STARGATE SG-1 - DO NO HARM

Written by Karen Miller

STARGATE SG-1 © 1997-2008 MGM Television Entertainment Inc. and MGM Global Holding Inc. STARGATE: SG-1 is a trademark of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER TM and © 2008 Metra-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Photography and cover art: Copyright © 2008 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.



In Stargate SG-1 - Do No Harm, a Pentagon strike team joins Stargate Command to supplement the losses that Stargate Command has recently suffered. The leader of the team, Colonel Dave Dixon has connections to a past that Colonel Jack O'Neill would rather forget. These two are forced to work together on a planet - that suddenly is exposed to a plague.

In a follow up to the TV epsiode of A Matter of Time, I was frustrated with both Dixon and O'Neill refusing to talk to each other about what had happened to their mutual comrade. Actually I wanted a bigger dustoff between the two of them because of their antagonism towards each other than what they had shown in the book. The cover of the book is misleading as it makes it appear that Dr. Frasier has a much larger role in the book than she really does because of the illness that happens on the planet. Frasier is a major influence on the book - but that influence is at the very end of the book, and she is still not that big of a driving force even at the end of the book.


Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

ANGEL - redemption

POCKET PULSE

Written by Mel Odom

Copyright © 2000 by Twentieth Century Fox Film



In redemption, written by Mel Odom, Angel Investigations gets a walk-in client with actress Whitney Tyler - who plays a vampire on a TV series. Her problem is that some people think she is a real vampire.

While Cordelia is glad to finally have access to a star with money, Angel has a strong feeling that she has seen Whitney before - 200 hundred years ago.

Considering that they are in Los Angeles, I was wondering when they would spend more time in the movie/television industry - especially with Cordelia wanting to be a Hollywood star. With Angel Investigations acting as security as Whitney is being targeted as a vampire seemed quite ironic. The flashbacks to when Angel was the evil Angelus 200 years ago almost makes up the subject of an entire book by itself.

Pancho 
All people smile in the same language. 

STAR WARS - CLONE WARS GAMBIT - STEALTH

DEL REY

Written by Karen Miller

Copyright 2010 by Lucasfilm Ltd. and Registered or Trademarked where indicated. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpt by Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Outcast copyright 2009 by Lucasfilm Ltd. and Registered or Trademarked where indicated. All Rights Reserved.



In the first of the two-part series, Stealth - written by Karen Miller, and based on the animated TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker are sent to the planet Lanteeb, a backwater planet which has suddenly drawn the attention of the Separatists during the Clone Wars.

After an investigation, Senator Padme Amidala, Kenobi, and Skywalker are convinced that the Separatists are developing a deadly bio weapon on Lanteeb. On Lanteeb, Separatist General Lok Durd is forcing Dr. Bent'ena Fhernan to develop this bio weapon for the Separatists - or he will kill all of her friends and family.

While the virus was decidedly vile and deadly, the fact that Fherman is being blackmailed into creating this virus was horrible for me to consider. The fact that Obi-Wan was willing to sacrifice Fherman's family for the big picture of saving the Galactic Republic made me feel for both Fhernan and Anakin. Anakin only wants to protect Fhernan and her family and made me feel as if Obi-Wan did not care about anybody. I felt for Fhernan in that, why should she sacrifice her family and friends - the people that she loves - for an entire galaxy that she does not know and of whom the galaxy does not know of or care of for Fhernan? What makes the galaxy more important than Fhernan's family and friends?

Back home, I liked that Ashoka - while undergoing medical treatment to get back to health after being injured from a mission - still cared for her clone troopers who were also injured with her under her command, especially after their communication systems were sabotaged during that mission.

Since the book was based on the cartoon series, instead of the movie, I kept picturing the characters from the cartoon series and their cartoon character voices instead of the real-life actors like Natalie Portman.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA - REBELLION

ibooks

Written by Richard Hatch and Alan Rodgers

A NOVEL BASED ON THE UNIVERSAL TELEVISION SERIES CREATED BY GLEN A. LARSON

Copyright 2004 Universal Studios Publishing Rights, a division of Universal Studios, Inc.

Cover art by Frank Frazetta;
Copyright 2004
Universal Studios Licensing LLLP.
Battlestar Galactica is a trademark and Copyright of Universal Studios. All rights reserved.
Cover design by Raul Carvajal



Battlestar Galactica - Rebellion written by Richard Hatch and Allan Rogers, is the fourth book in a continuation of the Battlestar Galactica universe set 20 years - or yahrens - into the future from the TV series. To escape the Cylons, the Battlestar Galactica - and the ragtag fleet of human Colonial survivors the Galactica is escorting - have warped themselves into a pocket of null-space, in which their engines do not work. And as a result of escaping the cybernetic race of Cylons - whose goal is to exerminate the humans - the fleet have wounded from their battles and their resources are low. With the colonists angered at what has happened to them at being attacked, and being marooned in space, Apollo and Athena are in dire sraits as they have been removed from command - and are thrown into the brig.

This Galactica universe is slightly different than what the TV show Battlestar Galactica was. I have not read the first few books yet, so I do not know if the Galactica universe has changed from the TV show over the course of the books, or if writer/star Richard Hatch was not paying attention to how the TV show was produced when Hatch started writing the books. I can accept that there can be changes after 20 "yahrens" - especially with Commander Adama having passed on. The book still feels a little disorientating - such as when Council President Tigh does not acknowledge that Tigh was once a colonial warrier, let alone Tigh as once having been the Galactica's first officer. Having Cassiopea having a relationship with Apollo instead of with Starbuck also throws me, especially since Starbuck has a daughter pilot now - who goes missing along with Troy, Apollo's son Boxey who had changed his name, and Boomer while they were searching for an inhabitable planet. The question for me was, who was the mother of Starbuck's daughter? That question was not answered in this book, but maybe it is answered in the previous books. There are characters that were mentioned in the TV show Galactica 1980, which was a nice touch of linking that TV show to the book series as they have not discovered present-day Earth yet.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

THE Prisoner - A NOVEL

PENGUIN BOOKS

Written by Thomas M. Disch

Copyright Carlton International Media Limited, 1967, 2001 All rights reserved

Thomas M. Disch's The Prisoner is a novelization of the TV series The Prisoner, starring Patrick McGoohan. The book and TV series also inspired the TV update, The Prisoner, starring Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel. The novelization is about a former retired British secret agent who is gassed and kidnapped from a train - and then brought to and detained in a place called The Village. The powers that be use psychological methods on the secret agent in order to convince him to reveal his secrets.

As much as I liked the original TV series, Disch's novelization is much more European in feeling compared to what I remember of the TV series as far as the narrative and characterization is concerned. While the lack of names in the TV series was acceptable, while reading the novelization, the lack of names was more of an irritating nuisance to me as you never really connect with anybody - especially with the main character in the beginning. You really want to know the real name of Number 6, so you can relate to him. The characters in The Village are more relatable as people in doing their professions, instead of as real characters. Granted you get to know the characters by their Numbers, but the characters happy acceptance of being numbers instead of as people with their own names is a little irritating. The ordered society of The Village is a little too Orwellian, especially when they reveal the films of Number 6's previous interrogations, which Number 6 is naturally upset about when he sees them. Number 6's liaisons with his girlfriend is interesting because you are never really sure if she really was his girlfriend - or was she a plant to gain his secrets. It would be too bad if she was a plant, as I fell in love with her.

Since the main character is known as Number 6, it was quite a nod to the reader that the character received his designation number 6 in Chapter 6 of the novelization.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

DOCTOR WHO - VENGEANCE ON VAROS

A Target Book

Written by Philip Martin

Novelization copyright Philip Martin 1988
Original script copyright Philip Martin 1985
'Doctor Who' series copyright British Broadcasting Corporation 1985,1988

The role of the Doctor was played by Colin Baker

In Vengeance on Varos, when the TARDIS engine gets stalled in time and space, the Doctor and Peri land on the planet Varos which is the only source for the ore he needs to fix the TARDIS.

When the Doctor saves a rebel leader,the Doctor earns the wrath of the representative of the Galatron Mining Corporation. Concerned that his Corporation's business operations will be compromised - Sil, the representative, orders the Doctor's death. Soon, the breaking news of the Doctor and Peri's escape attempts are broadcast across the planet as the guards search for them as part of the population's entertainment. As a by-product of the broadcasts - the life of the leader of Varos depends on the popularity of his decisions, with the population voting like or dislike from the comfort of their own homes. This was demonstrated by an old married couple constantly bickering to each other about the consequences of each decision. So you wonder in which direction the leadcr of Varos will decide the Doctor's fate - despite the pressure of Sil's threats of withdrawing his Corporation's operations from the planet, thus threatening the planet's economy.

Media popularity has been a major factor in modern-day politics. You wonder how our President would fair under similar media popularity polls the Varos leader underwent.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - THE LONG WAY HOME

Dark Horse Books

Script JOSS WHEDON

Pencils GEORGES JEANTY

Copyright 1998, 2007

In The Long Way Home, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 begins in graphic novel form written by Joss Whedon and pencils by Georges Jeanty. The graphic novels of Season 8 are the official continuation of the Buffy series and has Buffy leading and training several squads of new Slayers to fight the supernatural. In The Long Way Home,  the Military consider Buffy and her army of Slayers too dangerous, since she destroyed her home town, and brings back an old enemy to take down Buffy and her Slayer force.

In a continuation from the TV series, the graphic novels of Season 8 begins with The Long Way Home. Not constrained by a television budget, a more epic and graphic scale can be depicted in the visual story telling. The Slayers are more of an army now than they were in the last season of the TV series. Dawn has turned into a giant, Willow returns, and Xander is in command of Slayer Central. The closest to a normal life Buffy has is dealing with her sister-turned-giant. The graphic novel does mention other Buffys who were created to protect the original Buffy from being a target, including the Buffy in Italy running around with The Immortal, mentioned in the last season of Angel and in the book Queen of the Slayers. The last issue in the graphic novel begins a new story, in which Giles appears, that obviously continues in the next novel.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.