though both Matt Parkmans leave, Hiro and Ando set out to bring down Building 26. FOr some reason, Ando doesn’t stop when they use themselves as bait for Building 26’s goons. But Hiro sets him up, lets him get hit by the darts, and replaces one of the guards. They try to sneak in, but instead have to use the GPS from a soldier’s cell after they are caught. They arrive at Building 26, but Hiro’s powers only cause a nose bleed.

The government corners Micah in a warehouse. Micah tries to convince Sylar to change sides. The words “You can save us all” stops Sylar in his tracks. Micah watches as he is shot on the pier... because Sylar has taken his place. Micah hides out in Sylar’s house and watches as Sylar has a self-conversation with his mother. But Sylar pushes Micah from his house with the threat that he will kill him if he sees Micah again. But Sylar mentions Nathan’s name as a suitable person to replace, an idea Sylar takes to Petrelli’s office. He again has a twisted self-talk. And mom’s words about becoming President seem dangerously close to coming true, as he takes Nathan’s form. He then goes on television just as we have already seen twice before.

Parkman takes the baby back to Janice, and wants to help her escape government surveillance. Parkman says he cannot escape with Janice; he has to stop the goons at the top level and end the entire situation. Parkman uses his powers to make his family invisible to the attackers.

Nathan sets out to stop the false Nathan from meeting the president. Peter follows. Nathan meets false Nathan in his office. The two have a heated conversation about the nature of the initiative. Before he can kill Nathan, Danko knocks the senator out. Sylar ignores Danko’s last request, and Danko stabs him in the back of the head. But Sylar gets back to his feet and pulls the knife from his head as the episode ends.

Once again it seems we have set ourselves up for a finale that is too busy. The sudden reemergence of Mohinder at tonight’s end seems to serve no purpose other than to add another face to the finale. But we will see how things come out as we hit “An Invisible Thread” next Monday. Does anyone else smell some Claude in the air?

Super-Powered TV: Dollhouse 1.9: A Spy in the House of Love

All apologies for the lateness of this post... real life has me backed up on just about all my non-Heroes television viewing, and I actually forgot for awhile that I had this episode to watch. Too bad, as it is one of the best so far.

We open with a shot at the end of the story where a lot of electricity and a gunshot come from Topher’s office. From there we start the flashback...

Right to Eliza Dushku in dominatrix gear. I love you, Joss Whedon. Dominic is being left in charge; that could be trouble or so I would assume.

Boyd and Topher discuss the possibility of a spy, as Topher has found a chip in the system that alters implants. In the aftermath, Echo volunteers to help, showing she knows how the process works.

We again flashback to Mellie’s imprint. We move on in the story with Mellie again visiting Ballard’s apartment. Mellie shows that she is actually November and that Mellie has been designed as a spy against him. The spy reveals that he needs to find out why the dollhouse exists before he can understand it completely.

We return from commercial with Sierra’s imprint. She takes the place of an Asian woman who really does not look that similar. She breaks in to a facility under Dominic’s orders to find a chip. She gets it, but she gets cornered as the segment ends.

Victor is next, as he goes on a lonely hearts engagement as Roger. After visiting an older lady though, he moves on to meet with DeWitt, who is apparently the real client. After getting rid of the phone, the two have a fencing match that leads to sex. Later, Victor awakens to a weeping DeWitt, but we still don’t know why.

We move on to an imprinted Echo. She interrogates Topher, Echo, Ivy the assistant, and the doctor. But Sierra returns, and apparently Ivy is the spy. But Echo says the true spy is Dominic. He reveals himself by attacking her. They have a bit of a kung fu battle, before Echo takes him out. Echo takes Dominic to meet DeWitt. He reveals that his mission with the NSA was to keep the Dollhouse from imploding on itself.

So, we actaully take a big step forward this week, as we learn what exactly the attic is. And even in his eventual demise (mentally anyway), Dominic takes a bit of solace in the fact that eventually, Echo will bring them all down just as he predicted. Dominic has one last attempt at breaking free, even manages to shoot DeWitt in the side, but in the end he gets “sent to the attic”, and his memory left on another imprint disc.

We end with Boyd becoming the new head of security, and the declaration that Echo may not need all that much protection anymore. And we meet Travis, her new handler. But even as she takes the imprint, her eyes stray back to Boyd....

Wow, so different this week. I could have done without the odd narrative format, but otherwise this is easily the best non-Joss scripted episode so far. I am still not sure I buy Dominic as the man funneling Ballard information (why would he do that?), but we put things together to move the show forward more than we have in most of the show’s episodes. Hopefully, we can wrap up the current saga fairly well as we wind the show down over the next three (and possibly last) episodes.

Super-Powered TV: Justice League the television movie

The thing I love about the internet is it’s ability to keep even the most obscure program, desperately unwanted by its original creators, to be available for viewing. A prime example of that is the mid-nineties television pilot movie based on Justice League of America. It may in fact be the worst example of television superheroes gone wrong.

In the terribly named city of New Metro, we meet Ice, a local meteorologist, unsure about everything.

Barry Allen, the Flash, a ne’er-do-well without work and unable to keep any money.

Guy Gardner, the Green Lantern, Barry’s friend. We meet him as he is serenading his love interest with a bit of opera. But he gets another call on his watch beeper, a call from the JLA I would assume.

We have B.B. DaCosta (a much darker in skin tone version of Fire). She is an actress, but unable to get any work past wearing a banana costume. SO, yeah, we are all complete losers.

Ray Palmer, a uber-nerd, is the Atom. He is a high school science teacher that no one really listens to.

The villain is apparently an idiot in an incredibly bad costume called the Weatherman.

As the storm picks up, a young boy is in trouble, but he is rescued by the glowing green lasso of ultra-heroic Guy Gardner. Seriously, Guy Gardner is the friendly pretty boy?

Fire apparently can barely project her powers out of her hand, while Atom’s costume makes him look even worse. In some bad super-imposing effects, he rescues a cat from beneath a house.

The Flash, as a cartoon character, stops the winds of the hurricane by running the opposite direction (in another terrible costume).

We meet the whole team through painful interview segments. Very painful interview segments. Segments that have no purpose but to annoy.

Barry is feeling a crisis of conscious as he doesn’t know what to do with his civilian life. He is staying at the house shared by the rest of the team, a house very similar to Pee-Wee’s Playhouse in design. Oh, and B.B. used to date Guy.

Meanwhile, Tori, the future Ice stumbles upon something strange at the meteorological lab, spills water upon it, and is covered by a strange mist. as she leaves, she accidentally freezes everything in her past with an incredibly bad frost effect. She discovers the power at a lake when she accidentally freezes it all.

In the middle of the night, Tori is kidnapped from her home by a mysterious figure. The voice tests her powers, knocks her out, and the team discusses her future with the mystery voice.

She wakes up back in her own bed, covered in ice, only to wake up for real. A nervous researcher at the facility keeps popping in and out, a man named Arliss. No one suspects him except for Tori. Her superior acts strange upon her suspicions however. He leaves, only to run in to the same man. And a kid sees the strange ones hand turn green.

Guy again tries to court his girlfriend, but one of the cheesiest hailstorms on the planet invites trouble. A flying Fire (under really bad special effects) melts the hail down to a thunderstorm.

Ray has a heart to heart with Tori at the party, and tries to help her through her “problems”. They instantly take a liking to each other. But Ray has to leave with Guy to go investigate the possible identity of the Weatherman. He shrinks down to avoid a laser (with some real cheap computer effects) and limbos under. He finds schematics for something or another. Tori skips out of the party and finds Ray in the lab. He invites her to check the schematics, and then makes his way out of the room thanks to his powers.

Our suspect Arliss leaves with a box from the facility, and the Flash follows him to the front of the institute head Wellesley Eno’s house. Flash accuses him of being the Weatherman, but instead finds the device is only a weather predictor.

Tori goes to investigate the device she found earlier, the one that gave her powers, but finds it gone. She heads to the roof and finds another message from the Weatherman... who is her boss Wellesley Eno. Oh, Miguel Ferrer, why? Why? Why? Bad enough you are in this movie, but you are the painful villain? You were Shan Yu for goodness sake!

Tori comes to the front door of the Justice house. She reveals that the Weatherman is actually Dr. Eno.

B.B. is still dealing with the courtship of a younger man in a seemingly pointless subplot. But she has to back out of the date when duty calls. This time we don’t even see powers in effect, only the aftermath. Tori arrives at the scene, and the rest of the team brings her in to meet their mysterious leader at a secret elevator beneath a major bridge. It takes them to the bad CGI headquarters of the Justice League. Why do they need a headquarters when they all seem to live together? I guess mystery leader needs some place to stay.

And we find the true identity of the mystery leader, J’Onn J”Onzz, the Martian Manhunter (otherwise known as M*A*S*H’s David Ogden Stiers under a very obvious mask). The other heroes invite Tori in to the Justice League.

The love interest sees his earrings on Fire, and realizes who she is. (Perhaps the fact that she is just B.B. behind some green face paint should have made it more obvious.) He eventually tries to convince her he knows her identity, but Martian Manhunter uses his powers to convince him otherwise.

We flashback to Atom’s painful origin as he tells the story to Ice. He helps her past her final fears by revealing his secret identity. We then go in to some more painful documentary bits. Why would we be doing documentary segments out of costume? Kind of defeats the secret identity doesn’t it?

Anyway Ice concentrates on mastering her powers, focusing them in the direction she wants it to go. Instead, she just starts freezing everything around her. Oh, with painful, painful acting. Does that go without saying at this point?

At her home, Tori investigates her files to get a clue about Eno’s whereabouts, only to be paid a visit by Eno himself. We get Eno’s terrible motivation as he tries to convince Ice to join him. Ice refrigerates him, steals his case, and runs for it. Why not just freeze him completely? Wouldn’t that have solved the entire problem?

But the device Tori retrieved was a tracking device. A heat beam hits the base, trapping the team. The team leaves Tori behind as they rush off to fight the effects of Eno’s weather manipulator. Eno uses the device to set off a tidal wave. Eno throws the weather manipulator away to stop Green Lantern from stopping the wave (although a green catcher’s mitt would have easily done the trick). Ice uses her powers to save the day, finally showing that she can be a hero. Eno runs off, but Green Lantern easily lassos him.

The team visits Tori at home and invites her on to the team as Ice. She agrees.

The show ends with the Weatherman making his escape, Ray and Tori enjoying a night on the town, and Ice being sworn in to the Justice League. Heartwarmingly stupid. It ends with a terrible voice over by Tori, and the march of the heroes (including Tori in the worst costume ever). Really, ever.

While not the worst of the shoddy productions of television past, Justice League is low on the totem pole. Not Corman Fantastic Four or Generation X bad, but still bad. But still somehow mind-numbingly entertaining. So bad it’s good. Or maybe still bad. Anyway, Justice League gets a mild recommendation (if you can find it).

Super-Powered Web: World Superhero Registry

You ever sitting around and realize “Dear God, the villains of the world are out to get me! Who can possibly save me now?”, this is the site for you.The World Superhero Registry offers a complete list of active superheroes around the world. And we’re not talking those fake guys in all the comic books, novels, tv shows, and movies. Oh no. Everyone of these men and women are real life heroes.

These brave individuals patrol their cities day and night to keep them safe for all forms of villainy. Outside of the several dozen heroes featured on the site (such as Nostrum, Angle Grinder Man, and Green Scorpion pictured here), the site also features FAQs, Interviews with real life heroes, hero-based organizations, hero support groups, a forum, a shop, links to the heroes’ pages, a dissertation on heroic philosphy, the webmaster’s blog, and and even an assistance request page.

It is all a little... different, but the site is no joke. These folks take their costumed heroism seriously, even through all the bad costuming and pretend super-powers. But you really cannot fault them for their love of community. We can all do worse than to want to keep our streets clean and safe. In tough economic times, it makes you feel good to see people willing to help, to look out for the fellow man, without need for government intervention or ridiculous stimulus packages.

Enjoy the site, take in the pure heroism, and someday maybe you too will decide that superheroing is the career path for you.