SpaceGypsies

What do you get when you combine electrical science and Tchaikovsky? A geeky way to show some holiday spirit! The video below features two solid state Tesla coils performing “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. Believe it or not, the sparks that you see in the video are the source of the sound you’re hearing. Tesla coils produce electricity at such a high voltage that when the device discharges, the electrical energy is released into the air as heat, light, and sound. Using proper equipment, one can play a Tesla coil like a musical instrument! For a more detailed- and techier description- of how to get a Tesla coil to sing, this video is excellent.

Episode 8 End of the Road:

The mystery woman from before is revealed to be Olivia Colasanto, Angelo’s granddaughter. Olivia brings the team to the Colassanto estate and leads them to Angelo’s room. Angelo discovered a way to prolong his life, but not his youth and is now a comatose old man. It is revealed that the “The Families” are responsible for the Miracle. But when Esther looks up the names given to her by Olivia, the search turns up blank… they never existed.

While the team discuss the situation, Brian Friedkin leads a CIA team into the mansion and capture everyone. Friedkin is involved with The Families and attempting to cover up his treason, but Rex lures him into a trap and Friedkin reveals his involvement in front of Allen Shapiro, thier superior. With Rex and Esther cleared, Torchwood and the CIA pool their resources.

Interaction between Jilly and Oswald indicate that government officials are in the process of creating a new that will legalize “Category 0.” Category 0 members are criminals like Oswald and they, like Category 1 members, will be sent to the modules to be burned.  Jilly had been aware of this and was hiding the information from Oswald. Angered, he assaults Jilly and the runs away. Jilly is eventually met by a representative from The Families, and after a single question interview, is taken to meet The Families.

The machines monitoring Angelo’s health go off, indicating his heart stopped. But what Jack quickly comes to realize is that Angelo is not Category 1, but is actually dead. Angelo becomes the first to die… how? Underneath his bed is material scavenged from the remains Read the rest of this entry »

Episode 4:  Escape to L.A.

The team heads to California to find a place to lay low and plan for the assault. While in California, Torchwood becomes aware of a new campaign “Dead is Dead.” The campaign is led by Ellis Hartley Monroe and states that those that should have died should be treated as they are dead.

Torchwood begins plans for a raid of PHICORP, specifically to steal server hard drivers.  Drummond reveals everyone that the security system will require them to get a voice recording, a palm print, and a retina scan from Nickolas Frumpkin. After considerable effort, they are able to get ahold of what they need and begin the raid.

A hit-man has been tracking the team throughout the episode as they make contact with family members. He also gets ahold of the material, but in a far more sinister way.  As Torchwood raids PHICORP, they come into conflict with the hit-man.

The “Dead is Dead” campaign comes into conflict with PHICORP’s campaign and Monroe competes with Danes for favor of the public. Her success threatens PHICORP and its plans, and in order to give himself a leg up, Danes makes a bold move. He enters a hospital where the extra patients are being treated- while Monroe is making a speech nearby- and talks to the patients there, telling them that they deserve equal medical treatment and that individuals like Monroe seek to take their right to live away from them as they no longer consider them human. The press is drawn away from Monroe and to Danes who vows to fight on behalf of these people, earning the admiration of the patients, press, and the public.

The plot continues to pick up in ‘Escape to L.A.’ For the most part, this is a good episode.  The plot moves along, keeps the viewer interested, and develops the characters further.  The ‘Dead is Dead’ campaign is a great addition, touching on one of my favorite sci-fi themes: “What defines life.” I feel more could have been done with it, but it seems unlikely this plot point will be explored further at least in the form of this campaign. In addition, Monroe and her story seems underdeveloped.

Drummond gets more attention in this episode, but once again, writers fail to deliver. Her family arc is needlessly tragic and dramatic in a plot with a lot of that going on already.  Rex is continuing to grow on me, though his personal story seems underdeveloped as well- though not nearly as bad as Drummonds. With Drummond and Matheson interacting with family, it is almost as if the writers are using this interaction as a plot tool rather than for character development- the family interactions introduce the hit-man stalking the team.

What is continuing to impress me about the series is that it is still continuing to focus on real life ramifications. The show doesn’t just mention biological issues once and move on, but actually continues to remind the viewer that hospitals are becoming overcrowded, bacteria and viruses are running amok and there simply aren’t enough supplies to cover it all.

For a good story, and introducing more sociological, biological and philosophical consequences of a world where no one dies, “Escape to L.A.” gets 4 out of 5 wagons.

Episode 5:  Categories of Life

PhiCorp and the world’s governments implement a system of categorizing life after the miracle. The system- called the ‘Categories of Life’ divide life up into 3 categories:

• Category 1 Status:  Individuals who should have died and are brain dead
• Category 2 Status:  Individuals who have persistent illness or injury
• Category 3 Status:  Individuals with minor problems or healthy individuals

Those with Category 1 and 2 statuses are sent to Overflow Camps. These camps ring eerily like WWII concentration camps. At these camps, there are modules that do not show up on satellite footage. Dr. Juarez- appalled at the growing control the government is exerting over life and death- assists Torchwood in investigating the camps.

Matheson, having survived a fatal car crash, investigates a California camp as a Category 2 patient. Drummond sneaks in and changes Matheson to Category 1 status and smuggles a camera in so that he can record what he sees. Meanwhile, Juarez uses her medical credentials to get into the camps so that she may inspect the treatment of Category 1 patients. What Torchwood uncovers further sends home the image of Nazi Concentration Camps.

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Episode 1: The New World

“The New World” opens up on Oswald Danes, convicted pedophile and murderer. He is about to be executed by lethal injection. The cocktail fails to kill Danes, however. We then join CIA agent Rex Matheson; as fellow agent, Esther Drummond, is giving Matheson information on Torchwood, Matheson gets injured in a car crash. Having debris shoved through his chest, Matheson’s injuries should have been fatal, but the surgeon that treats him- Vera Juarez- tells Matheson and Drummond that no-one has died in the last 24 hours at any US hospital.

No one has died in the last 24 hours; people become sick, get injured, but continue to live on regardless of the severity of their condition. Even more curious, what prompted Drummond’s interest in Torchwood was an email sent to US intelligence agencies. The email contained one word, “Torchwood” and the time stamp corresponds with the planet’s last recorded death.

Drummond continues to investigate Torchwood and comes across old files in the CIA archives and across Captain Jack Harkness himself. Harkness had erased all online traces of Torchwood and arrived in the U.S. to deal with Drummond by erasing her memories using Retcon.

Meanwhile, Matheson tracks down the last survivor of Torchwood, Gwen Cooper. Gwen had been called out of hiding by her old colleague Andy Davidson informing her that her father had suffered two heart attacks, but remained alive. Gwen’s husband, Rhys, persuades her not to investigate the strange circumstances further, but Matheson links the relation of “Miracle Day” to Torchwood and confronts her in her own home- after using Davidson’s phone call to Gwen to find her.

Matheson, Gwen, and Rhys are then attacked by a helicopter and are only saved due to Jack’s timely arrival. The four escape to the Roal Dahl Plass, the original site of Torchwood: Cardiff. Here, Jack reveals that he is not healing as he normally would.  While the rest of world is immortal, Jack is now presumed to be mortal.

Gwen and Jack attempt to discuss the groups next actions, but are interrupted by the South Wales Police force and Matheson announcing that Torchwood is being taken over by the United States of America.

Torchwood: Children of Earth left the Torchwood team scattered and hurting. Most of the team was dead- Owen Harper and Toshiko Sato having died at the end of season two, and Ianto Jones died during Children of Earth. The Torchwood Hub had been destroyed in a bomb attack by MI-5 and Jack had had to sacrifice his own grandson to save the planet.

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Episode 9 Chimera:

This season of Sanctuary is still going strong. “Chimera” was primarily a stand alone episode, but unlike “Homecoming” it actually had some bite. This episode has Magnus and Tesla trying to quarantine a sentient, organic, Praxian nanite. Last season during the episode “Hollow Men,” Tesla hooked Adam Worth up to the Sanctuary computer systems using the Praxian spiderbot. The intention was to get the coordinates for Hollow Earth so Druitt could successfully teleport, but the spiderbot left some goodies behind and so did Adam Worth…

This was an excellent episode. As always, character interaction between Magnus and Tesla was wonderful. Amanda Tapping and Johnathon Young never fail to deliver. The banter between Henry and Tesla was also hysterical. I simply love it when those two get a room together and just have at each other.

Adam Worth returns this episode, and is as creepy as ever. In fact, I believe this is the creepiest I’ve seen him. Ian Tracey blew me away with his performance; he actually gave me the heebbie jeebies! Robin Dunne also sent a chill up my spine after the mind swap took place. The scary factor was only enhanced by the music. There was a selection of music played in last season’s episode “For King and Country” that they used again in “Chimera,” but the tune was warped with notes being out of order and some of the notes digitally synthesized- adding to the idea that this was a ‘virtual’ Sanctuary and that something wasn’t quite right. The reworking of that piece of music alone added to the tone of the episode.

Magnus and Tesla centric episodes occasionally have a tendency to be one sided, with either Mangus doing all the work, or Tesla. In fact most of the time, it is Tesla yanking Magnus around. This episode, the writers flip it around, with Magnus taking charge.  From what I’ve seen, Tesla likes to take control of a situation and not reveal any weakness, but in this episode, we actually see him panic, something that doesn’t happen too often. Up until Worth starts messing with Magnus’ head, he’s fairly calm, but when Worth starts digging through Magnus’ memories, pulling up painful ones of Ashley, the calm exterior goes away. Now, this could have been out of concern for Magnus, or perhaps he was afraid of Worth going through his memories. Regardless of the reason, seeing Tesla less in control, more cautious, and far more pessimistic than usual was an interesting change.

Mentioning Ashley brings me to another point. In “Resistance,” Magnus and Henry sneaking into the SCIU facility was reminiscent of Ashley and Henry infiltrating the Cabal base; Bigfoot even compared it to the Cabal. I thought this was coincidence, but now I’m not so sure.  This season, the writers are referencing Ashley more. When Ashley just dropped of the face of the Earth in season two, I felt that they didn’t do the mother/ daughter relationship justice. But now the writer’s are giving us a glimpse into Magnus’ head and seeing how she is still affected by Ashley’s death adds more believability.

With only four more episodes left this season, I can’t wait to see what the writers have in store for us next.