Tonight on TV - My Fantasy, Sci-fi Fridays!

Yeah, yeah, so I've been pretty lax about updating the last couple weeks - I am going to get the next installment of Feehan's Dark Carpathians posted in the next 24-48hrs **PROMISE** - but for right now I want to make a few comments about my "fantasy, sci-fi fridays" which include (but is not limited to): Stargate Universe and Sanctuary!! [I watch these on Space channel here in Canada.]

First for Sanctuary... This is a new show for me this season, though it is currently season 2 for the series itself, and so far I am really enjoying it.  The one plus that it holds for me is that it stars Amanda Tapping, who played Samantha Carter in Stargate SG1, and has always been one of my favorite actors! The last couple of weeks has given me a crash course into the Sanctuary series and as the story continues tonight with "Hero," I'm looking forward to what will happen next for the team...


[this video is actually the trailer for Season 2 - NOT the episode for tonight!]



And for Stargate Universe... "Water" (episode 6) is on tonight and it promises another amazing show and more twists into the Destiny's destiny. I've liked this series right from the start, as I mentioned in my last post on SGU, and since then my interest and appreciation for it has only skyrocketed! Last week's episode ("Light") was an absolute wonder and now I can't wait to see what will happen next!! 


[This video is the trailer for tonights episode!]





So there's my intro for my Fantasy, Sci-fi Fridays! I may just give you an update on the episodes (after the fact), later tonight!!!! TTYL!!

A Whole New Experience: Stargate Universe

"'... It's a non-disclosure agreement. I assure you, it'll be worth your while to sign it.'

'And if I don't?'

'We'll beam you up to our spaceship.'" 

[Rush, Eli and O'Neill]

Six years ago I was living near Vancouver (British Columbia) and being new to the area I didn't have a lot of friends yet, so I was spending a great deal of time watching TV.  On one of those lonely evenings at home I happened across an episode of Stargate SG-1.  I haven't always been a big fan of science fiction or fantasy on TV or in the movies, but between the release of the first Lord of the Rings movie the previous year, and a brief sojourn in to the world of Alien (with Segorney Weaver), I was becoming increasingly interested in the genre.  For me, SG-1 was the perfect route into "weird."

The science behind the Stargate series, though complicated and advanced far beyond what we are currently capable of, is possible.  The idea that we're not alone in the universe was already one that I accepted.  Combining the two, in my opinion, was genius.  Of all the SG-teams that we've seen to date the original 4 - O'Neill, Carter, Jackson and Teal'C - are and forever will be my favorites.  It just worked out that over the next year my husband and I were able to find all of the available seasons of SG-1on DVD, and thus, our combined obsession with the Stargate franchise began.

It was around that time that Stargate: Atlantis began and Richard Dean Anderson started to pull out of the original series.  We continued to watch and to love the SG worlds, then eventually SG-1 ended and the movies were made, the Atlantis series wrapped up and we were left wondering: what next?

Stargate Universe is the answer.

Over the last several months I've searched out information about the new series - cast, plot, etc. - but no matter what I was able to find, I never really gained a clear understanding of what the show was supposed to be about.  I found a lot of speculation on forum sites, some vague (and not-so-vague) hints on Robert Cooper's blog and eventually there was some concrete info on the Stargate websites.  But when I turned on my TV to watch this first episode, I really didn't know what to expect.

I'm happy to say that after the completion of the premeire/pilot episode that I really like it. I'm looking forward to seeing more and while I'm still not entirely sure where the series, or the season, is going to go, I am interested enough to keep watching.  I was happy to see the brief cameo appearances of O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson), Carter (Amanda Tapping), Daniel (Michael Shanks) and even Dr. Lee (Bill Dow) because I'm a huge sucker for the "originals" but it was great, too, to get to see some background for the new characters. Though in getting the background, the time shifts during the episode did become a bit confusing.  They weren't always, sometimes the differences in the scenes was obvious but once in a while I couldn't quickly tell.  That being said, there are also wonderful opportunities that have been left open to learn more about the new characters too.

At this point the show is quite a bit darker, a bit more serious and more "mature" then previous SG series have been.  It does hold certain visual aspects that are reminscient of Battlestar Gallatica but it was refreshingly different from anything we've seen from the Stargate franchise before.  Will this hold for the future?.. Only time can tell, but I look forward to finding out.

Here are a few quotes from the premiere that really liked!

"This is my second spaceship, and my first was yesterday." [Eli]

"'A number of people died during the attack on the base, some I knew very well.'

'I'm sure some of them had more value then others.'

'As human beings, all of them were invaluable.'" [Rush and Chloe]

"'Have you found anything?'

'Destiny.'

'As in ours?'

'The name of the ship.'"  [Eli and Rush]

"There are just some things you never get over.  You get through them.  As best you can." [Scott]

Feehan's Dark Carpathians - Part 4

Dark Dream (Dark Dreamers)
Christine Feehan
Book 7: Dark Series
ISBN: 0-8439-5687-9

"I am Falcon and I will never know you,
but I have left this gift behind for you,
a gift of the heart."

Hundreds and hundreds of years ago the Prince of the Carpathian people, Vladimir Dubrinsky, summoned forth his most ancient hunters.  It was in a desperate act to do all he could for the future of his people that he asked for volunteers to go out into the world.  Alone or in pairs, completely cut off from their people, these Guardians would protect the human and Carpathian races alike.  Each of them were already encumbered with the weight of darkness spreading across their souls, all of them understood that to go would be a death sentence - for away from their people, the hunters would have no chance of finding their lifemates and salvation - yet all those who answered the summons, agreed to go.  Each of them had only their honor and their loyalty to Vlad, to see them through the long, bleak years intact.  All of them knew that if they turned into the very things they hunted that no one would be safe.

When Falcon knew that he had little strength left to hold the demon at bay he started his journey back to his homeland.  In his fnal days, his only desires were to feel the soothing comfort of Carpathian soil, to look upon Mikhail and his lifemate - a former human psychic who had been converted - and know that his sacrifice had not been in vain.  The very last thing that he ever expected to find was his own lifemate, another human psychic ripe for conversion.  Sara Marten slips into his life and with her pure heart and sweet, compassionate soul, she breathes color and life back into him.

"For my beloved lifemate,
my heart and my soul. 
This is my gift to you."

Sara has lived with a nightmare chasing her for 15 years but it is her dark dream that haunts her mind and soul.  Even as her life changed drastically when a vampire killed her whole family, it was the face of her Dark Angel that gave her the strength to go on.  In the midst of chaos she forced herself not to succumb to her grief but to continue on and do what good she could wherever she went.  Then out of the night, the face that haunts her appears and becomes more then a dream, he becomes her reality as well.

"My Dark Angel. 
Falcon, Lifemate to Sara."

The bonds between Sara and Falcon, already established in her dreams and visions, are formed and cemented very quickly.  Sara has been on the edges of Carpathian society for so long, she barely has to consider the choice.  She wants Falcon, she needs him just as much as he needs her, and she'll do whatever it takes to stay by his side for all eternity.  With the help of Mikhail, Raven, Jacques and Shea, Falcon and Sara are able to defeat her old enemy and establish themselves, and the 7 psychic children they adopt, deep in the Carpathian mountains.

"For my beloved lifemate,
my heart and soul."

It is in this, the seventh book of the Dark series that we see for the first time the ancient, Ancients of the Carpathian people.  It is with the reappearance of Falcon that we gain a new hope, along with a new set of fears, for the race.  For his appearance gives Mikhail the knowledge that there are true Ancient hunters in the world helping to fight off the vampire threat, but also the bleak understanding that there are seriously ancient vampires with powers unlike anything his hunters have seen, or fought, before.  In this shorter tale, a novella really, we learn that love and the bonds of lifemates can transcend the vagries of time and unite the souls of mates even before color and feeling returns to them.

Watch for Part 5 of the review series when we discuss the Legendary Carpathian Twins, the dark twins - Lucian and Gabriel.