Journey into Mystery #95

 "Great Scott! I'm seeing things!"

Another fairly throwaway Thor story here, courtesy of the pen of Robert Bernstein; this is a title that badly needs to be lifted out of its early rut. Nice start, though, with Odin summoning Thor to use his power over thunderstorms to deal with a drought in Asgard, something that would have been useful here in the English Midlands in recent weeks.

Sadly, we then proceed to move on to a rather generic little romp with our mad scientist du jour, one Professor Zaxton, a one off villain. Indeed, we know from the moment he sees Don Blake turn into Thor that he won't survive this issue. And so we get a simple little tale of a duplicating ray that creates doubles which, for some reason, have the opposite personality of the original. Neatly, though, Thor is able to defeat his evil duplicate, with its two hammers, because the duplicate is not worthy, which is a clever resolution.

Still... Don Blake is a physician. Could he really invent a super intelligent and invincible robot thingy? And there's a lot of exposition by thought bubble here. Still, I've read worse. 

Stargate SG-1: The Nox

 "The young do not always do as they are told..."

A rather interesting and different episode, this. A world on which there lives a mysterious race called the Nox who at first appear to be strange, primitive, helpless yet also with wondrous abilities such as healing and invisibility. Throughout the episode we slowly discover that they are not what they seem, that their pacifism arises from wisdom and confidence, and that the Go'auld are no threat to them. 

Indeed, we end with a reveal to the gang that, invisibly, the Nox in fact possess hidden yet impossibly advanced technology. To paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke, any suffociently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. This episode is a rather successful example of the trope that arises from that, and one of the stronger episodes thus far.

It also develops the lore and season arc rather nicely. The US government are now starting to have doubts about the Stargate project due to the poor results in terms of advanced alien tech. Plus we get to see Go'uald again... and Apophis! It is, admittedly, something of a coincidence that they're all on the planet at the same time. Still, a rather strong episode, with Armin Shimerman in it to boot.

Personal Update

 Let's just say it's been a very busy, eventful couple of weeks, but blogging will be back to normal as of tomorrow. There's been a lot of life stuff.

 And... well, I'm now engaged to be married to a very lovely lady, and I couldn't be happier. This just goes to show that there is still life, and there is still love, after divorce. Anyone who is reading this who's going through a horrible divorce right now... one day, it'll be over, you'll know where you stand, you can start to rebuild.

Never give up on love. 

Update

 I realise I've not been posting much this month, but you can rest assured that's for a reason (basically, childcare), it's nothing bad, and things should return to normal after the weekend.

Batman: The Animated Series- Blind as a Bat

 "Your aim appears to be a little off today, Batman..."

This is a fairly basic, run of the mill episode, the gimmick being that Batman has to deal with a plot by the Penguin while temporarily blinded, with the added warning that Lesley Thompkins has sternly warned him that he'll go blind if he doesn't rest.

We know how it'll end from the beginning, of course; the final scene, where he opens his eyes, has no real suspense. But it's a decent enough way to spend twenty minutes, even if not exactly earth shattering. yet again, it's nice to see so many recurring characters- Lesley Thompkins, Hamilton Hill- making this Gothan City feel real and textured. And there's a nice little hint of Bruce Wayne feeling uneasy about Waynetech manufacturing military technology.

There are some nice little moments, such as when there's initially no response to the Batsignal. I'm enjoying the typical overconfidence of the Penguin in the Animated Series. Ultimately, though, this episode isn't going to particularly stand out.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

This isn't the first time I've read this novel but, well, I was a pre-teen back in the early '90s, and I'm in my late forties now. This, shall we say, was a very different experience.

This is, I suppose, the main text, if not quite the first,
to properly introduce and popularise the legends of the vampire to late Victorian society, both in this country and across the West. And it does this very well indeed; the Count is a superb villain, odd though it is that we see so much of him in the opening chapters, with poor Jonathan Harker trapped in his castle, yet thereafter he is spoken of more often than he is seen, with the character of Van Helsing there throughout to impress upon him his many, many powers. Indeed, Dracula's powers are immense, far beyond those we usually associate with vampires, and his nightly presence feels ever-present. His slow, horrible killing of Lucy is deeply effective, and gives us a real sense of threat for the back half of the novel.

And then there's the scene where he has Mina imbibe his own blood, damning her by ensuring she will become like him, unless he dies soon. And that chilling sentence "This is not the first time, or the second, that your veins have appeased my thirst!" Brrr...

And yet, despite the novel working well in terms of structure and effective horror- some say the bits with Lucy slowly being drained to death drag, but I certainly don't- the novel has little deeper to offer. Yes, we can comment on how the novel reveals the anxieties of its time, but that is incidental, and largely unintentional. The characters are all very much stock types, with no real depth. The prose may sing at times, but for an epistolary novel this gives us very little in terms of real interiority. These characters have no real depth, they are characters in a grand guignol. And the speech patterns of Van Helsing, in particular, become annoying very quickly.

A mixed bag of a novel, then. But it's a fascinating artifact in the history of the vampire trope, and an entertaining read. 

Legends: Alliance

 "You're allowed to enjoy it, Guy."

As per the quote... Guy's wife knows him well. He needs the excitement, the risk, all of it. And, as we hear more of Mylonas's background this episode, perhaps the two of them are more similar than either would admit- both adrenaline junkies.

Turning to Kate and Bailey, we have quite the contrast. Kate is game to take risks, Bailey more cautious, causing tension... until an everyday instance of police racism makes Kate realise what Bailey has to live with, and why he has to be cautious. Meanwhile we meet Scouser Shaun, another bored VAT man, who is sent straight undercover, all because he cares deeply about his local community.

And so our protagonists are nicely developed as characters as we explore the world into which they've been dropped, a world of constant risk, calculation, adrenaline, with occasional betrayal and murder, with twists and turns that lead Kate and Bailey to witness the forging of a new alliance between Hakan's Turks and Carter's Scousers. It's all superbly sculpted plot-wise, yet it really gets us to know the protagonists.

Even more worrying, one of the Turks seems to suspect Guy, and a white van is watching his wife and daughter at their house. The levels of risk are off the charts... but this is Customs, far wilder and riskier than the police or the spooks. This is simply gripping stuff. The drug smuggling montage at the start alone is magnificent television.

I'm loving this.