OK, with the release of The Happening this weekend, I figured I’d do a list of Shyamalan’s directed films, in the order I like them. And just because Lady In The Water is at the bottom of the list doesn’t mean I don’t like it. It’s just that I only moderately like it. I also know that my opinion of liking The Village the best of his films is an unpopular opinion. So be it. I’m also not counting Wide Awake, because it kinda preceded “M. Night Shyamalan” as a the filmmaker we would come to know, and, well, because I haven’t actually seen it…

• The Village
• The Sixth Sense
• The Happening
• Unbreakable
• Signs
• Lady In The Water

As most any of you who know me are aware, I’m a big Doctor Who fan. I grew up watching the series on PBS. I’ve been totally loving the new resurgence of the show. Well, I was reading the newest issue of SFX magazine while eating dinner tonight and they featured the results of a poll they conducted for fans’ favorite companions from the show. So, I thought I’d take a shot at list my favorites. My final placement of Donna (and perhaps Rose, for that matter) may shift in a month or two once the current season has finished airing. If so, I’ll update the list at that point. Unlike the SFX poll, I’m limiting my companion selections to ones that appeared in the series (and leaving off ones from the novels, audio productions, etc). I also just picked a top 15 for myself, leaving off the number of others that also had companion roles on the show. Any of them not listed are particularly ones I didn’t like, just that they didn’t crack this set of my particular favorites.

1. Ace (Sophie Aldred)
   It’s tempting to promote a relaunch series companion to my top spot, particularly because I think the new incarnation does a better job writing for companion characters, but I just don’t have the heart to remove Sophie Aldred from the top spot. She very quickly shot to the top of my list back in 1987 when she joined Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor #7 (who was my favorite Doctor until David Tennant came along). She’s also the only companion I’ve met in real life (at a convention a few years ago). I was happy to see her come in at #4 on SFX’s list (behind Sarah Jane Smith, Rose Tyler & Martha Jones).
2. Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman)
   Captain Jack is a less traditional companion (coming in and out of the show and not quite fitting the traditional mold of a Who companion). Still, he meets the qualifications to be considered a canonized companion (quite easily, actually). With that said, it’s impossible for me to not put him right up there near the top. Having taken on the starring role on spin-off series Torchwood, he’s got a pretty prominent role in the Who cannon. While I thought that the first season of Torchwood was only marginally acceptable, I must admit that I really liked the latest second season a lot. Captain Jack’s initially mysterious character has been rather well defined and dimensionalized during said second season of Torchwood, and he just keeps getting better. It’s odd to partially judge him for this list for material from a spin-off series, but I think he’d still be right up near the top even if evaluating on only Who episodes. He’s been a great character since his first scenes in The Empty Child, one of the episodes from the first series of the relaunched series.
3. Donna Noble (Catherine Tate)
   While the character of Donna was a bit rough around the edges, in more ways than one, when first appearing in “The Runaway Bride” Christmas Special, I knew that I would like her as a regular character when they announced she’d be joining the series a year later. I could see the potential in both the character and Catherine Tate’s performance. Not only was I not disappointed, I’ve been overly happy with the end result. Donna has been fantastic this season so far, and I have high hopes for her in the remaining final half of the season.
4. Rose Tyler (Billie Piper)
   I’m related to three people who’ll hold it against me for having Rose anywhere near the top of a list like this. So be it. While Rose may have had her faults (intentionally so, in many cases), I really enjoyed her on the series a lot. It’s funny that one of the write-in comments that SFX listed simply stated, “She does that thing with her tongue.” I hadn’t given that specific trait a whole lot of thought, but after reading that, I realized how much I agree with it. It’s in moments where she (consciously? subconsciously?) does that little physical mannerism where her character really sparks to life. For all her wonderfully agressive mannerisms, it’s when she’s playful that her character really shines. And Billie Piper really knows how to sink into an emotionally charged performance at other times. Rose is a far more emotional companion than probably any other to appear on the series (well, at least in range of emotions - there were others that were more abbrasive or aggressive, etc). It’s perhaps for her faults as a character as much as her brilliant moments that I like her as much as I do (again, the relaunched series writers going to new depths with the companion role than the classic series would typically do).
5. Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman)
   The show didn’t falter in picking the always chipper Freema Agyeman (who had a brief guest appearance as another character shortly before being cast as this starring role) to follow up for Rose. A bit more mature than Rose, Martha still had a youthful optomism and outlook. She also had a romantic fixation on the Doctor, but this time unrequited. It was perhaps the aspect of her character that I don’t quite think they ever quite nailed correctly. Still, Agyeman did a fantastic job with the role, and has taken it beyond her initial season appearance to a few episodes this season, and a few episodes of Torchwood, ultimately establishing the character into a position where it can easily exist outside the events of the show to appear at will in the future of the series. One things I will say for Martha’s character is that the writers did a far worse job dealing with her family life than they did for Rose, but thankfully they didn’t feature the Jones’ nearly as much as the Tylers.
6. Jo Grant (Katy Manning)
   I place Jo Grant a bit higher on my list than most fans would. While not the smartest of companions that has traveled with The Doctor, her unbreakable enthusiasm for being with The Doctor for his adventures made her a positive joy to feature in the stories. Her chemistry playing against Jon Pertwee’s third Doctor is flawless, easily feeding into the particularly large ego of Pertwee’s incarnation of the role (one of my favored incarnations). Unlike some of the modern companions on the series, Jo didn’t feature a wide range of emotion, but for her character, it was just that fact that made her so charming and fun. Her reaction would be so predictable, it was funny as a result. I’d dare say that she was the most “trusty” of companions over the years. You could count on her unrestrained support of whatever The Doctor was doing - which is actually rather atypical of a companion, who are typically designed to counterpoint The Doctor. I’d almost go so far as to describe her as a favorite pet for The Doctor.
7. Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen)
   The most venerable of companions over the history of the show, and a long time fan favorite, Sladen’s resurgence in the role in the relaunched series, and now her very own spin-off which is still going strong, is impossible to deny. As a companion during the peak of the series, she was a bit of a touchstone for the evolution of the companion characters in general, as a more level playing field against The Doctor. It’s easy to see the influence of Sarah Jane in the modern companions like Rose. It’s no surprise that they ultimately hit it off when they met each other on screen in Rose’s second season on the show. And Liz Sladen just plain clicked in the role. And she still does. Amazingly well, actually.
8. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney)
   Perhaps the single most “British” of supporting characters for the series. Not only that, but he had 20 year run of appearances from back in 1969 until the final year of the classic series in 1989. Getting a guest appearance from Nicholas Courtney on the new series is my #1 wish for things I’d love to see from the classic series on the new series. He still participates in the Who community, doing DVD commentaries and Big Finish audio performances and such. Anyway, the Brigadier was, kinda like Jo Grant (whom he appeared with in a number of episodes), a character you could always rely on to react exactly as you would expect. And that was a particularly fun thing about him, his perfectly British unflappability. He is also one of those very loosely defined “companions” - he doesn’t really fit the framework to be referred to as a “companion,” but he’s certainly a prevalent enough supporting character to The Doctor, that’s it’s not too far out of place to think of him as one.
9. K-9 (voice of John Leeson, and briefly David Brierly)
   Ah, the lovable K-9. On paper, K-9 should be one of the most annoying characters on the show. But through some almost impossible to define combination of charming lameness and constant bravery, topped off by the strangely wonderful vocal performance of John Leeson, K-9 just shines. The proof of that is in K-9’s reappearance to the series along with Sarah Jane in the episode School Reunion. It’s just impossible to not love K-9.
10. Romana II (Lalla Ward)
    The regenerated second incarnation of Romana to be featured on the series, Romana has the distinction of being the only companion to travel with The Doctor of his own Time Lord race. This second incarnation is particularly fun, thanks primarily to the delicious dialog she often got. She was definitely not the typical companion, and was a refreshing change as a result. Lalla Ward’s almost effortless performance helps make the character really shine.
11. Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding)
    While similar to Jo Grant in the fact that she’s not the world’s most intelligent of companions, her dynamic playing against The Doctor and actually not particularly wanting to be traveling with him plays her as a very different character. Ultimately, it’s her very basic approach to things, and her Aussie attitude and directness, that makes her character work as well as it does. While Jo may have functioned as a loved pet of sorts, Tegan is a counterpoint to The Doctor in many ways. Now that I think about it, Donna Noble kinda combines these two traits, as someone who’s positively thrilled to be traveling with The Doctor, but isn’t afraid to play the counterpoint against him.
12. Peri Brown (Nicola Bryant)
    Ah, an American companion (the first). Nicola Bryant, however, is British (and had a varying degree of success in her performance pulling off the American dialog). Peri was a bold, youthful character, which the series producers admitted was designed to bring a modern, “sexy” appearance to the show, which was constantly teetering on the brink of cancellation. They certainly didn’t shy away from featuring her youthful appearance on the show, infamously in many instances. Still, Nicola Bryant made the California girl role work quite well.
13. Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke)
    During the first year of the relaunched series, I never would have dreamed I would ever include him in a list of top companions for the series. My first reaction to the character in the first couple episode was of instant dislike. I thought, at the time, that Noel Clarke’s performance was one of the worst I’d seen. But over time, I came to realize that perhaps his performance was a bit too GOOD. Over time, his character went through quite an arc, ultimately as a funny and heroic addition to the series. I was actually sad to see him leaving the series, which would have been impossible to believe had somebody told me I’d feel that way by the end of the second series. Mickey’s realization of being “the tin dog” is a hilarious enough notion for me to forgive whatever misgivings I may have ever had in the earlier episodes.
14. Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines)
    There’s one primary reason that Jamie made it onto this list - Frazer Hines’ chemistry playing dialog against Patrick Troughton’s second Doctor. The two of them had flawless timing in performing on screen together. It’s that thing that’s impossible to manufacture. It’s just the magic of casting, capturing lightning in a bottle. Either actor could manage to make even the clunkiest of lines from the other character somehow work.
15. Romana I (Mary Tamm)
    The first incarnation of Romana was fairly different before the regeneration (when Mary Tamm became pregnant and opted to not return), as a more refined and proper Time Lord. Even in the stiffer initial variation, she was still a very interesting alternative to The Doctor’s freestyle personality.

And since the magazine poll allowed fans to pick a single pick for their least favorite, I’ll do the same (though they only allowed fans a list of top 3 while voting, so I’m not following that rule):

• Kamelion (Gerald Flood)
  Not content to pick fans’ perennial least favorite companions Mel or Adric (who admittedly weren’t particularly good), my vote goes to Kamelion. He was a “shapeshifting robot” and was every bit as lame and embarrassingly bad as it sounds. Traveling with Peter Davidson’s fifth doctor incarnation, the writers simply had zero idea how to utilize him to any degree, and pretty nearly forgot about him, writing him off as a near afterthought. After the unanticipated success of K-9, this robot (of sorts) companion was an abysmal failure on the part of the writers/producers.

The poll results included a couple folks who technically shouldn’t count as companions, but I feel like I should mention them as well:

1. Sally Sparrow (Carey Mulligan)
   Showing up on SFX’s list simply because people wrote in with her as a pick even though she not only had never traveled with The Doctor, but had barely even met him. I would have to agree with this sentiment. Carey Mulligan was spectacular. Her wonderful performance is one of the numerous brilliant aspects of the episode Blink (her one appearance in the series). I don’t hesitate declaring Blink as my all-time favorite episode of Who. I’ve watched it dozens of times, and the episode is only a year old at this point. Sally Sparrow is designed as “the companion who chooses to not travel with The Doctor.” She could instantly work as a companion. She fits the bill perfectly. But she simply makes the choice to live her life as is. It’s the “what could have been” case when studying what makes a character worthy of being a companion. Carey Mulligan flawlessly nailed every last detail of the character in her performance, and I’d positively LOVE to see her make another appearance on the show. Just typing this, I feel like tossing on Blink to watch again…
2. Astrid Peth (Kylie Minogue)
   Since Astrid didn’t truly travel with The Doctor, her companion qualifications are dubious (though there are so many grey areas in who counts as a companion, it’s an arbitrary distinction). The famous music superstar Kylie Minogue was a surprise announcement to co-star in the most recent Christmas special episode as Astrid. Like all Who fans, I was happy to see that she did an excellent job in her role. Much like Sally Sparrow, Astrid is “the companion that could have been.” She actually fit the role more than Sally did, because she directly interacted with The Doctor, helping save the day side-by-side. Rather than somebody who goes about her life rather than join up with The Doctor, Astrid gives her life to save the day. She had that fun adventurous quality that one gets in Jo and the modern companions like Rose & Martha, starry eyed and in awe of The Doctor.

I thought that in line with all the time I’ve recently spent watching the SE HD-DVD for Zodiac, I’d post one of my “top lists” for my liking of the films David Fincher has directed. I haven’t done one of the top list posts in a while, so I figured it’d be good to do another.

1. Fight Club
2. Zodiac
3. The Game
4. Se7en
5. Panic Room
6. Alien 3

Here’s a list of all the Doctor Who episodes from the 3 seasons of its newly revived form (including the 2 Christmas special episodes) in the order I like them. The order is a bit flexible, but generally accurate (plus or minus a couple positions). Kinda cool to realize that there’s been more than 40 episodes as of this point, too. Episode number link goes to the Outpost Gallifrey episode info page. The episode title link goes to the Wikipedia page for the episode. The writer of the episode is in parenthesis after the titles. I’m going with new series season numbers, rather than full series season numbers (which would be 27-29 rather than 1-3).

1. 3.10 - Blink (Steven Moffat)
2. 1.09 - The Empty Child (Steven Moffat)
3. 1.10 - The Doctor Dances (Steven Moffat)
4. 2.08 - The Impossible Planet (Matt Jones)
5. 2.09 - The Satan Pit (Matt Jones)
6. 2.04 - The Girl In The Fireplace (Steven Moffat)
7. 1.01 - Rose (Russel T. Davies)
8. 3.08 - Human Nature (Paul Cornell)
9. 3.09 - The Family Of Blood (Paul Cornell)
10. 2.13 - Doomsday (Russel T. Davies)
11. 1.13 - The Parting Of The Ways (Russel T. Davies)
12. 2.03 - School Reunion (Toby Whithouse)
13. 3.12 - The Sound Of Drums (Russel T. Davies)
14. 2.10 - Love & Monsters (Russel T. Davies)
15. 1.06 - Dalek (Robert Shearman)
16. 2.02 - Tooth & Claw (Russel T. Davies)
17. 3.00 - The Runaway Bride (Russel T. Davies)
18. 2.12 - Army Of Ghosts (Russel T. Davies)
19. 1.03 - The Unquiet Dead (Mark Gatiss)
20. 1.08 - Father’s Day (Paul Cornell)
21. 3.02 - The Shakespeare Code (Gareth Roberts)
22. 1.02 - The End Of The World (Russel T. Davies)
23. 2.01 - New Earth (Russel T. Davies)
24. 3.07 - 42 (Chris Chibnall)
25. 3.03 - Gridlock (Russel T. Davies)
26. 3.01 - Smith & Jones (Russel T. Davies)
27. 3.13 - Last Of The Time Lords (Russel T. Davies)
28. 2.00 - The Christmas Invasion (Russel T. Davies)
29. 3.11 - Utopia (Russel T. Davies)
30. 2.06 - The Age Of Steel (Tom MacRae)
31. 2.05 - Rise Of The Cybermen (Tom MacRae)
32. 1.07 - The Long Game (Russel T. Davies)
33. 3.04 - Daleks In Manhattan (Helen Raynor)
34. 2.07 - The Idiot’s Lantern (Mark Gatiss)
35. 1.11 - Boom Town (Russel T. Davies)
36. 1.04 - Aliens Of London (Russel T. Davies)
37. 1.05 - World War Three (Russel T. Davies)
38. 3.06 - The Lazarus Experiment (Stephen Greenhorn)
39. 3.05 - Evolution Of The Daleks (Helen Raynor)
40. 2.11 - Fear Her (Matthew Graham)
41. 1.12 - Bad Wolf (Russel T. Davies)

Here’s a list of the Harry Potter films and music scores in the order in which I like them. By a strange coincidence, I like the music scores in the same order as the films, so I’ll just have the one list for both.

1. 3 - The Prisoner Of Azkaban (Score by John Williams)
   
2. 5 - The Order Of The Phoenix (Score by Nicholas Hooper)
   
3. 1 - The Sorcerer’s Stone (Score by John Williams)
4. 2 - The Chamber Of Secrets (Score by William Ross & John Williams)
5. 4 - The Goblet Of Fire (Score by Patrick Doyle)

This is a list of the shows/composers, currently in production, that feature my favorite music scoring work.

1. Battlestar Galactica - Bear McCreary
   Bear McCreary, who was the secondary composer for the Battlestar mini-series (and was all of 23 years old at the time), landed himself a gig that surely must have him pinching himself for such good fortune. Primary composer Richard Gibbs decided to leave the show after the mini-series was picked up as a series and worked briefly on the first handful of episodes while transitioning the work to McCreary. The producers put a lot of faith in McCreary, who was not only very young to be taking on such a high profile task, but was doing scoring unlike anything that had been done on TV before. With an approach that is NOTHING like Stu Phillips’ fantastic work on the 1978 original (despite the occasional wink towards Phillips’ original theme - used in the new show as a “Colonial Anthem”), McCreary constantly turns the approach to scoring television (or film for that matter) on its head. Blending something of a world-mix with all manner of thematic and chamber orchestra textures, ethereal beauty and wildly unrestrained percussion, his work is absolutely some of the best scoring TV has seen in a very long time, in my opinion. There have been score CD releases for each season (with the 3rd season score pending in the next month or two). Like almost everything about this utterly fantastic series, it takes a wildly different approach from the original source material inspiration and works amazingly, against all odds.
2. Doctor Who - Murray Gold
   Resurrected from the ashes, into a major success, Doctor Who is back with style. I was a fan ever since childhood, so I was anxious when I heard about the rebirth of the venerable series (now 44 years old). As I watched the first episode, it took a bit for me to adjust to Murray Gold’s scoring approach. It didn’t take me too long to figure out that he was doing amazing work. Ranging from a bit of rock-n-roll to amazing beauty and staggering action cues, he breathes an incredible amount of life, heart and action into the energetic adventure series. So great is his music, it was featured in a wonderful concert performance last fall for an annual charity drive that the Doctor Who production supports. Gold’s scoring is at its best when it breaks the mold and goes in a direction nobody expects. Case in point is his “Doomsday” theme - one of my favorite music cues written for either film or TV in years. Gold also contributes the occasional song to the series, which are also very good. His work from the first 2 years on the revived series is featured on a fantastic CD.
3. Lost - Michael Giacchino
   Though his work on Lost doesn’t have the freedom to be as aggressive as his stunning work on JJ Abrams’ previous series, Alias, it is still some excellent work. Alias gave him the opportunity to really go nuts in the scoring, and he turned out some of TV’s greatest scoring on that series. For Lost, things are more lyrical and restrained, but often times very beautiful. Like Alias, Lost has a score CD release for each of the first two seasons. I fear that his fantastic scores from the third through fifth seasons of Alias won’t likely see a release, but hopefully his work on the most recent third and on future seasons of Lost will see release.
4. Boston Legal - Danny Lux
   Danny Lux is a TV composer who has worked on a heck of a lot of notable shows, and is one of those workhorse composers; a jack of all trades. His work is pretty much completely unrepresented on CD or the likes, and he has a pretty low profile in the scoring fan community. But I can’t help but be impressed by the stuff he cranks out from time to time - particularly for David E. Kelley shows. The music in Boston Legal is as out-there and strangely-fragmented as the show itself, not to mention being appropriately over-the-top. It’s almost the kind of music that should be annoying, but by some miracle it manages to walk that line and work brilliantly.
5. Monk - Jeff Beal
   Still to this day, I think it was a mistake to have dropped Jeff Beal’s delightful main title theme to this show for Randy Newman’s stereotypically bouncy song. Beal constantly turns in charming and delightful scoring work for this quirky mystery comedy series. Like Monk himself, the score is warm and charming, but very much off-center. Beal has been a rising star in TV scoring work in recent years. His work from the earlier episodes of the show was released on a nice score CD.
   
6. 30 Rock - Jeff Richmond
   One of the single most goofball and daffy aspects of this hilarious series is Jeff Richmond’s offbeat and delightfully bouncy music. Richmond is writer/producer/star Tina Fey’s husband, so it’s no mystery how he got the assignment. All things being equal, it was a great choice, since he does such fun work on the show. It’s one of the aspects of the show that helps place it firmly in the world of farce.
7. Smallville - Mark Snow
   I couldn’t possibly make a list of TV scoring work and not include Mark Snow somewhere in it. His work on Smallville may not be as original or groundbreaking as some of his previous work (like the one that made him famous - The X-Files), but it’s still solid stuff. Getting to balance character and family sensibilities with lofty Americana and superhero action, Snow gets to play around quite a bit with this show.
8. CSI - John M. Keane
   While his work in recent seasons has been more subtle and lower key, Keane has contributed plenty of nice work to this excellent series. It’s consistently better than the scoring work for the two spin-off shows. Then again, so are the song selections. Keane’s best work on the show was done in the first season, some of which is represented on the early soundtrack CD for the show.

There’s a number of other current shows that do a very respectable job in the music score department, but they don’t quite single themselves out in my mind as particularly groundbreaking or worth special attention. Such honorable mentions go to the likes of Medium, Supernatural and the procedurals like Numb3rs, Bones, etc.

I sit here watching the episode New Earth, the first episode of the second season of the revived Doctor Who (well, not counting The Christmas Invasion), on the DVD set that was released today. I’m actually listening to the audio commentary, as I’ll be cranking through them all throughout the week. I already watched through the other extras on the set today (well, I actually watched the great video diaries via download a little while back). As I watched the deleted scenes, I came to a realization. I sat there realizing just how much I enjoy David Tennant in the role of The Doctor. I mean, he’s enormously entertaining, even in rough cut, unfinished deleted scenes. I’ve loved him in the role while watching him through all of his season (and so far, the Christmas special, “The Runaway Bride,” leading into the upcoming third season). I really liked Christopher Eccleston a whole lot when the series came back to life in it’s first year of rebirth. I was disappointed when it was announced he’d be leaving after just the one season. What I didn’t know is how amazing his successor would be. At any rate, getting back to my revelation while watching the deleted scenes - I’m going to say it: David Tennant is my favorite Doctor. If you’ve known how dedicated I’ve been to Sylvester McCoy’s portrayal for darn near 20 years now, you know how big a statement that is. Every Doctor Who fan has their favorite incarnation. For most, it’s Tom Baker (but not me). For me, it has long been McCoy. Well, as of now, it’s Tennant. Below is my revised list of the actors to play The Doctor in the order I prefer them. For the record, I don’t dislike any of them (well, Colin Baker maybe). I’m not going to have Peter Cushing in the list, sticking only to the TV versions of the franchise (Cushing played the role in the two theatrical films from the 1960’s).

1. David Tennant (#10 / 2005-Current)
2. Sylvester McCoy (#7 / 1987-1989)
   
3. Christopher Eccleston (#9 / 2005)
   
4. Jon Pertwee (#3 / 1970-1974)
   
5. Peter Davison (#5 / 1982-1984)
   
6. Paul McGann (#8 / 1996)
7. Patrick Troughton (#2 / 1966-1969)
8. Tom Baker (#4 / 1975-1981)
   
9. William Hartnell (#1 / 1963-1966)
   
10. Colin Baker (#6 / 1984-1986)
    

Thought I’d try to arrange the character from the (new) Battlestar Galactica in the order of my liking. I don’t dislike any of them, so just because there are ones at the bottom doesn’t mean I don’t like them. I’m including main cast and primary supporting cast. To save myself effort, I won’t include dead characters (Billy, Crashdown, the fantastic Ellen Tigh, the excellent Kat, the awesome Admiral Cain, or others).

1. Kara “Starbuck” Thrace - Katee Sackhoff
2. Admiral William Adama - Edward James Olmos
3. Chief Galen Tyrol - Aaron Douglas
4. President Laura Roslin - Mary McDonnell
5. Brother Cavil (Number Whatever-he-is, et al) - Dean Stockwell
6. Cally Tyrol - Nicki Clyne
7. Lee “Apollo” Adama - Jamie Bamber
8. Col. Saul Tigh - Michael Hogan
9. Gaius Baltar - James Callis
10. D’anna Biers (Number Three, et al) - Lucy Lawless
11. Karl “Helo” Agathon - Tahmoh Penikett
12. Number Six (Caprica Six, “Head Six,” Gina, et al) - Tricia Helfer
13. Tom Zarek - Richard Hatch
14. Sharon “Athena” Valerii (”Boomer,” Number Eight, et al) - Grace Park
15. Lt. Felix Gaeta - Alessandro Juliani
16. Doc Cottle - Donnelly Rhodes
17. Anastasia Dualla - Kandyse McClure
18. Margaret “Racetrack” Edmonson - Leah Cairns
19. Sam Anders - Michael Trucco
20. Aaron Doral (Number Five, et al) - Matthew Bennett
21. Leoben Conoy (Number Whatever-he-is, et al) - Callum Keith Rennie
22. Simon (Number Whatever-he-is, et al) - Rick Worthy
23. Brendan “Hotdog” Constanza - Bodie Olmos

Here’s a listing of the Fall 2006 pilot episodes I’ve watched so far, in the order in which I’ve liked them. Favorites are on top to least favorites on bottom. I’ve not included the ones I’ve watched and reviewed that weren’t picked up. Each entry will link back to the post one which I put my review. The mid-season shows are marked with an *

1. Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip (NBC)
2. The Nine (ABC)
3. Raines (NBC) *
4. Jericho (CBS)
5. Knights Of Prosperity (ABC)
6. The Singles Table (NBC)
7. Kidnapped (NBC)
8. Shark (CBS)
9. Justice (FOX)
10. Heroes (NBC)
11. Traveler (ABC) *
12. The Class (CBS)
13. Runaway (CW)
14. Vanished (FOX)
15. The Black Donnellys (NBC) *
16. Friday Night Lights (NBC)

For this “top list” I’m going to do things a bit differently. Rather than have a big, master top-25 styled list, it’ll be broken down by war. As usual, my preferences for films of the last few decades will prevail. And a couple categories won’t even be able to fill out a top 5 entries. I took a few liberties in what I did and didn’t include in certain categories.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the list of films Ridley Scott (easily one of my favorite directors) has directed in the order I prefer them. I’m not counting the ones he’s produced but not directed. I’m only listing the ones from The Duellists and newer (any previous entries being student or hobby films, or TV, etc). I’m also not counting short films, commercials, etc. I’ve included both the theatrical cut of Kingdom Of Heaven and the director’s cut as seperate entries, because quite frankly they are two different films.

1. Blade Runner (1982) (easily one of my all-time favorite films)
2. Black Hawk Down (2001)
3. Alien (1979)
4. 1492: Conquest Of Paradise (1992)
5. Legend (1985) (absolutely MUST be the original “international” cut of the film - with Jerry Goldsmith’s wonderful music score)
6. Kingdom Of Heaven: Director’s Cut (2006)
7. White Squall (1996)
8. Matchstick Men (2003)
9. Black Rain (1989)
10. GI Jane (1997)
11. Thelma & Louise (1991)
12. Gladiator (2000)
13. The Duellists (1977)
14. Kingdom Of Heaven (2005) (theatrical cut)
15. Hannibal (2001)
16. Someone To Watch Over Me (1987)

Here’s a list of my top 25 sci-fi movies. One thing to note is that I don’t include films that I intend to group into another genre’s top list (such as Ghostbusters which would go in Comedy or The Road Warrior which would go in Action). I did include some films that could have gone into another genre (Like Aliens in Action), but they felt comfortable on this list. I also decided to do some of the franchises with one entry (such as Star Trek, Star Wars, Terminator, etc). I know this is something of a cheat, and balances things a tad bit unfairly to some of the individual films of that series. For the record, Empire Strikes Back would be #1 on this list by itself, with Star Trek II close behind it (as well as Aliens). Not to mention the fact that certain entries of some of the franchises wouldn’t be anywhere near this list (such as Star Trek V, Alien Resurrection or Star Wars: Episode 1).

1. Tron (1982)
2. Blade Runner (1982)
3. Star Trek (Series - 1979, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2002)
4. Dark City (1998)
5. Serenity (2005)
6. Star Wars (Series - 1977, 1980, 1983, 1999, 2002, 2005)
7. The Abyss (1989)
8. Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)
9. Alien (Series - 1979, 1986, 1992, 1997)
10. Contact (1997)
11. Terminator (Series - 1984, 1991, 2003)
12. 2001 (Series - 1968, 1984)
13. Equilibrium (2002)
14. Back To The Future (Series - 1985, 1989, 1990)
15. Soldier (1998)
16. Galaxy Quest (1999)
17. Chronicles Of Riddick (Series - 2000, 2004)
18. Gattaca (1997)
19. 12 Monkeys (1995)
20. Sky Captian & The World Of Tomorrow (2004)
21. Mission To Mars (2000)
22. The X-Files: Fight The Future (1998)
23. Independence Day (1996)
24. The Island (2005)
25. Sphere (1998)

If there’s a link on the film, I’ve got my review up. They are in decending order of how much I liked them (with the score out of ten in parenthesis). Click here for the list in the order of my liking of their music score. BTW, if my quick pass of the list in a spreadsheet is correct, it’s roughly an additional 40 to the total number on this list if you count multiple viewings of films (theatrically, mind you), which is fairly common for me.

1. Serenity (10)
2. King Kong (10)
3. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (10)
4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (10)
5. Mr. & Mrs. Smith (10)
6. Star Wars: Episode 3 - Revenge Of The Sith (10)
7. The Island (10)
8. Charlie And The Chocalate Factory (10)
9. Unleashed (10)
10. Lord Of War (10)
11. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit (10)
12. Sin City (10)
13. Batman Begins (10)
14. Duma (10)
15. March Of The Penguins (9)
16. Walk The Line (9)
17. Magnificent Desolation 3D (9)
18. A History Of Violence (9)
19. Sky High (9)
20. Cry Wolf (9)
21. The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants (9)
22. Sahara (9)
23. Elizabethtown (9)
24. Constantine (9)
25. Match Point (9)

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Here we have the films I’ve seen for 2005 broken down into my order of favorite music score, best to worst (click here for the list in order of my liking of the movies themselves). This is a very rough pass at the list, and is very temporary. The order of the items is hardly definitive, particularly in much of the bottom half of the list, where I simply couldn’t even remember the scores in particular, or how good they were exactly. I may be misremembering some of those. I’ll work at the order of these entries through the end of the year.

1. Mr. & Mrs. Smith (John Powell)
2. Steamboy (Steve Jablonsky)
3. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (John Ottman)
4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (Joby Talbot)
5. Charlie And The Chocalate Factory (Danny Elfman)
6. Star Wars: Episode 3 - Revenge Of The Sith (John Williams)
7. Robots (John Powell)
8. Sahara (Clint Mansell)
9. King Kong (James Newton Howard)
10. The Legend Of Zorro (James Horner)
11. War Of The Worlds (John Williams)
12. The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants (Cliff Eidelman)
13. Elektra (Christophe Beck)
14. Serenity (David Newman)
15. Flightplan (James Horner)
16. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit (Julian Nott)
17. Unleashed (Massive Attack)
18. Sky High (Michael Giacchino)
19. Madagascar (Hans Zimmer)
20. Sin City (Robert Rodriguez, Graeme Revell, John Debney)
21. Jarhead (Thomas Newman)
22. Wedding Crashers (Rolfe Kent)
23. Red Eye (Marco Beltrami)
24. The Exorcism Of Emily Rose (Christopher Young)
25. Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire (Patrick Doyle)

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Here’s a list of my top 25 comedy movies. One thing to note is that I don’t include films that I intend to group into another genre’s top list (such as Joe vs The Volcano which would go in Adventure, Defending Your Life which would go in Romantic Comedy, or Galaxy Quest which would go in Sci-Fi). I did include some films that could have gone into another genre (Like LA Story in Romantic Comedy), but they felt comfortable on this list. I also decided to leave off sequels in this list, primarily due to the Zucker Brothers films dominating too much as a result. I’d also like to give Election special mention, as it just BARELY missed making the list.

1. Airplane! (1980)
2. Heathers (1989)
3. LA Story (1991)
4. The Naked Gun (1988)
5. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
6. Ghostbusters (1984)
7. Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion (1997)
8. Top Secret! (1984)
9. Fletch (1985)
10. Better Off Dead (1985)
11. Office Space (1999)
12. A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
13. Kingpin (1996)
14. Dick (1999)
15. Dodgeball (2004)
16. Hot Shots! (1991)
17. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
18. Josie & The Pussycats (2001)
19. UHF (1989)
20. Noises Off! (1992)
21. National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)
22. Big Trouble (2002)
23. Clueless (1995)
24. Best In Show (2000)
25. The Big Lebowski (1998)

Here’s a list of my top 25 action movies. One thing to note is that I don’t include films that I intend to group into another genre’s top list (such as Aliens, which would go in Sci-Fi, Apocalypse Now which would go in War, etc). I did include one or two films that could have gone into another genre (such as Run Lola Run), but they felt comfortable on this list.

1. The Peacemaker (1997)
2. Face/Off (1997)
3. Die Hard (1988)
4. Run Lola Run (1998)
5. Speed (1994)
6. Twister (1996)
7. Swordfish (2004)
8. The Italian Job (2003)
9. Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
10. The Road Warrior (1981)
11. Léon: The Professional (1994)
12. Terminal Velocity (1994)
13. Assassins (1995)
14. Pirates Of The Caribbean: Curse Of The Black Pearl (2003)
15. Air Force One (1997)
16. Point Break (1991)
17. SWAT (2003)
18. Die Hard: With A Vengeance (1995)
19. Executive Decision (1996)
20. Stealth (2005)
21. Turbulence (1997)
22. The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
23. First Strike (1996)
24. Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990)
25. Drop Zone (1994)

In honor of the upcoming feature film follow-up, Serenity, I have watched through the Firefly TV series (yet again) this past week. I thought I’d post the episodes in the order I like them. As always, the order isn’t rock solid, but should be generally what I would pick on most days. When I see an episode like The Train Job as the last one on the list, I am reminded how incredible this series is, because even it is a very good episode. Sure, the series didn’t live too long, but for the “worst” episode to still be that good says a whole lot. Firefly was one of the best series to ever hit television, period. It’s a small justification to us loyal fans that we are getting a feature film out of it (and hopefully more).

1. Out of Gas (10/10)
2. Objects in Space (10/10)
3. Serenity (10/10)
4. The Message (10/10)
5. Our Mrs. Reynolds (10/10)
6. Trash (10/10)
7. Ariel (9/10)
8. War Stories (9/10)
9. Heart of Gold (9/10)
10. Shindig (9/10)
11. Bushwhacked (9/10)
12. Jaynestown (9/10)
13. Safe (8/10)
14. The Train Job (8/10)

Us fans of Buffy The Vampire Slayer are fans of the writers just as much as we are fans of the actors. So, for those of you other Buffy fanatics out there, here’s my list of favorite writers on the series.

1. Joss Whedon (of course)
2. Jane Espenson
3. David Fury
4. Dan Vebber (who only wrote 2 episodes, but they were 2 of my favorites)
5. Marti Noxon
6. Douglas Petrie
7. Steven S. DeKnight
8. Drew Z. Greenberg
9. Rebecca Rand Kirshner
10. Drew Goddard

Here the list of films James Cameron has directed in the order I prefer them. I’m not counting the ones he’s written and/or produced but not directed (such as the excellent Strange Days, Point Break, etc). I am not going to list Aliens Of The Deep (his newest IMAX documentary), as I haven’t seen it yet. Nor am I listing his TV directing gigs (such as the Dark Angel finale or the Expedition Bismark documentary). Uh, nor am I counting his T2:3D thingy at Universal Studio Theme Park.

1. Aliens
2. The Abyss
3. Titanic
4. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
5. The Terminator
6. Ghosts Of The Abyss (IMAX)
7. True Lies
8. Piranha 2: The Spawning

Well, I guess I’ll keep going on the Trek theme and list the Trek shows in the order I prefer them. The only one I don’t like is Voyager.

1. Deep Space Nine
2. The Next Generation
3. The Original Series
4. Enterprise
5. The Animated Series
6. Voyager

I may expand this to a top 25 list in the future. For now, this initial pass at my top 10 will have to do. This is the first time I’ve attempted a top episode list for this show, so I reserve the right to change my mind later…

1. 2.12: The Incubator
2. 3.11: Adam’s Ribs
3. 1.20: The Army/Navy Game
4. 1.15: Tuttle
5. 2.02: 5 O’Clock Charlie
6. 3.03: Officer Of The Day
7. 3.01: The General Flipped At Dawn
8. 2.24: A Smattering Of Intelligence
9. 5.01: Bug Out
10. 3.06: Springtime

Well, since I already did the list of the Trek films in the order that I like the films as a whole, here’s a list of how I prefer the scores. The only one I consider bad is Dennis McCarthy’s crappy score to Generations. Unlike the movie itself, Jerry Goldsmith’s score to the fifth film is excellent.

1. 01: The Motion Picture (Jerry Goldsmith)
2. 02: The Wrath Of Khan (James Horner)
3. 08: First Contact (Jerry Goldsmith)
4. 06: The Undiscovered Country (Cliff Eidelman)
5. 05: The Final Frontier (Jerry Goldsmith)
6. 09: Insurrection (Jerry Goldsmith)
7. 03: The Search For Spock (James Horner)
8. 10: Nemesis (Jerry Goldsmith)
9. 04: The Voyage Home (Leonard Rosenman)
10. 07: Generations (Dennis McCarthy)

As a companion to my earlier Star Trek Film Order, I’ll now list the Star Wars films in the order I prefer them.

1. Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back
2. Episode 4: A New Hope
3. Episode 3: Revenge Of The Sith
4. Episode 2: Attack Of The Clones
5. Episode 6: Return Of The Jedi
6. Episode 1: The Phantom Menace

This list probably isn’t perfect, but it’s a pretty good first pass at listing my top 50 shows. There were a handful that didn’t quite make the list, but were close (I decided after putting the list together that 50 was a good, round stopping point). As a matter of fun statistics, 43 of this list have been released (at least partially) on DVD to date (or have been announced for release). That’s actually pretty darn impressive. Of course, I’m extremely anxious for the ones that aren’t to be announced for DVD release.

1. Buffy The Vampire Slayer
2. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
3. Pinky & The Brain
4. M*A*S*H (The first half of the series)
5. Angel
6. Wings
7. Firefly
8. Get Smart
9. Roswell
10. Quantum Leap

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For those that don’t know, I’ve been playing various versions of the Risk board game for decades. In recent years there have been a handful of new game variations released. I’m basically just breaking them down into which is my favorite down to which is my not-quite-favorite. And for the truly trivial, I don’t list “Risk: Edition Napoleon” (a very limited Castle Risk derivative from 1999), as I haven’t laid my hands on one to date. Plus, I’m not positive of the placement of the Star Wars variation, as I’ve only played it once so far.

1. Castle Risk (1986)
2. Risk 2210 AD (2000)
3. Risk (1957 France, 1959 USA)
4. Risk: Lord Of The Rings Trilogy Edition (2002, expanded to full Trilogy Edition in 2003)
5. Risk: Star Wars - Clone Wars Edition (2005)
6. Risk: Godstorm