October was a quiet month of aggravation at the Round Table, and I rarely even logged on. Why?

Floods: Every Thursday in October, a monsoon would hit the area, causing local flash floods. No real danger to myself, but one of my telephone relay boxes seems to have been placed in a field near a pond, and the relay box was filling with water after every rain, giving me no access to the internet for several days. My weekend routine was the same through October...lose communications late Thursday night, call the phone company on Friday, and wait all weekend for the lines to be restored. Former governor Mike Huckabee was correct when he called Arkansas a "banana republic" (and now, with our socialist governor, the state is simply a "banana peoples republic"!)
New Computer: The hard drive on my PC fried, and it was time to get a new rig. My internet machine was also the workhorse for KipperScope productions, and years of editing film and burning DVDs finally took its toll; it had gotten to the point where it couldn't defrag properly and finally the overworked hard drive said no more. The first thing a new computer wants to do is spend days downloading updates, so I'm just now getting this PC to run like I want it to. I'm still learning to use Vista, and I still don't have a useable graphics program on it...so, apologies for this blog not having any cool photos on it.

These 2 things made me scarce around TV.com for October. Sorry I couldn't visit and leave comments on my friends' blogs. It also affected my picks in the Pick'em League (fortunately, I've made all of my picks in advance), since I couldn't log in for some weeks and fine tune my picks.

Watched in October:
Seinfeld Season 9: Finally got around to seeing how the series ended. I thought Season 9 was stronger than Season 8, and I don't really understand the controversy about the final episode...I thought it was a fine and appropriate ending to one of the best and most unpredictable comedy series of all time.

Heroes Season 3: Season 3 got off to a dreadful start, and I understand why it lost so many viewers. I really found no compelling reason to keep watching it during the "Villains" storyline, but kept going since I already had the set in hand. But, I thought the season finished really strong, and I hope that some of the lost viewers come back and keep the show going, as long as Season 4 at least maintains the quality of the second half of Season 3.

The Office Season 2: I'm a total newcomer to this series. Season 1 was brilliant in its This is Spinal Tap fake documentary approach and no laugh track. Seems to have already stretched thin in the second season, and there's a bit too much weeping and plain stupidity for my tastes. Still, Season 2 had some good episodes, and I've ordered Season 3.

Gotta run, thanks for reading. As always, feel free to leave any or all comments, suggestions, complaints and insults. Till next time, watch out for snakes and be sure to defrag regularly!

Welcome back to the Round Table! We'll start things off by looking at last blog's Quiz. No one picked the correct answer, although several friends were close.

Quiz Question and Answer:
Inmates swarm from a prison, killing a guard during the breakout. Most of the escapees are shot down, but two armed convicts are successful. They hold a helpless family hostage in their home, until our heroes arrive and the convicts are bludgeoned into submission. This episode is from which '60s series?

Yes, the answer is the one that no one dared to guess...Petticoat Junction!!!

This is episode 19 from Season 2, "The Hooterville Crime Wave". Several people who took the quiz had PJ in mind, but couldn't "pull the trigger" to actually pick it. I was quite surprised to see the scene myself as I watched the DVDs; it's surely the only example of people getting shot and killed in Henning's rural comedy trilogy (Granny did shoot at people, but in a non-lethal manner). I knew right away that the episode would make a good trivia question.

My theory is that the scene was unscripted, and was just a stock footage scene inserted at the editing stage. The next scene features police cars scrambling, and is obviously stock footage, also unrelated to the series--the scene seems to have been filmed in swamp in a coastal southern state.

For the purpose of the quiz, I worded the summary in a misleading way. I emphasized certain facts, left out other facts, all for the purpose of encouraging people to make the wrong choice. This is exactly how media bias works...keep that in mind next time you watch or read the news!


Hammer Film of the Week:
Probably, most of you have seen this one, The Curse of Frankenstein. I saw it again last week, for the first time in years.

Released in 1957, the film established Hammer as the modern horror studio of consequence. Universal's monster franchise had ran its course in the previous decade, ending up as Abbott & Costello comedies. Studios had started leaning to "sci-fi" horror in the Cold War 1950s, but Hammer went back to the basics and reinvented the horror genre.

Storywise, I appreciate the way that writer Jimmy Sangster crafted the script. The story is told as a flashback from Baron Frankenstein's Peter Cushing's point of view. Did the Baron really create a monster, or is the Baron himself actually responsible for the murders, with the monster an imaginary excuse? We can't say for sure, and it's an interesting ambiguity. Either way, the Baron is the true villain of the film, and the monster is an object of our pity.
Although the Frankenstein was in public domain, Hammer had to be careful not to copy the Universal monster's appearance. Phil Leakey did a fine job with the new look, and the creature did indeed appear to be made from spare parts. Sir Christopher Lee was chosen to play the part of the monster mostly because of his height, but turned out to be a great choice--it's hard not to feel sympathy for the abused creature.

It was Hammer's first color film, and the first color horror film for most members of the audience. It was shocking to see the gruesome special effects in vivid color. Of course, it's somewhat tame by today's film standards, but critics at the time thought that the film would be the end of civilization as they knew it. Perhaps it was--the movie was a huge influence on future films of the genre, for better or worse. But Hammer horror movies always seemed to keep a touch of class and dignity, unlike many imitations that were to follow.

Fear and Loathing in Las TV.com:
I dislike rejecting submissions and will go out of my way to help good submissions appear on my guides. But lately, I've been getting cast submissions from users who don't bother to read submission guidelines in their quests to accumulate huge numbers of submission points. It's my understanding that I have the choice as editor to approve how the cast listings appear in my guides. Specifically, it's my opinion that, for cast submissions, the character field should be used only for...CHARACTER NAMES! I think it clutters up the page when the character's name is filled with brackets and parenthesis to tack on years, aliases, "uncredited", and other unnecessary info. This isn't IMdb, it's TV.com. If the extra info is noteworthy, then put it in a Note. I appreciate the work that some users go through to consolidate person guides, but I think they should also take a minute to look over submission guidelines when they make a submission to a show guide. I prefer the data on my guides to look clean and uncluttered. I dunno how my fellow editors feel about this, but I'm starting to reject submissions because of it.


Thanks for reading. Comments and complaints are always welcome at the Round Table. Until next time, watch out for snakes and twisters.--JOK

Ok kiddies, we'll start off with Kipper's First Annual Weekly TV Quiz. Since the question is based on a screencap, it'll be hard to google the answer.

The story: Inmates swarm from a prison, killing a guard during the breakout. Most of the escapees are shot down, but two armed convicts are successful. They hold a helpless family hostage in their home, until our heroes arrive and the convicts are bludgeoned into submission. This episode is from which '60s series?:
A)The Untouchables
B)Danger Man
C)Petticoat Junction
D)Route 66
Simply post your answer in a comment; everyone is welcome to take a shot at it.

Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica Manifesto:
Before filming started, Ronald D. Moore created a guideline to outline the intent of the show. Let's take a look at a few points, and see how well the show succeeded.

"'Battlestar Galactica: Naturalistic Science Fiction or Taking the Opera out of Space Opera' Our goal is nothing less than the reinvention of the science fiction television series. We take as a given the idea that the traditional space opera, with its stock characters, techno-double-talk, bumpy-headed aliens, thespian histrionics, and empty heroics has run its course and a new approach is required. That approach is to introduce realism into what has heretofore been an aggressively unrealistic genre."
I think the show was succesful at most of this. Sci-fi had become a stale genre, and Moore's intent worked out well, for the most part. The show did have its share of stock characters, and many would point out that the "opera" part was left intact, as a soap opera in space. Baltar could certainly be hysterical at times as well. But I do think the show made a good attempt at realism.
Ah, the centurion has ridges on its head, and not bumps...got it!

"We will eschew the usual stories about parallel universes, time-travel, mind-control, evil twins, God-like powers and all the other clichés of the genre." Okay...
Parallel Universes: Granted, characters didn't conduct monkey business in alternate realities consisting of pointless plotlines. But the Cylons' projection abilities almost functioned in the same way, much like holodeck shenanigans.
Time-travel: Thankfully, none of this wackiness took place in the series. Time and time cycles did play a part in the series, but people weren't jumping back and forth in time or creating absurd paradoxes.
Mind Control: Ooops. Cylons were certainly controlled at times, and probably Baltar and Starbuck as well.
Evil Twins: Big Ooops! Just look at the Boomer/Sharon/etc. character. The series really embraced this forbidden concept.
God-like Powers: Is returning from the dead a God-like power? Where I come from, it is.

"Our spaceships don't make noise because there is no noise in space. Sound will be provided from sources inside the ships -- the whine of an engine audible to the pilot for instance. Our fighters are not airplanes and they will not be shackled by the conventions of WWII dogfights. The speed of light is a law and there will be no moving violations."
Space Noise: It's a common misconception that sound can't travel in space; just ask Harlan Ellison about that. But no one knows what a space battle might sound like, so I'll give them a pass on this one.
Speed of Light Law: Ironically, the ships' utilize FTL drives for propulsion, and FTL stands for "Faster Than Light". They had to do it, it's a vast universe.
Overall, I think the manifesto was followed as much as possible, but the realities of network television drama intruded. The "Naturalistic" approach worked, as long as the viewer considers ghosts (Starbuck, and her dad as well) to be natural. Sometimes the plot wandered unintended paths (such as when Richard Hatch's character was added), and sometimes they painted themselves into corners for dramatic purposes (such as the death of Starbuck). But still, it was a great show, and probably did reinvent the way serious sci-fi should be portrayed. Was it the best ever? Nah, it just didn't quite match the best of all time--Babylon 5.

Hammer Film of the Week:
This week's Hammer film....isn't a Hammer film! Several British studios tried to copy Hammer's success, and rarely succeeded. Tigon's The Witchfinder General is one of the very few that did. Filmed in 1968, the movie tells the story of a true figure (Matthew Hopkins) who was empowered to roam the 17th century English countryside, extract confessions, and execute those suspected of being witches.
Though tame by today's standards, the film raised quite a few eyebrows on both sides of the ocean at the time with its gritty portrayal of a corrupt inquisition. There's almost no humor in the story, but director Michael Reeves balances things with beautiful photography and a great score. Some consider this to be Vincent Price's greatest performance, as the grim and evil Hopkins. Price was forced to play the role in a serious manner, unlike the over-the-top campiness that we usually love from him. Tensions between Price and the director were very high on the set, and they almost came to blows on how Price should play the part. After seeing the end result, Price later apologized to Reeves for his behavior. It's been very difficult to see the original version of this movie until recently. It was released in the USA as The Conqueror Worm, with a narration tacked on from Edgar Allen Poe's obscure poem (although the film had nothing to do with the poem).

Releases on VHS had the original score stripped out and replaced with synth doodlings. It wasn't until the recent MGM DVD was released that we could see the film back in its original version, and it's worth seeing again.


I'll finish off with something even more terrifying than a Hammer film...a graph of the projected budget deficit, from the Washington Post.


Thanks for reading...feel free to post any comments that come to mind, and send any extra stimulus packages my way. Watch out for snakes, especially those in congress!