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2005-05-25 Entry: "Catchup Sunday"

Sunday starts with a mediocre Monaco Grand Prix... then it's back to Voyager and the end of season 2...

"The Thaw" sees the crew find a planet's population in cryogenic sleep while some weather phenomenon ravaged their world... seems the weather's back to normal but they haven't come out of the computer generated programme they're sleeping in... and there's only three of them left.

It seems there's a clown manifested in the programme, who represents the inhabitants fear, and he's slowly killing them off. Of course, going in to rescue them is a risky proposition, putting Harry and B'Elanna at risk from the clown...

"Tuvix" sees a transporter accident with an orchid merge Tuvok and Neelix in to one being. It's sort of a Neelix episode.

"Resolutions" opens with Janeway and Chakotay waking up on a planet... they've got some disease that something on the planet stops from affecting them, but will kill them and the crew if they leave. So the ship leaves without them and they set up house together.

Tuvok tries to keep the crew together, but there's a lot of desire amongst the crew to contact the Vidiians (against Janeway's order) to see if they have a cure.

"Basics Part 1" sees the return of Seska and the Kazon (yawn!), and this time they're doing a better job than previously, managing to take over the ship by putting someone on board who's notionally a traitor who can then blow up critical systems. The Doctor is still on board, and Paris is out there in a shuttlecraft looking for help, but the Kazon decide to be moronic and put the crew on a planet instead of just killing them.

"Basics Part 2" opens season 3 where 2 left off, with Janeway and crew trying to make friendly with the native neanderthals on the planet. Fortunately for Paris (with a ragtag bunch of Talaxians) and the Doctor, the murderer Ensign Suder is still on board... and gives the best performance of the show.

"An Affair To Remember" is supposed to be a classic. It drags a fraction, but is still a really good film. Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr meet on a cruise back to New York where they're both scheduled to meet their fiances and get married. However, they fall in love and agree to meet six months later on the top of the Empire States Building. A film made famous again by Sleepless In Seattle, although the scene that has Meg Ryan and Rosie O'Donnell in tears, mouthing along on the couch, isn't actually all that good a scene...

"The Philadelphia Story" continues the Cary Grant theme, this time with James Steward and Katherine Hepburn in what is supposed to be a comedy. It's got a couple of really good laugh out loud moments, but it isn't laugh-a-minute funny.

Charmed has a cracking season finale, but first I manage to catch the episode of the season I missed... Cordelia and Phoebe bonding... oh, right, The Seer has a bunch of information to tell the girls, but wants to be made human before she'll tell them. She does help them find Sheridan, and the demons trying to kill her resort to releasing Zankou (who is apparently too powerful and was imprisoned by the Source).

Anyway, back to the season finale, and although I was happy earlier in the week that Charmed was renewed for another season, after watching this, I'm not so sure it was a good thing. This would have been a great end to the show, tying up a whole bunch of loose ends, and having a lot of nice touches that harken back to earlier seasons. The vanquish of Zankou feels a bit like one of the Cole vanquishes, and I'd quite like to know who the readhead is playing Piper at the end, but otherwise completely satisfying.

For some unknown reason, I then decide to watch Angel season 5, and it kicks off (after the seriously annoying forced anti-piracy trailer) with "Convictions" which sees Angel and company trying to come to terms with running the evil law firm.

There's a criminal with a virus that'll kill everyone if he loses his court case, Gunn agrees to have a bunch of legal stuff downloaded into his head (which is almost certainly going to end badly), and Angel has to deal with the company's special ops team, who are determined to carry on doing things the old way...