Chiller

[Serena Lewis]

I don't think my opinion has changed on this episode, but, after two years, I still can't pinpoint exactly why I liked it...well, anyway, on with the show...

Pros

1. Mysteron Guy at the start. At first I thought it was Captain Black, but he's lacking designer stubble. Actually, I probably preferred him to Black. Menacing. And that way he stood in front of the diner after it had blown up made me think he was about to announce some terrible terrorist attack on the news with that as the backdrop...
2. Explosion. It was...cool...
3. All the expressions. And, for once, Destiny displayed at emotion in her voice! Huzzah!! Bring out the party poppers and paper hats!!
4. Frozen tear. Aww...kinda...nice.
5. Dialogue. 'What's an hour, to eternity?' 'You're not looking hard enough!!' Good stuff.

Cons

1. Dumb Blue. Oh, come on, that smoke. You must be able to see it from miles away, yet he doesn't notice it until he's almost right next to it. Sigh...
2. Quick to pronounce. Doctor says Scarlets dead, even when he knows that he has retro-metabilisation that could take ages.
3. Xander easily gets the bomb on board Skybase. Bit too simple.
4. Those poor cities under Skybase. What if the bomb hadn't gone off when it did? It could have fallen through the clouds, and blown up a city!!
5. Weird watch. What sort of watch is Blues? I just don't get it.
6. The hair. This episode seems to be the birth of Harmonys blood red colour hair, and also, Xanders isn't looking to hot. With all that cash, you'd think he'd get a good hair-cut.

Bloopers

1. No! What did they do to my poor Serena?! They made her cross-eyed, is what! At the start, when she's telling Colonel that she's got Blue 'coming through'. Hmm...

Little Things

1. One of the Medics pushing Scarlet to Med Campus has very sheeny trousers, and a permanently worried expression. Maybe he's Blue and Rhapsodys long lost other sibling?
2. Maybe this is just me being stupid, but isn't it a little...thick for the Colonel to have his cup of coffee right next to his big control desk thing?
3. There are cool colour changing signs in the personnel quarters, above the beds.
4. The diner that Xander Story goes to is called 'Mr Rons'. Oh! What wit!...sigh...

Rating: 7/10

xx

[Mary]

4. The diner that Xander Story goes to is called 'Mr Rons'. Oh! What wit!...sigh...

xx

I was in a local hospital's coffee shop a few years ago, waiting for my mom to awaken from surgery, when I noticed the name on the tubs of cole slaw and potato salad. It was also Mr. Ron's. Talk about "Spectrum Surprise" on the menu...

[James. C]

There was a forums user who used that name back on the SIG boards.

And I think from memory they used that pun on Terrahawks did they not?

[Marion]

I can't see me contributing much to these reviews - but I will say that I really like the sequence of expressions on NCS Blue's face when Destiny nicks his watch and runs after 'ghost 'Scarlet.
You can see his little brain aching...

[luvmylops]

Ready for my 2 cents worth?

I enjoyed this episode and, in fact, it is one of the few episodes I will repeatedly watch from Series 1.

I thought the facial expressions were much better than in previous episodes and we get more character developement instead of car chases and acrobatics (thu I like those, too). Just enjoyed the whole spooky feel of this episode. Would have been perfect to first watch this episode on or near Halloween!

I loved when Scarlet gives the line "I hope your 'chute fails" as Storey "abandons ship" from Skybase.

Now for the "bloopers" I spotted.

Does everyone on Skybase know about Scarlets 'retrometabolism'?

Joe's Diner looks alot like Ron's Diner to me

When Mysteron agent places his hand on Storey's shoulder, his hand passes thru at one point.

There is a bullet hole in Scarlets vest (right shouder) as he struggles to free himself when tied up in the diner, which then disappears in the next shot.

Scarlet has his shoes on (near the end when he is "recuperating") while in bed in Sickbay.

[gojohnniegogo]

Hmm... not a favourite of mine. The focus is too tight on Scarlet, Blue & Destiny (again). Liked Storey though, he was an interesting character (would Spectrum really employ people who might swing to the otherside!?) The truck driver (striking resemblance to Lew Grade!) and his finger poking was amusing 'you trying to get yourself killed?'. 'Right idea...wrong person' Great bit of dialogue. Also liked Scarlets 'and they'll blow up Skybase while you're gone!' line too, plus the 'chute' one as well. I was also quite shocked at how quickly Gold gave up on Scarlet.

What happens to the two Mysteron agents after? We never see them again. Perhaps the Mysterons just 'deactivated' them as they'd served their purpose.

[shadokp]

The Story - I seem to remember the first time this aired a lot of people liking this one a lot and I really didn't. Not sure if it was just too weird for a generally down to Earth type series - it seemed to me that the whole ghost thing was a bit too supernatural I guess. A few loop holes as mentioned above and perhaps a less action orientated story than normal - which is good because there was some character developement.

The Animation - Nothing really stands out for me in this one, I can't get out of my head that Steve Buscemi guest starred in this one.

Other - Did Blue and Destiny run past the same operative twice while running to the airlock or was it the editing? I do like those two Mysteron agents and would have loved to see them pop up from time to time.

The Ongoing Tally -


On screen Death Count - 1 - The truck driver

KP

[Father Unwin]

This episode had its moments but is not one of my favourites either. The Mysteron agent with hair reminded me of Shane Weston from Joe 90 and made an excellent alternative villain to Captain Black.

I was also wondering about what happened to the 2 Mysterons but it seems to me that Scarlet maybe kills the bald one at the time he, himself, is shot. The Shane Weston lookalike mentions "we" later but he may mean the Mysterons in general.

Also, it was good to hear Jeremy Hitchen using his Doctor Ninestein (Terrahawks) voice for Xander Story. Whenever I hear it it makes me smile and adds to my enjoyment of the episode.

The scene where Weston flags down the Kagutski tanker and then Mysteronises the driver is great. Grabbing him by the neck and forcing Mysteron vapours down his throat is certainly different!

The only plot accelerator worth mentioning is actually vital to the storyline. It appeared to be pure coincidence that, back on Skybase, Scarlet goes into the corridor and bumps (sort of!) into Story just as he is taking the bomb for hiding.

My point is that if he hadn't followed Story then he would never have known where the bomb was hidden and so there would have been little point in leading Destiny and Blue around the ship.

The episode highlight for me was to see Skybase lit up at night with Story running purposefully across the deck in his protective suit before diving over the side. What other tv series could do that so convincingly - it looked so real.

[Skybase Girl]

Once more I have to confess to not having watched this one again. so I probably shouldn't be commenting as yet. Got a fair bit of catching up to do, damn holidays !

I liked it very much, although I thought that it implied that Scarlet and Destiny's relationship seemed to have taken rather a leap forward from previous episodes. That, together with the comments about retrometabalism sometimes taking longer than usual, seems to suggest that Scarlet has been dying more regularly than the running order would indicate, and that this should have been a later episode in the series.

Dr Gold does always seem to have an air of resigned defeat about him, doesn't he ? I don't know why no-one who is ill on Skybase ever seems to be covered with a sheet, or have a pillow ( unless they're dead ). They all seem to sleep in their uniforms, too. Perhaps the producers thought that the temperature would be so perfectly regulated there'd be no need for bedclothes. That's a shame.

Blue was again a bit gung-ho, but Scarlet's look of surprise when he realised that Blue thought of him as a good friend was very touching. Blue's concern for Destiny was nice, too. I think this was possibly the first episode that highlighted the relationships among friends and colleagues and showed them up more closely as individuals.

Marion, I liked your travelogue of Blue's expression, but isn't it over-egging the custard a bit ? ( I really hate it when I have to agree with you about Badly-Drawn Blue. Feel obliged to protest ! )

Not quite sure why Colonel White wasn't more concerned as to the reason his drink had frozen. Did he think he'd ordered iced coffee by mistake ? Another question, which I think has been asked before, is does Scarlet remember he was a "ghost" before he came back from the jaws of death ? He allows Destiny and Blue to tell him what happened and doesn't let on, which seems to imply he can't remember. On the other hand, I get the feeling he does know, although it has obviously never happened to him before. Does this mean that certain types of injuries might result in this and could it happen again ? I think I'll just shut up now, this could go on for a while........

[Marion]

Skybase Girl said:

Marion, I liked your travelogue of Blue's expression, but isn't it over-egging the custard a bit ? ( I really hate it when I have to agree with you about Badly-Drawn Blue. Feel obliged to protest ! )

Heh,heh,heh!
It is definitely over-egging the custard - but then, I suspect it was hard for him to grasp what was going on... You know how hard he has to concentrate on walking and talking at the same time...
As I said, I don't see me joining in much - I find I just don't have the time to watch the episodes - even at the rate of one a week. I keep thinking I might dip in and take a peek at one, but then the chance to clean the oven or whitewash the garage crops up and ... well, who could resist either of those alternatives to watching NCS?

[MMK]

Reading Serena Lewis's review (the blooper section) of Contact reminded me of something...

The black-haired bad guy looks SO similar to Black... he isn't Black... is he?

Chiller: bloopers
the guy mentioned above has a see-through hand/cuff at one point (not completely sure when... off-hand).


Overall, a good episode... 9 1/2 out of 10