Saturday 30 June 2012

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
3x09 Unfinished Business [extended cut]

I had thought I was going to watch the broadcast version of this episode -- I usually do with things, first time round (see: Neon Genesis Evangelion. (I say "see" -- I watched that before I started this blog.)). But goodness knows when second-time-round might be, and this particular extended version makes a regular episode feature-length, with 26½ minutes of added material.

According to executive producer Ronald D. Moore, this is "an 'editor's cut'... the starting point for cutting down the episode to the standard length... while it offers a lot more details on the characters, it is a rough cut (unlike the Pegasus extended cut). He considers some scenes better and some worse than in the final cut, sometimes preferring story points only being told by implication and not spelled out. He thinks some scenes may be too long, with the ideal cut maybe somewhere between the two." (There's also an odd situation with the episode's music score, which you can read about in a little more detail here.) So my decision to watch the longer version was based on the premise that if neither's perfect, I may as well see the one with more material.

It certainly felt like quite an epic episode -- in character terms, anyway -- dealing with a lot of long-standing issues (even if the viewer didn't know about all of them yet). Moore also notes that there was "a faster pace in the aired version", so it would be interesting to see the contrast. Hopefully someday there'll be a second-time-round and I can watch it then.

Articles

Daniel Kleinman Joins Skyfall
(from MI6)

I am ever so happy about this news! Kleinman designed all the Bond title sequences from GoldenEye to Casino Royale (those two in particular being amongst the finest the entire series has to offer), but was replaced on Quantum of Solace by the director's preferred effects company... who turned in a woeful, uninspired sequence that may be among the franchise's worst. Hopefully Kleinman will be on full form and deliver something incredible once again.


July 2012 Preview
by Ray Subers (from Box Office Mojo)

If you're interested in movies' box office grosses (which I am, at least a bit), then here's an interesting preview/analysis of the next month's films. That includes the likes of The Dark Knight Rises (will it best The Dark Knight? Can it possibly beat The Avengers?); The Amazing Spider-Man (can it equal Sam Raimi's trilogy? Will it get lost in DKR build-up?); Ice Age: Continental Drift (as only the second animated series ever to reach a fourth entry, coming behind two very successful CG 'toons already this year, is it doomed?); and, of course, more (all of which will almost certainly be less successful).


The mystery of The Killing Zone
by John Cox (from The Book Bond)

Easiest way to explain this intriguing work is from the article itself:

One of the more mysterious stories in the world of the literary James Bond is that of the little-known 007 novel The Killing Zone by Jim Hatfield. [It] appeared in 1985 -- the year official continuation novelist John Gardner had off -- and claims on its copyright page to be officially licensed by Glidrose Publications (now Ian Fleming Publications). But this book is far from official.

More (naturally) at the link.